I swore to myself I'd stay quiet. But because I'm obsessed with the
neoreaction (https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/blog/on-neoreaction.html),
I've failed.
If we buy the premise put forth by "bias bubbles" ("echo chambers", "safe
zones", "political correctness", whatever your favorite postmodernist
bogeyman), then you might see why the long term benefits of higher education
are not as *obvious* as the educated might think they are. And even in the
subjects most people usually agree are very solid educational investments (e.g.
math or computer science), there are plenty of people who seem to think the way
we educate those people is fundamentally flawed.
So, while I'm with you in the gist of it, I think education could do with a
massive disruption like those we see in transportation (Lyft and Uber) and real
estate (AirBnB). Renee' and I have waxed and waned in the same ongoing
argument for our entire relationship. When she wants to learn something, her
1st thought is "school" or "take a class". (She *just* got her final grades and
will receive her M.S. in December!) When I want to learn something, I simply
start digging. Both are flawed in various ways, of course. It's a matter of
style, purpose, and interest. But there has to be a hyper-space of middle
ground with plenty of room for innovation if we can shatter it open
appropriately. Decentralization and co-creative participation are fundamental
themes of the 21st century.
The point is even more oblique when we consider voting. A responsible voter
educates themselves before voting. But only an educated person would
understand what voting means (representation, local vs. federal elections,
gerrymandering, etc.) and that (how and why) it matters in the 1st place. A
tiny minority yell about how important it is to vote, but turnout is reliably
low
(https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/even-if-turnout-among-young-people-is-higher-itll-probably-still-be-low/).
People are either too ignorant to vote ... or not voting enough to get an
education. Or, perhaps the two are as unrelated as the uneducated non-voters
think they are? >8^D
On 10/22/18 2:22 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
> So, while I can see a crisis in medicine between our values about the
> preservation and extension of life and the costs of medicine, it’s harder to
> see a /crisis /between the short term losses incurred in paying for higher
> education and the long term benefits to society in fostering it. It’s a
> crisis only if we are unwilling to invest in our common future.
>
--
☣ uǝlƃ
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