David Kaiser is pathetic. An absolute monument to the self-absorbed, unthinking, unassailable academic class in the United States. The man is perfect example of spending a lifetime coming up with ideas in the sterility of a classroom and then looking aghast when those ideas meet the hard concrete of the real world. The less of these people we have around pretending to educate others the better off we are. Universities are useless outside of the hard sciences and even that is becoming less true by the day.
Kaiser's and others like him attitude toward the public is especially comical as this is the world they built after all.
I think the language you are looking for is the difference between elite, elitism, and elitist.
Harvard and other elite schools have become elitist, rather than elite. Not the same thing. Elitists make assumptions about facts and standing without the need for study. Without an acceptance of other ways of thinking.
Elitists support the foundations of their elitism, while the elite challenge such foundations. Constantly.
Years ago, I was in a conversation with the president of an elite university, a university I had attended, and for which I was a member of the Board of Trustees. During our wide-ranging discussions, I recall her saying, "Our job is not to teach them (our students) WHAT to think. Our job is to teach them HOW to think." That is perfect. Too many cases now, particularly at the ostensible "elite universities" has devolved into some version of teaching them what to think, what to feel, how to look at history, in service to, in honor of, some prepackaged notions of right and wrong. That's a shame and should (obviously) be the exact wrong way to go. #Shrugs
Harvard assigned as co-chair its "antisemitism commission" a personage who has asserted in public that Israel is "an apartheid state". Simultaneously, Harvard assigned as co-chair of its "Islamophobia commission" a personage who has publicly asserted that its an Islamophobic myth Islamist "madrassas" produce jihadists. Get the picture?
David Kaiser is pathetic. An absolute monument to the self-absorbed, unthinking, unassailable academic class in the United States. The man is perfect example of spending a lifetime coming up with ideas in the sterility of a classroom and then looking aghast when those ideas meet the hard concrete of the real world. The less of these people we have around pretending to educate others the better off we are. Universities are useless outside of the hard sciences and even that is becoming less true by the day.
Kaiser's and others like him attitude toward the public is especially comical as this is the world they built after all.
Glenn,
I think the language you are looking for is the difference between elite, elitism, and elitist.
Harvard and other elite schools have become elitist, rather than elite. Not the same thing. Elitists make assumptions about facts and standing without the need for study. Without an acceptance of other ways of thinking.
Elitists support the foundations of their elitism, while the elite challenge such foundations. Constantly.
From my YouTube comments...
Years ago, I was in a conversation with the president of an elite university, a university I had attended, and for which I was a member of the Board of Trustees. During our wide-ranging discussions, I recall her saying, "Our job is not to teach them (our students) WHAT to think. Our job is to teach them HOW to think." That is perfect. Too many cases now, particularly at the ostensible "elite universities" has devolved into some version of teaching them what to think, what to feel, how to look at history, in service to, in honor of, some prepackaged notions of right and wrong. That's a shame and should (obviously) be the exact wrong way to go. #Shrugs
Harvard assigned as co-chair its "antisemitism commission" a personage who has asserted in public that Israel is "an apartheid state". Simultaneously, Harvard assigned as co-chair of its "Islamophobia commission" a personage who has publicly asserted that its an Islamophobic myth Islamist "madrassas" produce jihadists. Get the picture?