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"This major barrier to being an intellectual, historically provided by academia, is almost completely gone." Wow, what an amazing conclusion. Well said and tha
by kevin_riggen 16y ago
"This major barrier to being an intellectual, historically provided by academia, is almost completely gone."
Wow, what an amazing conclusion. Well said and thanks.
- FluidDjango 16y agoI teach (mediocre) college students. And I disagree. It is not lack of access to information ('facts') that is a barrier to being an intellectual. It is a combination of inability/unwillingness to think analytically about information and ideas. IMHO.
- izaidi 16y agoThere can be more than one barrier.
- kiba 16y agoMy though process often clashes with somebody who have a very different assumption about how political systems should be organized. I sometime recognize that the discussion is going nowhere because the difference in ethical and principles are too great. One example of this is the concept of democracy and the idea of popular consent. I am extremely distrustful of human beings, so my political ideology tend to have a strong anti-authoritarian bent.
- sb 16y agoI had the exact same objection to the parents argument. IMHO, your experience with college students is a direct consequence of what we know all too well from the discouraging PISA results...
- kevin_riggen 16y agoLet rephrase it to "the major physical barrier".
- babeKnuth 16y agoNot really. Intelligent acts are everywhere. Academia is usually the last place I ever encounter anything intelligent. For example, a lot of people find TED vids stimulating. Or the Discovery channel, etc. Those aren't what one would consider "academic". Further, Chomsky tends to dismiss "academia" as not being relevant to the "real world" whenever he uses the phrase "academic exercise" for something that doesn't matter and is just mental masturbation.