Academia

Academia is Dead

/ Jim / 2 Comments

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It doesn’t matter where you work, or the field you work in. It actually has nothing to do with the contributions you’ve made to that field; The number of peer reviewed, published papers, the books you’ve written, Today you’re position as an academician is determined by your value on the scale of Social Justice. In academia, it’s the opposite of get woke, go broke. Not being part of the “Social Justice Movement” (whatever that happens to be, any week of the year) means that everything you have contributed in your field is worthless and is worthy of no more than dismissal by those that are better socially adjusted.

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Heroes and Villains: Can We Tell Them Apart?

/ Jim / 5 Comments

 

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I think that most people would agree that there are certain things within society that we do not accept. Three most common are murder, rape and theft. In each there is an action of power or greed over another. Society, in general, disapproves of these and have punishments for those that would defy a societal norm. I say most people, because I cannot claim that all people decry any of these offenses against others. If that were true, then none of these would occur. They do, and we have, as taxpayers where we live, people paid to find and detain, hopefully incarcerate, those that violate that norm.

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What’s Up With Academia?

/ Jim / 2 Comments

 

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We’re beginning to see more and more, that Higher Education is becoming no more than an echo chamber for those whose agenda is Social Justice, or whatever is perceived to be Social Justice, to them of course, without consideration the person(s) or the circumstances of those that are condemned for their views or their associations.  Of course, this started at the student level where protests and disruptions – even violent disruptions – would occur on campus because a few decided that an invited speakers’ views were so abhorrent to a small mob, that those views may not be heard, by anyone. These are the institutions which in the past have always welcomed reasoned discussion, even debate, because it was believed that even those views that may be disagreeable to some, would allow students to better understand the wider world. Not any longer.

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The Epistemological Intersectionality of Postmodernism

/ Jim / 6 Comments

 

 

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I was recently in a conversation on Twitter about, well, I’m not sure exactly, because it was so loaded with what was described at one point as academic language, that I had to read some of the posts twice before I think I understood what was being discussed. I actually replied that I wished people would start using English. There was actually some agreement with that response. I mean, in one tweet, someone referred to steelmanning, word I had never seen used before. It was used in a way to indicate an accusation made against the person tweeting. After looking it up, I discovered it was a way of taking an opponents strongest argument, and using that to refute their thesis. Now  I’ve bored myself.

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Academic Privilege and Fraud

/ Jim / 1 Comment

 

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I’ve been following the latest scandal on television. Yes, that one, where wealthy parents, two notable families in Hollywood, cheated their way into having their children attend one or more elite colleges. I actually couldn’t believe this was more than a one day story, but since it first broke, channel after channel, every day, have carried it, had panels and single guests on talking about the college admissions process and how it desperately needs more transparency. Some 50 people so far have been arrested on Federal charges including wire and mail fraud. The teaser? These people, could receive as much as twenty years in prison.

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