[Cid_Yama]

The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think.

The nation’s elite universities disdain honest intellectual inquiry, which is by its nature distrustful of authority, fiercely independent and often subversive. They organize learning around minutely specialized disciplines, narrow answers and rigid structures that are designed to produce certain answers. The established corporate hierarchies these institutions service -- economic, political and social -- come with clear parameters, such as the primacy of an unfettered free market, and with a highly specialized vocabulary. This vocabulary, a sign of the "specialist" and of course the elitist, thwarts universal understanding. It keeps the uninitiated from asking unpleasant questions. It destroys the search for the common good.

These institutions, no matter how mediocre you are, feed students with the comforting self-delusion that they are there because they are not only the best but they deserve the best. You can see this attitude on display in every word uttered by George W. Bush. Here is a man with severely limited intellectual capacity and no moral core. He, along with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who attended my boarding school and went on to Yale, is an example of the legions of self-centered mediocrities churned out by places like Andover, Yale and Harvard. Bush was, like the rest of his caste, propelled forward by his money and his connections. That is the real purpose of these well-endowed schools -- to perpetuate their own.

The unstated ethic of these elite institutions is to make as much money as you can to sustain the elitist system. College presidents are not voices for the common good and the protection of intellectual integrity, but obsequious fundraisers. They shower honorary degrees and trusteeships on hedge-fund managers and Wall Street titans whose lives are usually examples of moral squalor and unchecked greed. The message to the students is clear.

These elites, and the corporate system they serve, have ruined the country. These elite cannot solve our problems. They have been trained to find "solutions," such as the trillion-dollar bailout of banks and financial firms, that sustain the system. They will feed the beast until it dies.
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[shortonsense]

The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think.

Having met a few Ivy Leaque grads, I would say your premise is flawed.

[Don35]

As I watch the US and the world collapsing, probably dying; I see a dog, mortally wounded, biting at it's wounds. We will not pull together and pull ourselves out, we will blame anyone available for the pain and difficulty we have. You see it in politics, economics, families, everywhere. It's a sad show to watch! Sorry Cid, I think the failures are all of us!

[errorist]

Sorry to hear that. So much pessimism in ones mind does seriously harm ones abilities to maintain informational-positive survival mind.
No, do not become sheep. REMEMBER, we still got plenty of everything we need.
[snip from random We-The-People-Speech from history]

Nothing fatal yet. Just time to choose side. Do not be afraid, it's only started to pour into fans. Minor corrections coming day-by-day. Stay informed. Study propaganda. Be well.

As I watch the US and the world collapsing, probably dying; I see a dog, mortally wounded, biting at it's wounds. We will not pull together and pull ourselves out, we will blame anyone available for the pain and difficulty we have. You see it in politics, economics, families, everywhere. It's a sad show to watch! Sorry Cid, I think the failures are all of us!

[Plantagenet]

The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think.

These kinds of sweeping generalizations are inevitably wrong. For instance, president-elect Obama is a product of Columbia and Harvard, and he has been educated superbly and he does a superb job of thinking.

[Fishman]

Gosh Planetagenet, I was going to rewrite Cid's whole piece and just substitute Obama's name, with a few added comments about Clinton having the most convicted staff of any president with Obama already working on beating that number starting before he's even inaugurated. You took away my cynical joy.

[TommyJefferson]

The established corporate hierarchies these institutions service -- economic, political and social -- come with clear parameters, such as the primacy of an unfettered free market

Exactly wrong.

The established corporate hierarchies these institutions service -- economic, political and social -- come with the very clear parameter the free market is to be avoided at all costs.

Elites are educated from day one that maintaining their elite status is totally dependent upon avoidance of market freedoms. They know this truth.

You will NEVER hear them question the fundamental premise of whether elites have the right to use the organized violence of government to bend "the people" to their will.

[Plantagenet]

Gosh Planetagenet, I was going to rewrite Cid's whole piece and just substitute Obama's name, with a few added comments about Clinton having the most convicted staff of any president with Obama already working on beating that number starting before he's even inaugurated. You took away my cynical joy.

Sorry, Fishman.

Your point is very well taken and more elegant then the one I made.....and there is surely enough cynical joy for us to share ---in the spirit of Christmas giving---- as we spiral down into the next great depression with Obama soon to be at the controls

[AlexdeLarge]

Gosh Planetagenet, I was going to rewrite Cid's whole piece and just substitute Obama's name, with a few added comments about Clinton having the most convicted staff of any president with Obama already working on beating that number starting before he's even inaugurated. You took away my cynical joy.

Sorry, Fishman.

Your point is very well taken and more elegant then the one I made.....and there is surely enough cynical joy for us to share ---in the spirit of Christmas giving---- as we spiral down into the next great depression with Obama soon to be at the controls

Your starting to worry me Planet. I was starting to think you are possesed or under some form of Mos's mind control.

[americandream]

The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think.

These kinds of sweeping generalizations are inevitably wrong. For instance, president-elect Obama is a product of Columbia and Harvard, and he has been educated superbly and he does a superb job of thinking.

So you believe, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that capital's intellectual pretensions encompass a comprehensive awareness of cause and effect?

[ReverseEngineer]

As someone who ended up with Doing Time behind the Ivy Walls, I can confirm that in essence what Cid is saying is correct. It is of course a vast generalization, and there are differences in the cliques and the disciplines inside each of these Universities. Where you find the most corruption is inside departments of History, Law and Economics more so than in the natural sciences, and it is to these areas that the scions of the wealthy flow, to gain the sheepskin necessary to take their place in the Political dynasty as Governors, Senators and Presidents.

You occassionally also get smart social climbers who get into these schools on their brains more than their money, and if you want to use your noodle in this way you can get the education you need and then find the backing you need to make it in Chicago Politics. The social climbers who do this aren't a whole lot better than the Scions of the Wealthy, they buy into the same bill of goods sold in the Economics 101 class of course. You are slightly better off with such folks in charge, because at least they got there on their brains and not their parent's money. The difference between George Bush and Barack Obama, both Ivy League graduates is that one is Stupid and Corrupt, the other is Smart and Corrupt.

Narrow thinking is systemic in the Halls of Ivy, and the Preppies form their own clique inside these walls, as do some Communists and Anarchists as well form cliques there. It was after all my School Columbia which had some of the biggest riots and takeovers of the campus in 1968. By the time all is said and done though, most of those who exited from the Ivy Slammer did in fact buy in to the culture of greed, and those with money and power have used it to retain that through the generations, through the kind of education you get in an Ivy League school.

It is NOT true however that every last person who went to an Ivy League school gets corrupted this way. There ARE occassional exceptions

Reverse Engineer

[seldom_seen]

Cid, you're right. Although you're only describing one piece of what Lewis Mumford calls the "Pentagon of Power." In his classic work The Myth of the Machine: The Pentagon of Power. He writes on higher education:

The Mexican painter Jose Clemente Orozco produced this grisly comment on higher education: it's desiccation and dehumanization, its sterile overspecialization, its indifference to human values and needs other that those that serve to support or embellish the Establishment.

[Cid_Yama]

If you read the article he talks about the marginalized intellectuals i.e. not saying EVERYONE who goes to an Ivy League school.

This is more about the system that maintains the system and it's ideology.

I did my best to cut out the author's obvious resentment and inferiority complex from being mistreated as someone coming from a working class background, but it does not affect the veracity of his view.

I saw it with my own eyes, although, since I was raised as a member of the elite, I just saw it as people tripping over each other to 'belong' to the 'in crowd'. Morons basically. You would never catch one of them in a philosophy course, or history, or ethics.

They didn't do well with the women, other than the ones that they paid for. And there were always ones willing to sell themselves. In general they tended to lack in respect for women.

Stunted shriveled souls.

[Plantagenet]

.....under some form of Mos's mind control.

Mos's mind control powers are completely blocked when he wears his favorite tin foil hat, and he seems to be wearing it all the time now.

[ReverseEngineer]

.....under some form of Mos's mind control.

Mos's mind control powers are completely blocked when he wears his favorite tin foil hat, and he seems to be wearing it all the time now.

Given the choice between Mos' Tin Foil naysaying and your anti-Obama Kevlar Panties, I'll go with Mos as the more rational one here. LOL

Reverse Engineer

[shortonsense]

For instance, president-elect Obama is a product of Columbia and Harvard, and he has been educated superbly and he does a superb job of thinking.

Yeah, but until he converts to Christianity, I just won't feel RIGHT about him running the joint....

[HeckuvaJob]

They didn't do well with the women, other than the ones that they paid for. And there were always ones willing to sell themselves. In general they tended to lack in respect for women.

"If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end...
I wouldn't be a bit surprised." -Dorothy Parker

Nixon had a full scholarship to Harvard. Unfortunately it didn't cover living expenses and his family couldn't afford to send him. I like your post Cid. I'll see your George Bush and Scooter Libby and raise you:

Viet Dinh - Harvard - authored Patriot Act
David Addington - Duke - a$$hole
Condi Rice - Notre Dame - famous pianist
John Yoo - Harvard - authored torture memos
Dick Cheney - Yale - deferment connoisseur, drunk driver
Paul Wolfowitz - Cornell - comb licker, sugar daddy
Donald Rumsfeld - Princeton - 'ruthless little bastard' (per Nixon)
Alberto Gonzales - I do not recall - amnesia rights advocate

At what point do they turn evil, though? There's probably a strong argument that the forces that got them admitted (or, in some cases graduated) had more influence than the actual education. Then again - one man's evil is another man's spreading democracy. I guess it depends on which side of the nut-shocker you're on.

I seem to recall from all the documentaries I watch, that there were lots of studies funded by Harvard that you... wouldn't try to impress your girlfriend's parents with. I'm too tired to research them at the moment, however. I'm sure lots of these grads go on to do great things. Mother Teresa was an ivy-leaguer, right?

[Nickel]

The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think.

Having met a few Ivy Leaque grads, I would say your premise is flawed.

Did they teach you to say that?

[Nickel]

These kinds of sweeping generalizations are inevitably wrong.

Which is itself a sweeping generalization.

[Nickel]

Gosh Planetagenet, I was going to rewrite Cid's whole piece and just substitute Obama's name, with a few added comments about Clinton having the most convicted staff of any president with Obama already working on beating that number starting before he's even inaugurated. You took away my cynical joy.

How do you know Cyd wouldn't agree 100% with it? What, you think just because you can stick a couple of Democrats' names in the piece, the revealed 'illogic' is going to cause him to start smoking from the neck and finally explode? You guys have been watching too much ST:TNG.