In the medieval times it was largely a luxurious pursuit of the elite and upper classes. Learning languages, teaching latin, and reading philosophy was the preserve of rich or royal children so they could wear pantyhose (either men or women), powdered wigs, and impress equally talentless bluebloods at parties and balls before heads were put into guillotines.
During and after the industrial revolution, science and the scientific method replaced the liberal arts as academia's new role wherein pursuit of more practical studies would provide the knowledge and skills that would make a man's (or woman's) time infinitely more valuable. From roughly the 1870's to the 1970's western civilization enjoyed the increasing opportunity to postpone work, enter college, learn a valuable trade and then enter the workforce, increasing their lifetime earnings multi-fold for what time they invested in college.
This then gave way to the third role academia played starting circa roughly the 1980's. With now everybody going to college and EVERYBODY flooding the labor market, the value of degrees decreased. Of course this didn't matter to most entitled and spoiled Gen X'ers, plus their baby boomer parents didn't know jack about economics, so the recommended they attend anyway. So even though degrees were becoming increasingly worthless, demand for degrees was at an all-time high, nay, an entitlement to the "college experience." And so the role of academia went from one of altruistic support and advancement of society, to that of maliciously capitalizing off of it. The primary and ulterior goal of higher education was to now transfer as much wealth from younger generations to enrich an entire class of talentless liberal-arts majoring hacks posing as professors, teachers, sociologists and other liberal arts "professionals."
You would think this is the current and final stage of academia's evolution, however, there has been a fourth evolution. And that would be one of becoming a veritable Ministry of Propaganda for various socialist, leftist, and communist political parties throughout the world.
This is not "hyperbole" or Alex Jones' like "conspiracy" simply because it's painfully obvious.
Academia has simply become a joke.
First you have a 2015 study that shows 2/3rds of psychology studies cannot be repeated. We're not talking those cute studies you did in your (mandatory) Freshman Psychology class. We're talking the tippy top, super elite, getting their doctorate, with "peer reviewed" level "authorities" and "experts" in their fields sending in slop and passing it on as empirically proven truth. Given psychology is one of the more "legitimate" fields of the social sciences, it's practically guaranteed the rot is equal-or-greater in the remaining fields. The entire realm of the liberal arts and humanities is debunked (and it's primary job would be re-validation instead of political propaganda). But how much soul searching do you see these "social scientists" doing versus vehemently defending their quackery as today's education bubble spectacularly bursts?
Second is the BLATANT political agenda. Forget that over 90% of
And if none of that convinces you, there is again no limit to the number of stories where you find out your hard earned tax dollars are subsidizing some worthless parasite acting as a graduate student as they pursue research in some popcockery or another. The most recent one that comes to mind is Lisa Jordan Powell, a hack, who is studying how pumpkin spiced lattes cause racism. I'd like to say I'm joking, but academia has become the joke. If you seriously think with this blatant racist, sexist, communist crap that academia still has some merit or is somehow not a parasitic organization here to live off of otherwise hard working people, then fuck you, you're a liar, and I pray for the day the world collapses so there is no law and I meet you for coffee.
Regardless, you combined all of this veritable bullshit and the precise goal of academia’s new ulterior motive is perfectly clear - to get the American public to no longer trust their own eyes. The goal is to, through “official academia studies,” redefine lies as truth, even though the world around us collapses and everybody is worse off. It is to designate “academia” as the final arbiter of truth, allowing the parasites, scum, thieves, psychos, SJW’s, cowards, and tyrants in both academia and politics their continued theft of society’s money and hard-earned wealth unopposed and unabated.
To what few eyes remain unbrainwashed it is plainly obvious academia is nothing more than a cowardly, sniveling, Ministry of Truth for global socialism. For the rest of the sheeple, however, whether they’re just plain stupid or are conscious worthless, parasitic participants in this game, it’s the only thing they have in their meaningless, pointless lives. And since the west is all democracies, you can more or less be guaranteed to be forced to enjoy the decline.
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I think you missed out one of the features of stage three that make it attractive to the state in and of itself -- the more young people there are attending university, the better the youth unemployment numbers look. Keep them there into their mid- or late- twenties (as the US system does), and the 18-24 NEET numbers will drop way down. Even if they graduate around 22 or 23, the job will still have been done on the unemployment numbers.
ReplyDeleteThat was blatantly the reasoning behind the turn of the century drive in the UK to push attendance figures from ~15% to 50%.
Of course, given that some bright self-starters will be skipping the university thing for making their own way in the real world, even a 50% participation will include folk with 2-digit IQs in the student pool. And that's where stage four is enabled.
At my brother in law's graduation from an Australian University I was able to read what different people had done their thesis on and one of them was "the role of sexism in the sci Fi future as per a book series" (can't remember which book series).
ReplyDeleteSeriously, some bimbo got her subsidised Masters writing about sexism in the future as imagined by this girl reading about a world imagined by the author.
The phrase "you can major in Gameboy if you know how to bullshit" from the movie PCU comes to mind.
With now everybody going to college and EVERYBODY flooding the labor market, the value of degrees decreased. Of course this didn't matter to most entitled and spoiled Gen X'ers, plus their baby boomer parents didn't know jack about economics, so the recommended they attend anyway. So even though degrees were becoming increasingly worthless, demand for degrees was at an all-time high, nay, an entitlement to the "college experience."
ReplyDeleteI've had parents, otherwise seemingly intelligent people of both the Boomer and Gen-X generations tell me, point blank: "my kids are going to college because I went to college."
That's it. No other reasons given, and certainly no consideration of conditions in the real world. It's pure ego investment, their kids' futures be fucked.
Sometimes I think Americans actively HATE their own children.
School? of Whales!
ReplyDeletewww.buzzfeed.com/chrissymahlmeister/anything-but-average?utm_term=.hkQDo6MMA#.pmBBRODDj
Well academia took off after WWII with the GI Bill for war veterans. I had numerous Great Aunts and Uncles take advantage of this opportunity to earn a college degree. The entitlement started with the Baby Boomer generation. The Baby Boomers that went to college in the mid-60's, went to avoid the draft for Viet Nam. College deferments were the rage, and being a perpetual student got you out of possibly going to war. The college entitlement really took off with the Baby Boomers, not Gen X,Y, or Z. As a Gen Xer, I went to school, and earned two STEM degrees. My degrees are not worthless, because I learned the universal language...Mafths. I had to study my rearend off, yes I did have fun, but only after the work was done. All the worthless degree students were out on the town 4 nights a week on average, having their "college experience". Many of these "college experience" degree holders have lesser paying careers than I have had.
ReplyDeleteSo kids, listen to the Cappy, study and be good at math, because it will help you in your life.
Nice
ReplyDeleteOf course, these are social science studies so may not be reproducible, although they do involve objective data.
ReplyDeleteOn-line education increases total enrollment and reaches new groups
by Tyler Cowen on October 25, 2016
"Regression discontinuity estimates exploiting an admissions threshold unknown to applicants show that access to this online option substantially increases overall enrollment in formal education, expanding the pool of students rather than substituting for existing educational options. Demand for the online option is driven by mid-career Americans. "
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/10/line-education-increases-total-enrollment-reaches-new-groups.html
It should be noted that universities derived from the monasteries, which were from early on places to stick the spare heirs of the nobility and daughters. Early Anglo-Saxon monasteries were very similar to the "college experience" with the Pope having to send word to the monks to knock off the drunken orgies.
Today we have academia and the non-profits as places to stick the over-production of "elites" with many upper middle class kids wrongly believing they'll be granted admittance if they "pay their dues" when really they are just taken on as villeins to do the work and provide support for the lords of the lounge.
The problem with universities is that even STEM fields have been corrupted and probably have been for sometime as well. The most egregious is the global warming scam perpetuated by allegedly objective scientist who insist on working in climate controlled offices to pontificate to the rest of us how awful CO2 is for the earth.
ReplyDeleteI did a graduate degree in engineering 20 years ago; even back then I can't say I was impressed with the amount of literature in terms of quality. Instead of publishing a handful of really good quality stuff there is pressure to produce mostly crap. It says a lot that there thousands of peer reviewed engineering and science journals. Take the IEEE for electrical engineers; last time I counted a long time ago they about three dozen or so specialty journals and general technical magazines available. How much of that research led to anything that you use on your desk everyday? Probably about zero.
Unless you end up in sales or field service, most STEM does not really pay that well anymore for the investment. Even the public dump I went to in Texas is one of the lower cost public universities and you could still be looking at $80k for four years if you live out of town and maybe half that if you can live with mom and dad while going to school in the city.
The only reason that a degree has any value today is because it is one of the few markers that have not been placed off limits to employers from finding talent. The old tools, M-B tests, some states credit ratings, etc have been outlawed. So the presumption is that you at least developed the skill to sit your ass in a seat and show up on time.
ReplyDelete"... studying how pumpkin spiced lattes cause racism ..."
ReplyDeleteThank you Captain Capitalism -- I now know what my Shitlord Christmas Present should be for several people this year.
I must now get to the shops to buy a few boxes of Pumpkin Spice Latte K-Cups.
:-)
Actually, in Medieval times, it was to prepare people (usually rich third estate folks) for positions of power. Once you graduate from a college or university with a skill on, say, economics, you get hired by some king or local noble to do their taxes as a clerk. Actual nobles did not send their kids to college unless said kids are clergy. Nobles drag professors to their castles to teach their kids as private tutors. They didn't send their kids to college, they dragged the college home to teach their kids. And many noble kids had parents who didn't do it that much, so these tykes busied their days with hawking and hunting.
ReplyDelete