3 ms·
A thought experiment that has a surprising amount of predictive power is to view the universities as a system of single-party rule on the scale of the CCP, wher
by motohagiography 6y ago
A thought experiment that has a surprising amount of predictive power is to view the universities as a system of single-party rule on the scale of the CCP, where they vie for power internally among themselves, and use the real economy to fund their effective system of sinecures.
Viewed this way, it is purging principled and quantitative thinkers because they can't keep them on as a risk for where the party is going. Straight out of sci-fi, but sometimes experiments can be illuminating.
- tgb 6y agoYou're suggesting that the math department is out of line with the universities propaganda? Are you aware that they're also axing humanities departments? They're not axing applied science departments. Your "experiment" doesn't really match reality.
- motohagiography 6y agoAre the universities a de-facto one party system? No. Does their aggregate behaviour resemble one? More often than you'd expect. The change from, "a university should produce thoughtful and well rounded citizens and leaders to grow our society," to, "a university should produce activists to pose as experts and seize the means of production," has happened within the span of a single career cohort. I'd say that math itself isn't the target, but it does seem to have found itself in the way.
- tgb 6y agoYour theory is, at best, completely orthogonal to event in the tweet. Dropping the medieval literature department is secretly a plot to produce activists who seize the means of production by purging quantitatively minded people? I would seriously reconsider the underpinning of my world view if it led me to such a conclusion.