Wow, this one hit home for me. As a media person who works for a conservative website and generally feels more comfortable on the right (or in the center) than on the left, I've been hoping to revive the kind of highbrow intellectual conservatism that takes ideas seriously and champions a liberal arts education for liberty, virtue, and good parenting, leadership, citizenship, etc. There is a tradition there, though it's too often eclipsed by other things. As usual, I say a pox on both their houses. There are pressures on both sides:
(1) from the leftist higher ed institutions themselves, of course, which seem to have traded in meat and potatoes survey courses (at least in the humanities); attention to the classic, foundation texts of civilization (both East and West!); and commitment to the transmission of knowledge for arcane topics courses and endless exercises in race, class and gender that aren't much help to those seeking wisdom, enlightenment, satisfaction of curiosity, virtue *or* valuable skills. Higher ed (at least on the elite level) also seems to promote a climate where intellectual diversity is discouraged, DEI stuff is intrusive and takes up far too much time and money, the administration is bloated, the university tries to do too much (e.g., mental health, adjudicating sex assault claims), and students must blindly submit to the latest identitarian dogma, as a sort of civil religion, to get ahead. There are many testimonies to this.
(2) pressure from the right, which is good at pointing out all of the above but too often forgets its own insight that it is much easier to tear down than to build. So, as Damon noted, there's all this the populist animus against higher-education-as-it-is that is in part justified (see #1) but shades too easily into anti-intellectualism and anti-universities broadly, which shades into conspiracy thinking and knee-jerk contempt for the expertise that we do very often need, because we live in a specialized society and most of us decidedly do not have the background to, e.g., do our own research on the safety of vaccines.
My sense is that the right needs to make a positive case for education alongside its critique of the postmodern university and the experts -- a case that is more than a skills-only approach or a vague liberal arts advocacy that treats "Western Civilization" as a signifier for Christianity, the West-as-superior hagiography narrative (which in turn further alienates the Left) or a kind of nostalgic return to the pre-progressive era.
The left needs to stop its endless self-criticism (captured brilliantly in this intercept article, which to me as a veteran of conservative institutions was like reading about another country: https://theintercept.com/2022/06/13/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture/), tamp down the myopic postmodern theorizing and reductive race/class/gender analysis, focus more on the basics in education, and give Plato et al. their due.
My solution is to make Ron DeSantis do a full undergraduate degree at St. John's College (the great books one) and starve the idea-laundering academic journals so that professors will be forced to stop doing masturbatory post-Hegelian BS and start re-learning how to introduce students to Shakespeare.
The idea that universities don't teach Shakespeare, or other standard great works, would be a HUGE surprise to my colleagues in the English and Literature department at my university.
Yes, but how are they teaching them? From what I've read and experienced, the humanities seem to be taught with a strong interpretive focus on race, class, gender, and power.
And not a word about the misogyny dripping from Matt Gaetz' tweet. The inference that an educated woman deserves derision, the archaic notion that married women hold higher social standing than single women, and the bizarre assertion that single, educated women take up the cause of abortion rights because they have nothing else to do.
It still shows the direction the GOP has been traveling in for years now. White male privilege, that a "real" man who dropped out of high school is worth more than a man with a university degree, and even worse - that educated women are unattractive and made the butt of jokes. Gaetz is looking at a possible prison term for his alleged inappropriate liaisons with under-aged girls.
I didn't focus on that, besides the broader comment about Gaetz partaking in being the biggest possible asshole he could be, because misogyny wasn't the point of this post. I will surely have occasion to write about that topic in the future -- since it's a significant part of the story of the evolution of the right. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Next time don't use such a misogynistic reference to try to prove your point, because you cannot separate pigs like Gaetz from the rise in anti-woman rhetoric popping up in the death throes of Rowe v Wade.
How easily white men in America can say "I didn't focus on that" continues to infuriate me.
I'm really pissed that elected representatives - themselves members of the educated 'elite' - keep pulling this crap. Check Gaetz on Wikipedia: Education: William & Mary Law School (2007), Florida State University (2003). The f*ckhead has a law degree from a fairly high-ranked school! Are the people who respond positively to his bs unaware of his pedigree?
His father also has extensive education, served in the Florida Senate, and "founded VITAS Healthcare Corporation with a group of investors, which he later sold for nearly half a billion dollars in 2004." In other words, Matt the Brat was set for 'success' from the get-go. It's as though he's trying to reduce any possible competition; also, the more he can discourage others from getting an education, the better able he is to pull the wool over their eyes. Just another Trump-y con man ....
I was disappointed you didn't point to the lies in Gaetz' tweet. I know plenty of college-educated women who are married. Three generations of them in my extended family.
The Gaetz tweet is such a good example of the "politics of bullshit" that I talked about in my Bannon post that I don't even think it's worth pointing to bits that are lies. He's just being an asshole and talking shit to rile up liberals and whip up his own side. (Sorry for the bad language, but this kind of garbage demands it, I think.) Thanks for reading and commenting.
The thing I've noticed about the Right is that, on so many issues such as COVID, Climate Change, etc., they disagree with about 90% or more of those who have spent their carriers studying that issue. Yet they never seem to question whether it's the Rightwing that's wrong.
Wow, this one hit home for me. As a media person who works for a conservative website and generally feels more comfortable on the right (or in the center) than on the left, I've been hoping to revive the kind of highbrow intellectual conservatism that takes ideas seriously and champions a liberal arts education for liberty, virtue, and good parenting, leadership, citizenship, etc. There is a tradition there, though it's too often eclipsed by other things. As usual, I say a pox on both their houses. There are pressures on both sides:
(1) from the leftist higher ed institutions themselves, of course, which seem to have traded in meat and potatoes survey courses (at least in the humanities); attention to the classic, foundation texts of civilization (both East and West!); and commitment to the transmission of knowledge for arcane topics courses and endless exercises in race, class and gender that aren't much help to those seeking wisdom, enlightenment, satisfaction of curiosity, virtue *or* valuable skills. Higher ed (at least on the elite level) also seems to promote a climate where intellectual diversity is discouraged, DEI stuff is intrusive and takes up far too much time and money, the administration is bloated, the university tries to do too much (e.g., mental health, adjudicating sex assault claims), and students must blindly submit to the latest identitarian dogma, as a sort of civil religion, to get ahead. There are many testimonies to this.
(2) pressure from the right, which is good at pointing out all of the above but too often forgets its own insight that it is much easier to tear down than to build. So, as Damon noted, there's all this the populist animus against higher-education-as-it-is that is in part justified (see #1) but shades too easily into anti-intellectualism and anti-universities broadly, which shades into conspiracy thinking and knee-jerk contempt for the expertise that we do very often need, because we live in a specialized society and most of us decidedly do not have the background to, e.g., do our own research on the safety of vaccines.
My sense is that the right needs to make a positive case for education alongside its critique of the postmodern university and the experts -- a case that is more than a skills-only approach or a vague liberal arts advocacy that treats "Western Civilization" as a signifier for Christianity, the West-as-superior hagiography narrative (which in turn further alienates the Left) or a kind of nostalgic return to the pre-progressive era.
The left needs to stop its endless self-criticism (captured brilliantly in this intercept article, which to me as a veteran of conservative institutions was like reading about another country: https://theintercept.com/2022/06/13/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture/), tamp down the myopic postmodern theorizing and reductive race/class/gender analysis, focus more on the basics in education, and give Plato et al. their due.
My solution is to make Ron DeSantis do a full undergraduate degree at St. John's College (the great books one) and starve the idea-laundering academic journals so that professors will be forced to stop doing masturbatory post-Hegelian BS and start re-learning how to introduce students to Shakespeare.
It's funny to think of DeSantis hanging out at St. John's, struggling through Newton's Principia.
The idea that universities don't teach Shakespeare, or other standard great works, would be a HUGE surprise to my colleagues in the English and Literature department at my university.
Yes, but how are they teaching them? From what I've read and experienced, the humanities seem to be taught with a strong interpretive focus on race, class, gender, and power.
Yes, it's what academics call "context." How interesting you think that's a problem.
And not a word about the misogyny dripping from Matt Gaetz' tweet. The inference that an educated woman deserves derision, the archaic notion that married women hold higher social standing than single women, and the bizarre assertion that single, educated women take up the cause of abortion rights because they have nothing else to do.
It still shows the direction the GOP has been traveling in for years now. White male privilege, that a "real" man who dropped out of high school is worth more than a man with a university degree, and even worse - that educated women are unattractive and made the butt of jokes. Gaetz is looking at a possible prison term for his alleged inappropriate liaisons with under-aged girls.
I didn't focus on that, besides the broader comment about Gaetz partaking in being the biggest possible asshole he could be, because misogyny wasn't the point of this post. I will surely have occasion to write about that topic in the future -- since it's a significant part of the story of the evolution of the right. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Next time don't use such a misogynistic reference to try to prove your point, because you cannot separate pigs like Gaetz from the rise in anti-woman rhetoric popping up in the death throes of Rowe v Wade.
How easily white men in America can say "I didn't focus on that" continues to infuriate me.
I'm really pissed that elected representatives - themselves members of the educated 'elite' - keep pulling this crap. Check Gaetz on Wikipedia: Education: William & Mary Law School (2007), Florida State University (2003). The f*ckhead has a law degree from a fairly high-ranked school! Are the people who respond positively to his bs unaware of his pedigree?
His father also has extensive education, served in the Florida Senate, and "founded VITAS Healthcare Corporation with a group of investors, which he later sold for nearly half a billion dollars in 2004." In other words, Matt the Brat was set for 'success' from the get-go. It's as though he's trying to reduce any possible competition; also, the more he can discourage others from getting an education, the better able he is to pull the wool over their eyes. Just another Trump-y con man ....
I was disappointed you didn't point to the lies in Gaetz' tweet. I know plenty of college-educated women who are married. Three generations of them in my extended family.
I searched for some data: About 75% of (women who are) college graduates are married at age 40, compared to about 70% of those who attained high school or some college and only about 60% of those who didn't complete high school" (https://sites.utexas.edu/contemporaryfamilies/2012/04/11/womens-education-likelihood-marriage-historic-reversal/).
The Gaetz tweet is such a good example of the "politics of bullshit" that I talked about in my Bannon post that I don't even think it's worth pointing to bits that are lies. He's just being an asshole and talking shit to rile up liberals and whip up his own side. (Sorry for the bad language, but this kind of garbage demands it, I think.) Thanks for reading and commenting.
The thing I've noticed about the Right is that, on so many issues such as COVID, Climate Change, etc., they disagree with about 90% or more of those who have spent their carriers studying that issue. Yet they never seem to question whether it's the Rightwing that's wrong.