> This sucks, re: Churchill. But when were the universities riding high?
> When William Graham Sumner ruled the roost?
Aren't they still riding pretty high? I seem to recall that somebody pointed out here, a couple of weeks back, that the absolute size of the credentialling sector continues to grow. Certainly they've made themselves increasingly indispensable, and more and more credentialling is required to get a job. One sees lots of gleaming new buildings on college campuses, and the campuses themselves are expanding like West Bank settlements -- in my nabe, Columbia is growing like a melanoma. In fact, the credentialling sector and the closely- related incarceration sector seem to be the great economic success stories of recent decades.
Of course the notion that universities were ever havens of free inquiry is a self-serving myth -- and clearly the aggrandizement of the institutions themselves isn't trickling down to the poor Morlocks who patrol the classrooms. Au contraire, these hapless souls are experiencing downright immiseration.
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Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org