Donkeys and Elephants and Delegates,oh my!
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Why the Liberal Arts? Is There a Lasting Good?
inrethinking.blogspot.com — FTA: "...the Federalist [doc that explains the Constitution] seems quaint and a rather pointless exercise. You live in America, after all, so you must understand the order that defines us intuitively. There's like a President and stuff and people vote for him because wrestlers and actors and all the nice people on MTV say it is important to vote."
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- goforbroke, on 03/31/2008, -0/+8Complacency will be the death of us...err the MTV generation.
- ashok, on 03/31/2008, -0/+6Thing is, I don't know how complacent they are: the MTV generation, like the undergrads I'm dealing with, work hard to make money to pay their cell phone bill and cable bill and get their iPod and pay tuition and even give to charity. These kids aren't bad, not at all. But to convince them that this stuff is important is near impossible because they're so grown up in terms of making money and being near professional students, that anything else is alien.
- Iconoclast25, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3Like my new daughter-in-law with the PhD (2007) pulling in six figures on her first job . . . and voting for shrillary in the primary "because she's a woman." She's sharper than your examples, but certainly has not explored the issues beyond the fact her family always voted dimwit and the hildabitch is allegedly female.
- ashok, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3Six figures? I'm definitely in the wrong field.
I'm mad at the grad students partly because many of them know more than I do; I've actually cited their in-class comments at times in papers and on the blog. I think we're up against something, though, that requires full dedication: either we convince the world what we do means something, or face total irrelevance. I may not be right about this, but I feel like I'm doing a lot, and I feel they could be doing more, way more. I think they're more isolated than anything else.
The undergrads I'm furious at. They have got to shape up immediately. - Iconoclast25, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2One eMail sent; have been working on another for last few days which may - to a limited extent - provide some examples of my point in the one I just sent.
- ashok, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3Six figures? I'm definitely in the wrong field.
- Iconoclast25, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3Like my new daughter-in-law with the PhD (2007) pulling in six figures on her first job . . . and voting for shrillary in the primary "because she's a woman." She's sharper than your examples, but certainly has not explored the issues beyond the fact her family always voted dimwit and the hildabitch is allegedly female.
- ashok, on 03/31/2008, -0/+6Thing is, I don't know how complacent they are: the MTV generation, like the undergrads I'm dealing with, work hard to make money to pay their cell phone bill and cable bill and get their iPod and pay tuition and even give to charity. These kids aren't bad, not at all. But to convince them that this stuff is important is near impossible because they're so grown up in terms of making money and being near professional students, that anything else is alien.
- Wolfpack46, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3Ok you got my pony tail/the point is simple they have been condition to look for disposable wealth as the do all, end all, can all answer to all/so we have a subprime problem/duh/one suggestion if I may, give them something to think about and teach to refocus into the structure of things which are solid not the Shangrila thingee. Marketing of Evil is a good starting point, at the very list will point the nihilistic ones to you/and the discussion should be awesome/if you do please, keep me posted.
- ashok, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3I don't understand your comment entirely, but I'm going to try and address what I think is the gist of it. Thanks for the comment, btw, I do appreciate the response and your shout out:
I do admit I'm ranting and full of myself. I don't know how much I can get the undergrads to focus onto the "structure of things," I'm giving a history of political philosophy lesson in the post. The narrative is purposely simplified.
The grad students get a Heideggerian accounting of Nature so their own radical skepticism, a skepticism of anything and everything which is part and parcel of being a scholar, can be set aside just for a second. Their skepticism forces them to think some people can be taught and others can't, and wouldn't you know each and every grad student thinks he's the only person who can be taught anything.
- ashok, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3I don't understand your comment entirely, but I'm going to try and address what I think is the gist of it. Thanks for the comment, btw, I do appreciate the response and your shout out:
- ashok, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2Have changed some of the comments about grad students to be more complimentary. Am still mad at them.
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