The ivory tower contemplates the world
…there is and always has been disagreement about the very mission of higher education. Should it grapple with the world as it is or point the way to the world as it should be?
The article goes on for quite some time, and I read the whole thing, but it was that last sentence in the quote that made me pause in thought for a long long time.
“…Should it grapple with the world as it is or point the way to the world as it should be?”
Excuse me? Are these two endeavors mutually exclusive?
And how on earth could a person or persons “point the way to the world as it should be” without deeply studying and “grappling”with the world as it is?
Maybe there’s something I’m missing there; after all, I haven’t really been part of any discussions about the “mission of higher education.” But it seems to me that the passage by Bruni illustrates the very essence of the expression “ivory tower.”
So, “higher education”–and educators–ought to tell us how the world should be (and by implication, how to get it to that point) without “grappling with the world as it is” first (or simultaneously)? That would be like repairing a refrigerator without knowing how the refrigerator works.
That’s the same hubris that Communist true believers (the idealists among them, that is—and there were and are quite a few of those) have long operated under: that they could “fix” a complex system that they don’t understand. This is a common dream on the left. Hey, it’s a common dream of humans in general, which probably explains the continual and enduring appeal of leftism.
My own college education opened doors for me in areas such as philosophy, history and art. I certainly didn’t end up as an expert on anything, but I learned how I could view the world and teach myself. Even now after all these years and vast experience, I can only suggest ways to improve tiny segments of the world–ones I know. And even when I see a problem, I am more than happy to hear from others about how it can be solved. I guess I wasn’t meant to be a dictator.
“‘…Should it grapple with the world as it is or point the way to the world as it should be?'” [Bruni quoted by Neo]
So who died and left academics the arbiters of what should be?
As a former academician myself, I can testify that most of these so-called visionaries live in a theoretical world as far removed from everyday experience as quantum physics is removed from engineering. IMO this is one of the reasons that socialism/communism, although proven failures, are still championed by the left; it’s the imposition and importance of the theory. The failed results are irrelevant.
This question by Bruni reeks with the same underlying sanctimony as most ideas from the Progressive left: That they, somehow, are uniquely gifted with a special knowledge and vision to determine what is right and just. The important flaw in that position (after arrogance, of course) is that they see culture linearly evolving in one direction, their chosen direction, which is synonymous with the way the world “should” be. Bruni and his ken fail to see life and culture as a dynamic engine in constant flux.
“…that they could “fix” a complex system that they don’t understand.”
Ah yes, the old “It must work like this because it should work like this” trick.
Reminds me of Nancy Pelosi’s infamous “first pass it, then read it” with regard to Obamacare….
Except that she didn’t even want to understand it before she foisted it on the country.
Yep, the real problem with that quote is the ‘point the way to the world as it should be’ part. It’s conveniently always leftists that get to decide how the world should be.
A little late, because other posters have “stolen” my thoughts. I confess that I have spent very little time pondering the mission of higher education; but, even if I had, I doubt that I would have settled on “point the way to the world as it should be”.
Maybe old fashioned, maybe shallow thinking; but, I would define the two-fold mission as extending the body of knowledge of complex subjects beyond that addressed, or mastered, through secondary education, and refining techniques and habits of critical thinking. I might add, inculcate mental discipline as a prelude to critical thinking.
“Should it grapple with the world as it is or point the way to the world as it should be?”
Neither. It is not academia’s job to do either. Their job is to first teach the student reading, writing and arithmetic. Then how to process knowlege through reason and logic. Then to impart factual information for the student’s consideration.
But… having abandoned belief in an afterlife, all that is left for their lives to have meaning is the formation of reality in their own image.
Interesting to contemplate what Harvard and Yale’s original mission was:
“Should it… point the way to the world as it should be?”
The phrasing of the latter part of the question does a good job of illustrating the hubris of the SJW academics.
As if THEY knew any better than anyone else. Their tendency to write gobbledygook indicates to me that they do not know better than everyone else. If you can’t explain it in clear, simple English, my conclusion is that you don’t know what you are talking about.
Thomas Sowell has written a lot on this, such as Intellectuals and Society or The Vision of the Anointed:Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy.
Neo, I don’t know if you have seen Jordan Peterson’s new youtube video, but it touches heavily on these sorts of topics. Some of his discussion nearing the end, as it relates more specifically to what you bring up here, is spine chilling.
“Should it grapple with the world as it is or point the way to the world as it should be?”
Academia needs to include an in-depth understanding of “the world as it is” — otherwise, it renders itself pitifully removed from reality (“the world as it is”).
I will contend that an understanding of “the world as it should be” may include touching on the various utopias that have captured peoples’ imaginations, categorized under social and political philosophy.
I will expect that this touching will include robust discussions of characteristics of these utopias, and a sufficiently diverse student body will debate in a spirited manner whether any of these utopias is (1) desirable and (2) achievable, if desirable.
Of course at this late date and at far too many colleges, “a sufficiently diverse student body debat[ing] in a spirited manner” is becoming more and more a characteristic of “the world as it should be”, rather than a characteristic of “the world as it is.” Such is life (“the world as it is”).
Fixing the complex system is the disease that Hayek analyzes in his brilliant treatise entitled “The Fatal Conceit”. He discusses this and the statist impulse in his Nobel lecture as the knowledge problem.
Antonio Gramsci explicitly described the mission of modern colleges.
To counter the notion that bourgeois values represented “natural” or “normal” values for society, the working class needed to develop a culture of its own. Lenin held that culture was “ancillary” to political objectives, but for Gramsci it was fundamental to the attainment of power that cultural hegemony be achieved first.
The student must be emptied of “bourgeois Culture.”
Then, Gramsci’s thought emanates from the organized left, but he has also become an important figure in current academic discussions within cultural studies and critical theory. Political theorists from the center and the right have also found insight in his concepts; his idea of hegemony, for example, has become widely cited. His influence is particularly strong in contemporary political science (see Neo-gramscianism). His work also heavily influenced intellectual discourse on popular culture and scholarly popular culture studies in which many have found the potential for political or ideological resistance to dominant government and business interests.
“Resistance.”
Tired Of People Who Think They Know Better Than Me.
TOPWTTKBTM. Its the new WTSHTF. They need to spend a month on a farm in flyover country to learn the reality of life. I am processing firewood on my (inherited white privilege) rural property, I could teach them some of that there reality and tips on firearm safety.
Actually, they might want to get a clue about first they shoot the ‘intellectuals’.
parker,
I do not disagree. Many of the problems today could be solved just by giving our betters a pick and a shovel and making them use it.
Religion deals with the latter, practical reality skills deal with the former.
Can you change the world vs can you change yourself.
Ymar Sakar,
Before you free Tibet, first you must free China. Pretty obvious, but flies over the attention span of ‘intellectuals’. Just one example of cluelessness.
a product of the ivory tower..
Twice in recent weeks, French courts have refused to prosecute men for rape after they had sex with 11-year-old girls because authorities couldn’t prove coercion. Amid the public disbelief over the situation, the French government is drafting a bill to say that sex with children under a certain age is by definition coercive.
Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet provoked consternation among feminist groups Monday by saying a legal minimum age of 13 for sexual consent “is worth considering.”
another ivory product
TEEN VOGUE: Anal Sex: What You Need to Know
How to do it the RIGHT way.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/anal-sex-what-you-need-to-know
how do i know its ivory tower?
Harvard Just Hosted an Anal Sex Workshop Called ‘What What in the Butt’
These Ivy League students got some thorough sex education
The workshop, titled “What What in the Butt: Anal 101”
Natasha’s presentation framed anal play as a fun, natural part of sex-positive behavior, and wanted to “encourage people to go after their desires and not feel shame.” Students reportedly were shown butt plugs and given instructions on anal relaxation strategies, among other teachings.
Excellent take down of that portion of Bruni’s article.
Keeping in mind that the article is about the apparent scarcity of conservatives in certain colleges, Bruni finished his article with this piece of gall:
The “people” to which Bruni refers are conservatives, and he presumes that, OF COURSE, they are the ones who need persuading.
This is another belief of Communist true believers–conservatives MUST be persuaded of the error of their thoughts.
. . . if not summarily executed when the time is ripe.
from the University of Hawaii,
https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2017/05/11/get-out-the-way/
yeah, thats the american mathematical society blog
[and you thought i was writing about the hawaii professor that wanted to forbid them from legally working, like germany in the 30s.. nah… this was a african american woman professor, the other was a white male professor]
you can go to
Medusa Magazine
Feminist Revolution Now.
and read..
Beyond Pro-Choice: The Solution to White Supremacy is White Abortion
https://medusamagazine.com/beyond-pro-choice-the-solution-to-white-supremacy-is-white-abortion
most women have no idea where their sisters have beengoing and doing for ages
if you want to know what white tower did that above you should read about Peggy McIntosh..
Peggy McIntosh is an American feminist, anti-racism activist, scholar, speaker, and Senior Research Associate of the Wellesley Centers for Women. She is the founder of the National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity). She and Emily Style co-directed SEED for thirty years. She has written on curricular revision, feelings of fraudulence, and professional development of teachers.
In 1988, she published the article White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work on Women’s Studies. This analysis, and its 1989 shorter form White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, pioneered putting the dimension of privilege into discussions of power, gender, race, class and sexuality in the United States
[that is what was going on in 88 your now living the adults born then.. wait till you see what the late 90s and more have for you!!!!!!!!!!!!]
In her 1988 essay, McIntosh listed forty-six of her own everyday advantages, such as “I can go shopping most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed,” “I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race,” and “If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.”
wait till you read about the guy that wants genocide… he is a pip
but his students wont be part of things like those became for another 10 years… maybe less… who knows… i dont.
not my circuis, not my monkeys…
Your white children reinforce the white supremacist society that benefits you.
IQ is a bitch.
birthed and raised 3 of them, & they are all married to similarly hued people and birthing some of their own….. oh, why the sad face Ms Macintosh ? Bad year for apples ?
Artfldgr Says:
November 14th, 2017 at 7:09 pm
a product of the ivory tower..
Twice in recent weeks, French courts have refused to prosecute men for rape after they had sex with 11-year-old girls because authorities couldn’t prove coercion. Amid the public disbelief over the situation, the French government is drafting a bill to say that sex with children under a certain age is by definition coercive.
Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet provoked consternation among feminist groups Monday by saying a legal minimum age of 13 for sexual consent “is worth considering.”
* * *
If the accusations against Judge Moore are actually true, he might want to consider Making America France Again.
Being a refugee from higher ed, the Bruni piece is a great example of all that is, and continues, to be wrong with higher ed.
Lots of socialists and Marxists who don’t get the real world. And they control funding and hiring, so guess what happens if you study military history or don’t buy into their toxic worldview?
Neo, you might enjoy this takedown of the Ivory Tower mentality that has subverted education for decades.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-684-84445-9
“The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists Are Murdering Our Past
Keith Windschuttle, Author Free Press $26 (304p) ISBN 978-0-684-84445-9
The deliberately provocative title of this latest entry in the ongoing culture wars belies a reasonable, subtly argued if wide-ranging and at times unwieldy critique of contemporary historical theory. Australian author and lecturer Windschuttle contends that the introduction of fashionable academic “”history”” courses under such rubrics as cultural, media and gender studies are agenda-driven and have undercut the practices of history as a discipline. Windschuttle clearly subscribes to Roger Kimball’s “”tenured radicals”” thesis, and places much blame for the decline in traditional history on postmodernist French literary and social theorists–above all, Michel Foucault. In the introduction of theoretical approaches like structuralism, poststructuralism, deconstruction and semiotics, he says, contemporary radical theorists posit a cultural relativism that denies an objective, knowable truth about the past. The author argues that history is inherently empirical: that historians draw conclusions by inductive reasoning based on research, rather than by the application of preconceived theories. Each of the nine chapters examines a particular episode or issue and analyzes current trends in scholarship. For example, a chapter on the conquest of Mexico presents a fascinating overview of this event and various historians’ interpretations of it. The author warns that “”cultural relativism will never serve the real interests of indigenous peoples if it denies them access to the truth about the past.”” While these views will scarcely endear Windschuttle to the academics whose theoretical approaches he attacks, he largely succeeds in shedding more light than heat on some contentious issues.”
* * *
I tried to post a link to an excellent review by Roger Kimball in New Criterion, but the comment got lost last night somehow.
“Excuse me? Are these two endeavors mutually exclusive?”
The way the intellectuals view “the world as it should be,” yes. When “the world as it should be” includes things all the laws of physics disallow, like teleporters and transwarp drives and perfectly functioning socialism, it is in fact diametrically opposed to “the world as it is,” and support for the former must necessarily call for the latter’s destruction.
Some humans don’t even want to be free. The Left, for example, already sold their souls (or rather inheritance rights) for a Faustian bargain.
No returns on that deal.
> “…Should it grapple with the world as it is or point the way to the world as it should be?”
Yea, I too sort of thought this was, uh, rather strange. I tend to strongly think that higher education, or just education in general, looks at the world as it is in order understand.
Replacing gods with mortal gods, men and women with delusions of omniscience and omnipotence, and other elements of grandeur, is unlikely to end with a reconciliation of moral, natural, and personal imperatives.
That is why their solution is to change the world. Then it is no longer necessary to reconcile issues that conflict. They will make them equal in the ReCreation. Unlikely to be feasible if all they had was nanotech, evolution, and cybernetic upgrades.
But very feasible if the supernatural elohim are real and have given them the use of higher powers.