Even as a progressive Democrat at Brown and later in public broadcasting and academia, I was never crazy about Barack Obama. It was certainly time to turn the page on George W. Bush, but I was passionate about policy—particularly protecting America’s middle class from the downsides of globalization—and all Obama seemed to offer was a gauzy lifestyle brand. It was smooth, it was seductive, but where was the substance?
Prof. Thomas Sowell once commented that the best thing about having a degree from Harvard, as Sowell does, is "never again having to be impressed by someone with a degree from Harvard."
Excellent quote! I'm not sure I would have believed the level of intellectual bankruptcy in prestige academia had I not witnessed it myself -- it's very easy to presume sour grapes. Hopefully widespread mockery and these institutions' self-inflicted wounds will take a toll on their reputations.
Since the only opinions elite academics take seriously are each other's, they will agree that the widespread mockery is anti-intellectual. If you point out the intellectual conformity of this, they will show you how they enforce intellectual conformity without the slightest idea that they are doing so.
I remember those quaint days of fretting big-time about Obama's executive legislating on the illegal immigration issue. I must have written ten "desecretation of the constitutional order!!!!" "why are so few people talking about this!??" pieces for the NRO version of Post-Modern Conservative.
Quaint, because as the advancing case discussed by Aaron Kheriaty is showing, Joseph Biden is the all-time champion!
Keep up the good work. People who know little or nothing about the ivy league and those who make fun of it are often still intimidated by those who make it into the league either by student admission or teaching. Someone I knew who went to Yale as an undergrad never got the benefit or having a show professor actually teach a course they were enrolled in. Teaching assistants and adjuncts were their substitutions for the promised real mccoys.
I earned my undergraduate degree from an Ivy (1976), and I never once had a TA teach a course (except for an introductory biology lab course). There were no adjuncts. Only professors gave lectures and graded papers, and assistant profs met with students a couple of times a week in what were called "precepts," where various aspects of the course were discussed. There was no medical school, law school, business school or any other professional school. The grad students were enrolled in individual academic departments, but the emphasis was on undergraduate education.
That was the way it should have been back then. Today colleges cut back and save money by having adjuncts (part timers) do much of the work with no benefits. I had read that freshman at Columbia University complained about not having full time profs teaching them. Glad you're experience was better.
The solution to the student loan problem is simple, and guaranteed to piss almost everyone off.
1) ELIMINATE government guarantees of student loans going forward. Only students already in college can get loans, and only for the degree (Assoc, Bach, Masters, Doctorate) or trade program they are currently enrolled in. In short, you can finish what you started, but that's all.
2) Reform the bankruptcy laws so that pre-reform student loans are EASILY dischargeable, independent of other economic factors. Yes, you still take the credit hit. Bankruptcy reform is a heckuva lot less a hit on the Taxpayers than blanket national forgiveness. Post reform student loans are treated as any other unsecured personal debt.
3) Chargebacks - every federally guaranteed student loan that is discharged in bankruptcy, some percentage of that is "charged back" to the school the money benefitted.
I'm not up to speed enough on bankruptcy law and reforms thereof to comment, but absolutely agree on extricating the federal government from student loans (except for veterans) and making schools have meaningful skin in the game. The problem is that the bloated academia-NGO pipeline has become such a key artery of the Democratic establishment rationalizing so many self-important people's jobs and identities that it must be protected and subsidized at all costs. During the Obama years it was more subtle, mostly let's forgive debt for students going into public service (i.e. progressive organizations and bureaucracies packed with progressives), but now it's completely shameless and even more irresponsible.
Republicans don't know how to deal with Democrats. On student loans, they should negotiate with them as far as income limits and loan limits. Included in the bill should be a cancellation of the student loan program and closing the Department of Education. None of this would be possible without an out of control Department of Education and rules that allow it to happen. Shut it down then, if liberals have to have it, make sure there are rules and limits on the program.
I, too, was in law school around this time (2006-2009), and while I was hardly at a top-tier Ivy institution like you, I was in Boston. I heard much the same things and had a similar disheartening, and indeed disgusting, experience. My takeaway from law school in general was that our system is basically a sham that is considered a minor inconvenience when one side is doing whatever it wants, and an important bulwark against the other side doing what it wants. In other words, just another weapon in the war of “Who/whom?”
As an aside, anyone reading this contemplating law school, don’t bother going unless you can get into an Ivy League or Ivy-adjacent school. Not worth it otherwise.
No, because in this field the school name on your diploma is the main predictor of career success. I should have mentioned my first bit of advice is: don’t go to law school. My aside was directed at people who feel they must go.
Prof. Thomas Sowell once commented that the best thing about having a degree from Harvard, as Sowell does, is "never again having to be impressed by someone with a degree from Harvard."
Excellent quote! I'm not sure I would have believed the level of intellectual bankruptcy in prestige academia had I not witnessed it myself -- it's very easy to presume sour grapes. Hopefully widespread mockery and these institutions' self-inflicted wounds will take a toll on their reputations.
Since the only opinions elite academics take seriously are each other's, they will agree that the widespread mockery is anti-intellectual. If you point out the intellectual conformity of this, they will show you how they enforce intellectual conformity without the slightest idea that they are doing so.
I remember those quaint days of fretting big-time about Obama's executive legislating on the illegal immigration issue. I must have written ten "desecretation of the constitutional order!!!!" "why are so few people talking about this!??" pieces for the NRO version of Post-Modern Conservative.
Quaint, because as the advancing case discussed by Aaron Kheriaty is showing, Joseph Biden is the all-time champion!
...champion at violating the speech and press protections of the First Amendment. Way past all other prezzies combined! https://pomocon.substack.com/p/joe-bidens-all-time-american-record?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Keep up the good work. People who know little or nothing about the ivy league and those who make fun of it are often still intimidated by those who make it into the league either by student admission or teaching. Someone I knew who went to Yale as an undergrad never got the benefit or having a show professor actually teach a course they were enrolled in. Teaching assistants and adjuncts were their substitutions for the promised real mccoys.
I earned my undergraduate degree from an Ivy (1976), and I never once had a TA teach a course (except for an introductory biology lab course). There were no adjuncts. Only professors gave lectures and graded papers, and assistant profs met with students a couple of times a week in what were called "precepts," where various aspects of the course were discussed. There was no medical school, law school, business school or any other professional school. The grad students were enrolled in individual academic departments, but the emphasis was on undergraduate education.
That was the way it should have been back then. Today colleges cut back and save money by having adjuncts (part timers) do much of the work with no benefits. I had read that freshman at Columbia University complained about not having full time profs teaching them. Glad you're experience was better.
The solution to the student loan problem is simple, and guaranteed to piss almost everyone off.
1) ELIMINATE government guarantees of student loans going forward. Only students already in college can get loans, and only for the degree (Assoc, Bach, Masters, Doctorate) or trade program they are currently enrolled in. In short, you can finish what you started, but that's all.
2) Reform the bankruptcy laws so that pre-reform student loans are EASILY dischargeable, independent of other economic factors. Yes, you still take the credit hit. Bankruptcy reform is a heckuva lot less a hit on the Taxpayers than blanket national forgiveness. Post reform student loans are treated as any other unsecured personal debt.
3) Chargebacks - every federally guaranteed student loan that is discharged in bankruptcy, some percentage of that is "charged back" to the school the money benefitted.
I'm not up to speed enough on bankruptcy law and reforms thereof to comment, but absolutely agree on extricating the federal government from student loans (except for veterans) and making schools have meaningful skin in the game. The problem is that the bloated academia-NGO pipeline has become such a key artery of the Democratic establishment rationalizing so many self-important people's jobs and identities that it must be protected and subsidized at all costs. During the Obama years it was more subtle, mostly let's forgive debt for students going into public service (i.e. progressive organizations and bureaucracies packed with progressives), but now it's completely shameless and even more irresponsible.
Republicans don't know how to deal with Democrats. On student loans, they should negotiate with them as far as income limits and loan limits. Included in the bill should be a cancellation of the student loan program and closing the Department of Education. None of this would be possible without an out of control Department of Education and rules that allow it to happen. Shut it down then, if liberals have to have it, make sure there are rules and limits on the program.
I, too, was in law school around this time (2006-2009), and while I was hardly at a top-tier Ivy institution like you, I was in Boston. I heard much the same things and had a similar disheartening, and indeed disgusting, experience. My takeaway from law school in general was that our system is basically a sham that is considered a minor inconvenience when one side is doing whatever it wants, and an important bulwark against the other side doing what it wants. In other words, just another weapon in the war of “Who/whom?”
As an aside, anyone reading this contemplating law school, don’t bother going unless you can get into an Ivy League or Ivy-adjacent school. Not worth it otherwise.
An aside that drains the main point of all moral seriousness.
No, because in this field the school name on your diploma is the main predictor of career success. I should have mentioned my first bit of advice is: don’t go to law school. My aside was directed at people who feel they must go.
Great piece. Ivy League = Failed Upward.