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1. If you put a sixth grader in second grade, they wont be happy because they are doing a lot less than they should and could be doing. I think this feeling app
by sam_goody 4y ago
1. If you put a sixth grader in second grade, they wont be happy because they are doing a lot less than they should and could be doing. I think this feeling applies for sixth year students, that know they could be starting a real job or building a family.
2. Academia is built on the the theoretical.
Learning is cool, and theories are nice, and colleges are full of kids that don't bear the responsibility of their actions. But most people eventually get the nagging and uncomfortable suspicion that the world that they are being sold doesn't quite match up to reality. A feeling associated with bitterness, cynicism, and denial.
OT> IMO, this one reason why academia is so strongly leftist. Socialism and Communism are theoretically utopian, but can never work in the real world. Ditto to monetary theory (if it was so reliable, the profs would all be rich and retired), and liberalism (unfortunately, since I really buy into the theory), and other agendas that are popular on campus.
- lapcat 4y agoWhy in the world did you think it was a good idea to turn this into a partisan political debate?
- sam_goody 4y agoAs someone who straddles the fence, trying to get as much theoretical utopia into the messy world we live in as possible, I don't see it as "for" and against", nor as a partisan debate. I'm a former professor, and my colleagues agreed with the description above, just disagreed how much utopia can be shoehorned in. As far as explaining dissatisfaction of a sixth year, there is something of the dawning of reality in it, and I think both sides of the political spectrum can agree to that. If you think I should edit the comment, I will.
- dennis_jeeves1 4y agoGood observations....
- justaburner 4y agoDo you think the fundamental problem lies within the idea of utopia?
- sam_goody 4y agoI highly recommend Jan Valtin's book, recently on HN: https://thebaffler.com/latest/unflinching-prisoners-of-a-grandiose-make-believe-asher https://thebaffler.com/latest/unflinching-prisoners-of-a-gra... It is the biography of German Communist in WWII. To quote from the review "few books have ever done a finer or more honest job of describing the appeal and disappointments of ideology. "