Universities - theatres of the absurd

Started by pr126, November 25, 2017, 08:48:40 AM

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Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: Mermaid on November 26, 2017, 07:59:10 AM
There is an alarming trend where people are speaking out about something they don't know anything about with a confident authority. I can't tell if this is a new thing, or just something that's bubbled up from under the surface with recent events.

It scares the shit out of me. Just cooperate with the police and you won't get shot! Universities are liberal hotbeds! Women get as much respect as men in the workplace! I see all of that with my own two eyes!


Dunning-Kruger Effect.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Baruch

Quote from: pr126 on November 26, 2017, 05:56:19 AM
Cavebear wrote:Not at my age. Besides, I hate Marxism.
It is destroying western civilization and culture since 1920.
Nearly achieved its goal.
 
For the left, it is the quest for power. The destruction of the civilization is a just collateral damage.

Have you noticed that the Dems are throwing the Clintons under the bus? They became a liability for the party.

The Clintons are still driving the bus, don't get ahead of yourself.  You sound like a Democrat who thinks that Trump was impeached yesterday, already.  The Left = "those who reject the status quo".  Shiranu for instance.  They will always be with us, and will mostly be destructive.  There are times when you need new tires on your car, but not every day, and not while it is going down the highway.  Every generation or so though, we need new blood - Dracula.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: pr126 on November 26, 2017, 06:33:23 AM
No. I am watching Europe flushed down the toilet by the left.
Americans don’t know that because it is not reported in the media, and they don’t care anyway.

America or Europe goes thru waves of dissatisfaction with the status quo.  We aren't exactly coordinated, just sort of (thanks George Soros).  Some of your hard working immigrants want to take advantage of an opportunity for prosperity (poor people like that shit).  Other immigrants want to take criminal advantage of an opportune chaos (Islam would have made no advance against Rome in its heyday).

Americans are happy?  Not at all, worst since the 1960s (and a prior peak prosperity).  If we are complacent, it is because we had our recession first, it is just now coming to Canada/Australia/NZ (real estate bubble from Chinese money).  The other Anglo-phones were snide in 2008/2009 with the US.  Don't throw stones in a glass house!  And the UK?  Brexit, if it happens, is no free lunch.  I don't think it will happen, you are Germany's bitch now.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Cavebear on November 26, 2017, 05:28:50 AM
I remember when there were liberal Republicans, conservative Democrats, and you had some choices.  And before routine gerrymandering...

Everyone misses the days of their youth, but I have that reason.

Same here!  But actually this is the best of times, the worst of times.  Avoid France, 1792!
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Cavebear on November 26, 2017, 06:21:45 AM
I do wish you would reconsider your view that everyone Left-Of-Center is a Communist.  I am sure no Communist, but I do think that social cooperation yields benefits.

Cooperation only happens between like-minds of good-will.  We are short of supply these days.  I don't mind cooperating with Russians, do you?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Mermaid on November 26, 2017, 07:59:10 AM
There is an alarming trend where people are speaking out about something they don't know anything about with a confident authority. I can't tell if this is a new thing, or just something that's bubbled up from under the surface with recent events.

It scares the shit out of me. Just cooperate with the police and you won't get shot! Universities are liberal hotbeds! Women get as much respect as men in the workplace! I see all of that with my own two eyes!

Continue to believe me, and deny your lying eyes! (sarc).  Sorry, at work, nobody gets any respect.  Women just thought, 50 years ago, when they resumed working outside the home, that they would get Father Knows Best treatment.  Sorry, work is a jungle, and you need to keep your claws sharp.  And nobody has sharper claws than a woman in the work place.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Cavebear on November 26, 2017, 02:16:48 AM
I think I missed that class too.  And I was pretty radical in college.  Whatever thoughts I have, they are surely not Marxist.

Groovy dude!  I remember in early grade school, when unbuttoning both top buttons of your button-down shirt was a radical statement!  And no, it was disallowed.  As a concession they let us boys unbutton the top button.  So what were you radical on?  Toga, toga, toga?

I wasn't a humanities major, so I missed out on Marxism.  I read up on that on my own.  What little humanities courses I had, we had Plato's Republic drilled into us.  And it still is in there.  The rulers are the only people who need to lie or be allowed to - to paraphrase Plato.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Cavebear on November 26, 2017, 02:39:29 AM
Well, you probably missed learning about a wide and varied number of subjects.  I learned "something" about A-Z (archeology to zoology) and a bit of everything in between. 

And it isn't that it mattered to me in my career (though geometry helped and knowing how to analyze data advanced me).  But it mattered to me as an individual mostly. 

There is almost no subject I don't know enough about to discuss it with someone who knows more, and I learn from THAT too.  I can give examples if you are interested.

Pr126 is self taught like my dad.  I have lots of schooling, and always read widely on my own.  Lived at the library.  So lots of different subjects to enjoy.  My formal education was mostly technical of course.  Here is a conundrum .. if a university is about the universe, how come it isn't limited to astronomy? ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Munch

yeah I never did get why they call it a university.
'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: Munch on November 26, 2017, 10:29:53 AM
yeah I never did get why they call it a university.
A university offers a wide range of subjects. This makes it different from a "college" that concentrates on a limited number of subjects.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Baruch

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on November 26, 2017, 10:42:06 AM
A university offers a wide range of subjects. This makes it different from a "college" that concentrates on a limited number of subjects.

Farther back .. a college is a formal study hall for university, that you join as a member.  You are a member of a college, and the college is a part of the university.  Of course back then, you became a junior cleric under minimum vows ... to study theology, law and medicine.  "clark" is British for "cleric".  At the University of Paris for example, colleges were grouped based on native language of the students, since instruction was in Latin.  Since modernity, the university system has gone to pot ... many US colleges were under clerical control as recently as 100 years ago.  Chapel attendance for students on Sunday was mandatory.  Most 18 year olds, couldn't pass the entrance exam that existed 120 years ago.  Standards have dropped until by the 1960s (thanks to veteran students who didn't fit the profile) that in-loco-parentis was functionally abolished, and campuses became free-for-alls.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Mermaid

Quote from: Baruch on November 26, 2017, 09:28:02 AM
Sorry, at work, nobody gets any respect.  Women just thought, 50 years ago, when they resumed working outside the home, that they would get Father Knows Best treatment.  Sorry, work is a jungle, and you need to keep your claws sharp.  And nobody has sharper claws than a woman in the work place.
I rest my case.
A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR

Mermaid

A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR

Baruch

Quote from: Mermaid on November 26, 2017, 11:43:31 AM
I rest my case.

Yes, men and women are just alike .. not.  Yes, people are individuals, except when it is an advantage to flag wave one's group.  I work with women a lot, for over 20 years now.  My closest friend of all time was a female coworker ... and my closest current work friend is the same kind.  They are fine people, same as the men.  Any person, of any type, can be a pain in the ass of course.  An all male office would be dull, I have worked in those before (engineering and software).  On the other hand, the additional excitement that women bring to the work place is over-rated ;-)  I find that given hobby-horse X, one can find reasons not to employ women, or not employ men.  It is a matter of cherry-picking ... and prejudice.  I see prejudice as stupidity, it prevents you from hiring the best, and prevents you from firing the worst.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Mermaid

A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR