Flutterby™! : Abolish the Universities and Learn to Write 2006-07-23 17:00:17.437526+00

Abolish the Universities and Learn to Write

2006-07-23 17:00:17.437526+00 by ziffle 2 comments

A new discovery for me - http://fredoneverything.net strong opinions - Dan may enjoy the Abolish the university because " By sending our young to college, we are impoverishing them, and ourselves, and sentencing them to a life of slavery in some grim cubicle painted federal-wall green".

"I think it is time to close the universities, and perhaps prosecute the professoriat under the RICO act as a corrupt and racketeering-influenced organization."

"If you want to learn to write, for example, lock yourself in a room with copies of Strunk and White, and Fowler, and a supply of Padre Kino, and a loaded shotgun."

So far he seems right on - except I would love to attend a university where ideas were not banned if no PC, like allof our universities today. There may be an Objectivist university on the way http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/09/founders

And the reaction to the Objectivist college: "One thing’s for certain: real content will be taught, rather than every class being a thinly disguised medium the for anti-bush and/or pro-jesus rants of the typical mediocre professor.Academia has dropped the ball, we picked it up. Get out of our way."

I don't know if Fred would like Objectivism but I'll be reading his site from time to time.

Ziffle

Grins. So far I like it! I took the liberty of editing your post to link straight to the essay, although that does bypass the nav frames.

Eric has commented that the purpose of higher education is to teach a communication method. I was recently given Newton's Principia

, and I'm enjoying going through that, but as I read through some of the tortured prose I'm also very conscious that it's a part of the lineage that lead directly to Alan Sokal's experiments in postmodern literary criticism.

And do you really believe that the "professoriat" are just a bunch of intellectual snobs who try to force-feed their opinions down their students' throats? Most of the faculty I know put a great deal of effort into trying to create courses that are poignant and evoke thought.

But I guess the "professoriat" are not considered human and basically good... They must have lost their objectivity and are just intellectually dishonest scum...

It sounds to me like this guy, Fred, like some other people I've know, just wants to rant and everyone else who disagrees is just wrong (or stupid or should be drawn and quartered).