On this point, genuine savants like Friedrich Nietzche commented (“Beyond Good and Evil”), “Of all positive, true, unselfish values, one might assign Life a … more fundamental rule of pretense, a willed delusion reflecting cupidity, (rank ignorance) and selfishness” (“The Prejudice of Philosophers,” 1886).

Indeed one might, but for one thing: “Pretense” is just that. While you’re indulging delusional pipe-dreams, in reality Time’s Crocodile advances, jaws agape. “The moving finger writes, and having writ, / “Moves on. Not all your piety nor wit / “Will lure it back to cancel half a line, / “Nor all your tears wash out a word of it” (Edward Fitzgerald, “Rubaiyat”

And in the end, “nothing is changed, John Brown– Nothing is changed” (Stephen Vincent Benet). From potentate to veriest peasant, human nature runs it course… where Being exists in essence as Potential, not in Being but Becoming lies the way. “There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may.”

On this point, genuine savants like Friedrich Nietzche commented (“Beyond Good and Evil”), “Of all positive, true, unselfish values, one might assign Life a … more fundamental rule of pretense, a willed delusion reflecting cupidity, (rank ignorance) and selfishness” (“The Prejudice of Philosophers,” 1886).

Indeed one might, but for one thing: “Pretense” is just that. While you’re indulging delusional pipe-dreams, in reality Time’s Crocodile advances, jaws agape. “The moving finger writes, and having writ, / “Moves on. Not all your piety nor wit / “Will lure it back to cancel half a line, / “Nor all your tears wash out a word of it” (Edward Fitzgerald, “Rubaiyat”

And in the end, “nothing is changed, John Brown– Nothing is changed” (Stephen Vincent Benet). From potentate to veriest peasant, human nature runs it course… where Being exists in essence as Potential, not in Being but Becoming lies the way. “There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may.”

On some level they must know that, and the resultant guilt is probably one of the drivers of woke hatred of lower-class white people.

This clown has no idea about the real world. He needs to spend a month in Nebraska. I can get him a job at one of Jim Pillen’s hog confinement operations.

And as we all know, he must be the most honest politician in the history of DC. He’s had every word he spoke, wrote or read spied on by his enemies. They even invented stuff in an effort to get him. And came up with nothing. If there had been any smidge of corruption, we’d have heard about it daily relentlessly.

I’ll share a story from one of my classes. The class was about education and the discussion that day was “what makes a teacher a great teacher?”

Almost all of my classmates said that having the right degree to “know” the subject matter was what mattered.

While I agreed that knowing the subject that you are teaching was important that didn’t answer the question. I told them they were describing a competent teacher while the question was what makes a great teacher.

I said that having empathy for the student, in the sense of understanding how the learner might perceive the subject and know what roadblocks they would have to grasping the content was one of the things that made a great teacher.

Not the “sage on the stage” that they were proposing, but the great teacher is one who can “reach” the learners and help them to understand better.

Ha! Most did not agreed with me; especially not the professor. After class, I realized during that discussion that I was basically challenging (although that was NOT my intent) their own advanced degrees. Although I do believe they were not conscientiously aware of it, they saw what I was saying as a threat.

Interestingly, only one other person in class spoke up and agreed with me. And, like me, he wasn’t a part of academia either. I came from the corporate world and so did he. He was actually an HR director.

On a not unrelated topic the class discussion on another day took an ugly turn when the discussion was about diversity and elitism. I made the claim that academia wasn’t as “diverse” as they all claimed it to be and it was rather “elitist.” I pointed out that the for-profit world had people of all backgrounds (race, nationality, gender, religion, etc.) as did the academic world; but, that the for-profit world had a diversity that academia did not: education levels. In academia everyone has a college degree (many held several) and was therefore “elitist” and not diverse where in mattered (educational background) while the for-profit world had people of various educational backgrounds. Some held advanced degrees, some had high school diplomas, while some had GEDs. Some with degrees went to Ivy league while others worked full time while attending community college or state schools. Yet, these people with different educational backgrounds often worked together as teams. Yea, I was chastised that day too for thinking different.

It would be safe to say that I wasn’t very popular in my graduate school program.

I know. It’s really remarkable. It should be even more obvious than ever now that so many academic areas are riddled with equally obvious nonsense. You don’t even have to have observed it in higher ed. Surely we’ve all known people who were very diligent and made good grades, but didn’t seem to be outstandingly intelligent.

“They tend to be most valued by those who attended them, who should know better.”

I suppose those who have attended might be reluctant to see that. It might make them ask whether they themselves are really as smart as they think they are.

I’m from the provinces and attended a lower-tier state university, so I was prepared to be impressed and intimidated when I first met someone who had attended a very upper-crust Eastern school. I was…not impressed.