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Eidolon is a now defunct online magazine specifically about the classics. The last thing they did was publish a 'fail' essay. In it the head editor, who holds a

Eidolon is a now defunct online magazine specifically about the classics. The last thing they did was publish a 'fail' essay. In it the head editor, who holds a PhD from Princeton in the Classics, goes through all the challenges, mis-steps, and lessons they all learned. 'Fail' essays in tech are a dime a dozen. But in the classics, they tend to be rare. As such, Eidolon's essay is a goldmine. Two things stuck out to me the most: 1) This passage was particularly worrying: "I’m not going to downplay the extent of the problems we’re facing. In addition to the concerns facing Classics specifically and the humanities more widely, there are also enormous and terrifying problems facing higher education in general. Even before the massive disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, these problems already looked insurmountable: on one side the student debt crisis, which has financially crippled an entire generation, and on the other side the increasing precarity of the academic workforce has made teaching Classics (and every other discipline in academia, really) a terrible professional prospect. This is not to mention academia’s endemic problems with classism and sexual harassment." 2) The author/head editor was Donna Zuckerberg. If that name sounds a bit familiar, it's because it is. She is the sister of Mark Zuckerberg, one of the richest people in history. That her assessment of Eidolon's efforts is so dour and bleak, despite her astronomical privilege, should register that there is indeed 'something wrong in Denmark' (the humanities). The rest of the essay goes into much more depth about what exactly is wrong. But the essence is simple: The Humanities, and the Classics specifically, are Dead. "Abandon every hope, who enter here." https://eidolon.pub/my-classics-will-be-intersectional-or-14ed6e0bcd1c https://eidolon.pub/my-classics-will-be-intersectional-or-14...

yTh0 6y ago
I can’t tell if things like this are real issues or “but think of the horse and buggy driver!” problems. We were teaching kids to read, ethics, morals, long before we had PhDs. Obsession with normalizing agency to abide fiscal concerns is the real issue here. Let wealth collapse by refusing to buy into the idea we owe deference to those that hold wealth. Teach the classics. Write open source. None of it has to be done for a dollar, or outsized prestige.
- mcguire 6y ago
  "We were teaching kids to read, ethics, morals, long before we had PhDs." I think I'd like some evidence for that.
  - yTh0 6y ago
    The first PhD was awarded in France in 1150 CE. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and even Pre-Columbus America had complex cultural customs, art, math, engineering, medicine, language they handed down generationally. University as we know it is a relic of Medieval European tradition.
    - mcguire 6y ago
      I've seen the literacy rate of medieval Europe estimated at 10%. Ethics and morals were being taught roughly the same way they are now: you believe what your parents believed. Medieval medicine was being taught from translations of Arabic copies of Galen.
  - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
    Is that not obvious? Via the ancient Greek schools of philosophy for example?
    - mcguire 6y ago
      IIUC, the literacy rate was for most of the Mediterranean world was around 20%, specifically excluding slaves and women. Which is pretty high, actually. The Greek schools of philosophy were taught by the equivalent of PhDs.
- dpoochieni 6y ago
  An (sadly? or rather realistically) that is what it boils down to, people who read the classics, read the classics, whether at Harvard or elsewhere. People who are critical thinkers, are critical thinkers, again whether at a college or elsewhere. People who X, X. To think that spending money (and increasing amounts of it) will change this is sheer insanity. Sure, you might get a few that otherwise would have never Xed to now X, but is it not just fundamentally inefficient? For every p that now Xs how many are still as lost? What would one do next? Concerning the nurture component; Change their parents? Take the children away to be raised by a government? Concerning the nature component; Alter their DNA?
deleted 6y ago
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yTh0 6y ago

I can’t tell if things like this are real issues or “but think of the horse and buggy driver!” problems. We were teaching kids to read, ethics, morals, long before we had PhDs. Obsession with normalizing agency to abide fiscal concerns is the real issue here. Let wealth collapse by refusing to buy into the idea we owe deference to those that hold wealth. Teach the classics. Write open source. None of it has to be done for a dollar, or outsized prestige.

mcguire 6y ago
"We were teaching kids to read, ethics, morals, long before we had PhDs." I think I'd like some evidence for that.
- yTh0 6y ago
  The first PhD was awarded in France in 1150 CE. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and even Pre-Columbus America had complex cultural customs, art, math, engineering, medicine, language they handed down generationally. University as we know it is a relic of Medieval European tradition.
  - mcguire 6y ago
    I've seen the literacy rate of medieval Europe estimated at 10%. Ethics and morals were being taught roughly the same way they are now: you believe what your parents believed. Medieval medicine was being taught from translations of Arabic copies of Galen.
- read_if_gay_ 6y ago
  Is that not obvious? Via the ancient Greek schools of philosophy for example?
  - mcguire 6y ago
    IIUC, the literacy rate was for most of the Mediterranean world was around 20%, specifically excluding slaves and women. Which is pretty high, actually. The Greek schools of philosophy were taught by the equivalent of PhDs.
dpoochieni 6y ago
An (sadly? or rather realistically) that is what it boils down to, people who read the classics, read the classics, whether at Harvard or elsewhere. People who are critical thinkers, are critical thinkers, again whether at a college or elsewhere. People who X, X. To think that spending money (and increasing amounts of it) will change this is sheer insanity. Sure, you might get a few that otherwise would have never Xed to now X, but is it not just fundamentally inefficient? For every p that now Xs how many are still as lost? What would one do next? Concerning the nurture component; Change their parents? Take the children away to be raised by a government? Concerning the nature component; Alter their DNA?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]