I seldom post a reference to somebody else’s article, but I do strongly recommend John O’Dowd in Bella Caledonia on the “Scottish Democratic Intellect”. Long term readers will know that the changing of universities effectively into corporations, and the destruction of the democratic ethos in their governance, is one of my greatest sorrows. Several of O’Dowd’s themes are mirrored in my own Rectorial Address at the University of Dundee. Do read it. It starts with a good deal of knockabout comedy, but then gets serious, which is precisely how life at University should progress.
The University of Dundee refused to place my Installation Address in the University Library, thus ironically proving my entire point. It still is not there, and nor are Murder in Samarkand, The Catholic Orangemen of Togo, nor Sikunder Burnes – all of which proves precisely the point I was making. Long term readers will also be aware that the University Senate, at the urging of the Administration, refused after a debate to give me the honorary Degree routinely given to all Rectors, on the grounds I was “insufficiently distinguished”. They gave Honorary Degrees to Lorraine Kelly and Fred Macaulay, my immediate predecessors, so the yardstick for “distinguished” is somewhat woolly. I think it must mean “acceptable to the Establishment”. I do not crave honours, having turned down a LVO, OBE and CVO from the Queen. But the snub from the university hurt me deeply as I devoted much of my life to it, having been both Rector and President of the students union (twice). I think it is the only one of dozens of snubs from the Establishment to this whistleblower that actually succeeded in hurting.
Finally, I recommend as still very relevant the paper I helped write with Robin McAlpine, Allyson Pollock and Adam Ramsay for the Jimmy Reid Foundation on The Democratic University. I am in fact very hopeful that there is sufficient understanding among Scottish intellectuals of what needs to be done after Independence to root out the neo-liberal model from our universities. In this as in so much else, Independence will not be enough if we do not use it to institute radical government.
Snubbed by a Dundee institution CRaig.
Never mind Craig, you’re in good company. Was not Winston Churchill rejected by the voters of Dundee, who favoured an aboitionist.
Ha ha, I suspect CM sides more with Edmund Morel than WSC.
An abortionist ?
Can’t imagine anything more honorable than being snubbed by a university “administration.”
And anyway a university shouldn’t have an “administration.”
A university is, or at least was until it became an institution for the brainwashing of ill-educated youth, a self-governing community of scholars: you know, people like Isaac Newton facing down Judge Jeffreys, or just regular professors taking a significant share of the administrative burden to keep the goddam bureaucrats out of the academy.
A democratic university would be even more destructive of intelligence than one run by the military industrial complex in partnership with Monsanto and the pharmaceutical industry.
At the University I attended a generation or two ago, our department head taught, conducted research, served as the editor in chief of a major publishing venture, acted as dean of the faculty served on the university senate, and never missed a pint at opening time — 6.00 PM in those days.
Or let me put that in the irrefutable form of a syllogism.
A university, if it is to be of any use, must comprise a self-governing community of scholars.
A university “administration” consisting of “administrators*” who presume to govern the scholars of a university are, therefore, by the definition of a university, a bunch of interloping scum.
Hence, by definition, it is an honor to be dissed by the “administration” of any crap university, not just the University of Dundee.
*e.g., deputy vice chancellors, assistant deputy vice chancellors, full-time non teaching deans, and other useless appendages.
Thanks for the link to John O’Dowd’s article, Craig. a powerful and persuasive piece. It is very sad for those of us, like yourself and John, who benefitted from the long tradition of Scottish enlightenment in its education system. It is obvious in your writing that you are a son of that tradition too – an independence of thought, willingness to engage with rational discussion, and an ethical basis from which your thoughts are derived. The small-mindedness of Dundee University is of course in complete contradiction to that tradition, of which they were custodians, and thus have failed the Scottish community appallingly, and in my opinion have breached the founding principles which they were charged with upholding (and thus should be sacked for dereliction of duty).
We can only hope that a return to those centuries-old values is possible, but I fear that once shattered they are very hard to recover. But those of us who knew them will never forget them and will stand by them.
[Irony mode on] All hail the neo liberal education model. [Irony mode off]
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/9m-spent-not-single-english-12570796
More money than you could shake a stick at been pulled from the public education sector to finance vanity project experiments which are blighting children’s lives and entire futures. Once more stealing public assets for private gain. Failing academies, unqualified teachers, creationism and debt leading to a lifetime of servitude.
Meanwhile, we have head teachers having to go on sponsored charity runs to make up the money taken from them by incompetents and criminals hiding behind the label of Conservative.
http://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/chesterfield-headteacher-to-do-great-north-run-to-plug-19-000-funding-shortfall-1-8378028
A book I very much recommend that is relevant to all this is Weaponizing Anthropology by US academic David H Price.
It deals with how the US federal government and the US military have damaged the social sciences in American universities. The army needs anthropologists for it’s Human Terrain Teams in the Middle East and many anthropology students are secretly funded through college so they can be used in these teams after graduation.
These anthropolgists are then used in the Human Terrain Teams to employ their skills not in the service of understanding and science but to provide the military commanders with useful knowledge.
Price and his colleagues in the American Anthropology Association have been vociferously protesting about this, since not only does it damage the academic study of anthropology, but puts genuine anthropologists in the field at potential risk if they are suspected of collusion with the military.
Obama’s mother did anthropological field work on Java for the Ford Foundation and USAID, both organizations known to work with the CIA, at the time when the Indonesian army was conducting a genocidal purge of Communists and ethnic Chinese. The U.S. gave the Indonesian army lists of leftists to be eliminated.
If you’re suggesting President Obama’s mother was in any way complicit in the preparation of the massacres I wonder if you could give some clues as to how. Thanks.
A very good documentary film on the genocide in Indonesia is Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing.
That’s not a reply to my question.
The CIA’s role in the Indonesian genocide is found in a 1990 article written by Ralph McGehee, a CIA veteran of the agency’s International Communism Branch of the Counterintelligence Staff. The article appeared in the Fall 1990 issue of the Covert Action Information Bulletin.
President Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, worked in Indonesia for a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) embassy cover operation that helped identify key members of the Indonesian Communist Party — Partai Komunis Indonesia(PKI) that were targeted for assassination by Indonesian armed forces units, of which her husband and President Obama’s step-father, Lolo Soetoro, was a participant.
In his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama writes about his mother’s first trip to Indonesia in 1967: “In later years my mother would insist that had she known what had transpired in the preceding months, we never would have made the trip”.
http://www.thesecrettruth.com/obama.htm
Empathy.
Separately, I’d like to know what is the contribution of Scotland’s universities to the economy of Scotland; sciences, technology, business?
I’m sorry to learn that, Craig, and all the more so if the conferral of an honorary degree is customary for quondam Rectors. It seems rather petty.
****************************
On the subject of honorary degrees for former Rectors, does anyone know whether the late Malcolm Muggeridge got one after he resigned from the Rectorship of …….(was it Edinburgh, I don’t remember)? You may remember that he launched a diatribe against the values of modern students and then walked out in a huff.
***************************
And on the subject just of honorary degrees, one also remembers that Oxford’s spiteful refused to confer an honorary degree on PM Margaret Thatcher despite the fact that it was standard for Prime Ministers who were Oxford alumni to be given one.
I admit, I struggle to empathise with someone to whom the award or otherwise of an honorary degree is a matter of concern*. If that’s how they view you, then hell mend them. If you really want another degree, very publicly do a PhD in finger painting at Abertay, and really piss off the U of D!
Actually, being a lizard, I struggle to empathise, period.
Dundee “University” is entirely unworthy of you Craig, full of nasty little academic Hitlers who believe they are God’s gift to academe.
That’s interesting, Walter. I’m wondering if you write from personal experience and if you could you be more specific (” full of nasty little academic Hitlers who believe they are God’s gift to academe”)?
I imagine Walter worked for the same guy I did there, Habb. But it’s certainly unfair to brand all Dundee academics with the same brush, or restrict the problem to Dundee. You have to be a pretty devoted self-promoter to get funding anywhere in the UK system.
Thanks for that, Baal. Although I was half-expecting something from you, it would still be good if Walter would consider responding and being a little more specific, otherwise his post risks remaining a not very pleasant mini-rant not backed-up by reasoning and/or facts.
BTW, I agree with your comments.
Intellectually I could not hope to express myself adequately on this issue.I left education at 15 to work(I had reached my limit there… sigh)
I do agree though ! our universities ought not to be used in this elitist manner the people in those positions have to be, in my opinion ! at least in partial sympathy with the working population of all genres to make a transition politically smoother.The situation in the future for them may radically change when Independence finally arrives…as it assuredly will ! ……
Craig omitted Baroness Cox from his review.
Gaza Genocide Promoter Baroness Cox – Dundee University Must Withdraw Honorary Degree
31 July 2014
Baroness Cox is a prominent supporter of organisations which actively and openly promote the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Gaza. She was incredibly given an Honorary Degree by the University of Dundee in 2006. I call on the students and academic staff of Dundee University to campaign to have this award stripped from her.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/07/gaza-genocide-promoter-baroness-cox-dundee-university-must-withdraw-honorary-degree/
The students at Dundee are certainly missing out. I got Sikunder Burns and The Catholic Orangemen of Togo for Xmas and have just read them both back to back. Both were a “right riveting read”, I enjoyed them immensely and learned a lot. With respect to the latter I was fascinated to find out there is an English speaking community in Cameroun that is under the cosh. Just yesterday It was reported that their Internet service has been cut which is condemned by the UN as a breach of these peoples human rights. What’s your take on this Craig. Have UK and France done anything to improve the position in the last 8 years since you wrote your book. Certainly our wonderful media have provided minimal coverage for most of the last 40 years!
I suggest you take the snub by Dundee Uni as a badge of honour for you and shame for them. For your next history can I suggest you consider the exact role of the Scots in the creation of the British Empire and its dismantling. Anything to be learned from it for the dismantling of the UK?
Anything to do with not being a mason?
What makes you think that? Is the University Senate full of masons?
No.
My G-G-Grandfather was contemporary with Burnes, born 1806, and was master of vessels owned by a Dundee house that engaged in the India trade and later Canton. I wonder if Burnes was ever on one of his ships?
Craig,
I wouldn’t be too concerned about “the snub from the university”.
It was almost certainly the case, that the fault was not yours, but that the senior management, culture and ethos had radically changed, whilst your honour and integrity had been maintained.
Whilst it wasn’t a university, circumstances meant that I had to return to my former place of employment. I had loved working there for all but the last few years of employment. I chose to take my teenage daughter with me for moral support.
On leaving for the very final time, my daughter said to me – “Dad – how on earth did you cope with working with such horrible people?”
Tony
And another thing. Burnes must have come across Turner Macan, the Aide and Interpreter to the Governors’ General in Calcutta. He was a noted scholar as well and a cavalry man. He had a role in saving the Shahnameh of Firdousi and was close to William Henry Whitbread and the Royal Asiatic Society in London. Also, he had some of the Arabian Nights material from Egypt that Burton later drew on.
Link on previous thread to petition to give protection to whistleblowers from proposed Theresa May legislation.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/02/labours-failure-and-institutional-analysis/comment-page-5/#comment-655893
I remember you very well when you were president of DUSA. And Allyson Pollock was also a fellow student. Keep up the good work.
Ah Universities – one more thing that has been hollowed out and destroyed. This has nothing to do with Scotland it is a phenomena sweeping the world.
Anyone who wants to know what is going on in the world needs to keep away from universities at all costs. Otherwise you too might come to believe that science is not only irrelevant it is racist, and as science relies on numbers it follows logically (sic) that numbers are racist.
It is easy to blame the neo-con administrators of these institutions, but such people have always existed. Personally I blame the spineless cadre of academics who have stood by and done nothing except bleat about tenure. As though any normal person would wish to inhabit the dank fetid corridors of academia.
Your daft caricature of universities and science is irrelevant.
Not my caricature mate – it comes directly from UCT – one of Africa;s most prestigious universities.- You don’t like it take it up with them. The tactic of shooting the messenger is oh so boring.
Well you should have said so. However ‘prestigious’ it is, it isn’t representative of mainstream universities in Europe which is what the topic appeared to be about.
It isn’t daft Ian. It’s quite pertinent I think. The Straussian neocon beliefs are based on Plato and are for a society ruled by a philosopher class. Craig obviously sees himself as part of the ruling philosopher elite as he thinks he has the right to disregard two referendums (yes the plural is referendums I’m no academic so I speak English) which is why he is seeking acceptance, legitimacy.
“The Straussian neocon beliefs are based on Plato ”
Not just Plato but Aristotle, as well, however both philosophers did so, by retracing their interpretation through medieval Islamic and J**ish philosophy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss
Anyone who wants to know what is going on in the world needs to keep away from
universitiesuniversity social ‘science’ departments at all costs.FIFY
Universities remain, with all their limitations and their increasingly obtuse – yes, increasingly – management cultures, the main repositories of good, formal, relevant science. Whatever their arts departments think.
Your expressed view (and presumably you know that of which you write) sounds so warm and comforting – but is it true?
You can already see the “science is racist” meme being incubated in UCT – if history is any guide it will metastasize. Maybe it already has – take for example the career destroying treatment handed out to Sir Tim Hunt. Who now will even admit to having heard of James Watson.
Apparently climate change as a man made phenomena is supported by scientists. Science is a broad term – why should a nuclear engineer have any expertise in climate change? Why are science departments allowing themselves to be hijacked in this regard? Take someone like Guy McPherson – he has expertise in the subject matter and he believes that climate change is all to real. Unfortunately he believes that we are past the tipping point -so there is no longer any purpose in taxing the people to pay for climate change. Naturally he has been sacked, and his views and opinions can be consigned to the trash bin.
Evolutionary biology would strike me as a “good, formal, relevant science” – Well it is under an unceasing two pronged attack. Firstly you have Christian fundamentalists who believe that the entire earth is about 7,000 years old – and these things are being taught to children. Secondly you have a range of trans-sexual anarchists who argue that biological sex does not exist and anyone that argues otherwise is guilty of spreading hate.
In the UK you have entire university departments essentially conspiring with the government to train an insufficient number of radiologists. This is done to save money in the short term and then to further a political agenda to support the need for more immigration.
The world today is radically different from the world of 500 years ago – and all of those changes are a consequence of the development and application of science. Those whose power is so great have no right to hide behind a “not my job guvnor” argument. Science is under assault and scientists appear too weak and too supine to defend themselves.
It’s not my intention to seem warm and comforting. Ever. But I contend that the subversion of pure science does not – cannot – originate with the universities who teach it and do the research. It may be mediated by right-on VC’s, business and government stooges within the system and the traditional handbag fights within the academic hierarchy, but the multiple laminations of management afflicting academia do tend to insulate what is said from what is done – excessive management’s only beneficial effect, IMO.
I’m not sure that keeping funds short and further shortening them amounts to a conspiracy between government and the educators, as you suggest in the far-from-unique case of radiology schools. Rather, the schools have to bow to the globalists’ demands – and start retooling to make strategically-sized batches of marketable HR ‘product’ rather than trained people, or go under*. What’s going on is comparable with what’s happening in the NHS. The holders of the purse strings have an ideological objection to publicly-funded services, and are in the process of pushing them into the private sector. In which all too many MP’s have a financial interest, incidentally.
I do take your points, but I continue to think that they are symptoms of a much more general popular and political anti-intellectualism, against which university science is still some sort of defence. It’s certainly past time some co-ordination is established to strengthen the barricades, though. What O’Dowd complains of is not restricted to Scotland – indeed it rather lags behind the UK trend in the rush to globalisation. Down here we can still hanker after the past glories of Manchester in much the same way, perhaps. If we forget that then it was possible to do research with relatively simple kit which didn’t cost much…Today’s situation has other parallels with the NHS, indeed.
* In case you thought otherwise, I’m being somewhat sarcastic here.
Apparently there is a place called Bolton and it has a university. Here is a riveting little story about Vice Chancellors, boats and large loans to fund house purchases.
https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/7463/Confusion-and-anger-after-University-of-Bolton-sacks-husband-and-wife-in-media-row
According to the Complete University Guide average fees to attend Bolton University come in at a competitive £8,491 per year. According to the same source Bolton University is the 122nd best University in the UK.
It all makes so much sense. Listen to the vast cacophony of silence from all those who want to help their favored disadvantaged group. Because one thing is for certain the financial enslavement of an entire generation of people is of no interest whatsoever. As Mr. Dylan observed “don’t it make you feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game”
The impoverished students who have loans will find that their debts have been transferred to new owners. Treeza is flogging them off.
Universities minister announces sale of student loan book
Critics question assurances that move will have no impact on those paying off loans and will generate £12bn for the exchequer
6 Feb 2017 –
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/06/universities-minister-announces-sale-of-student-loan-book
‘Expressing concern about the latest proposed sale, Martin Lewis, the founder of moneysavingexpert.com, who has previously campaigned on the issue of student loans, warned that an earlier sale of the pre-1998 student loan book to a private company called Erudio had caused serious problems for many borrowers.
Erudio was forced to apologise after complaints about a series of administrative errors that resulted in graduates receiving letters telling them they must pay, even though their earnings had not reached the repayment level.
In the latest sell-off, loans and collections will continue to be administered by the Student Loans Company.’
So that’s OK then. This is GREAT Britain where the NHS is being dismantled for privatisation, Rolls Royce have been fined £673m for bribery and corruption worldwide, and the infrastructure of the country is falling to bits. Come to leafy Surrey to see the potholes, the homeless people sleeping rough and the old without care at home.
Surrey has always had a terrible pothole problem. The truth is that the wealthiest residents prefer that the roads are kept in a state of permanent disrepair so as to deter unwanted traffic. As a general rule, the worse the potholes, the leafier the street. In some of the most well-heeled and leafy parts of the county, the roads are little more than dirt tracks.
Untrue. I have lived here for a long time and can compare past and present.
Nothing new in this.the government has been flogging off student debt for ages. Last big tranche I saw a few years ago ,long before this government ,went for about 40p in the pound !
Off topic, but then not really given the content of the following quote.
Guy Verhofstadt has given an interview to The National and said some very significant things including this.
“We need the Scottish people and their firm European beliefs. Scotland has shaped European civilisation through iconic figures such as David Hume, Alexander Fleming and Adam Smith and still does so today by being at the forefront of defining and strengthening European values. We cannot afford to lose that.”
Wow.
Don’t expect BBC Scotland will report this though. It’s much too historic, important and true for them.
No less off subject, David Hume wrote from Paris (where he was secretary to the British ambassador) 14 January 1765:
“The rage and prejudice of parties frighten me; and above all, this rage against the Scots, which is so dishonourable, and indeed so infamous to the English nation. We hear that it increases every day without the least appearance of provocation on our part. It has frequently made me resolve never in my life to set foot on English ground.” 🙂
Guy Verhofstadt is quite an appealing chap on many ways (and personally very pleasant) but a bit of a fanatic when it comes to matters EU. He is one of those European politicians who see more government from Brussels (qua EU) as a solution for the increasing problems of governance in their own countries – not for nothing is he Belgian…).
I imagine that his enthusiasm for Scotland, in the present UK political context, is driven in this particular instance by his enthusiasm for European and a (misguided, in my opinion) fear that Brexit might put ideas into others’ heads.
..by his enthusiasm for European union and…
Verhofstadt is the ultimate in EU insiders. You’ve just said as much yourself Habba.
It means the unionists can completely forget about using any EU argument during the indyref2 debate.
Skating.
They don’t realise it yet, well not to its full extent, but Whitehall are in for a real thrashing, over EU negotiations.
Whitehall is still reducing its staff, Lord Kersdale has serious concerns that Whitehall, hasn’t enough experienced staff to deal with Brexit.
Oliver Ilot a senior researcher at the Institute of Government, said, that Whitehall is now smaller than it has been for decades. How can it deliver a good Brexit deal and carry on with implimenting domestic policies, for the benefit of the people, when it’s understaffed and under prepared.
The EU negotiators will have a field day.
“I imagine that his enthusiasm for Scotland, in the present UK political context, is driven in this particular instance by his enthusiasm for European and a (misguided, in my opinion) fear that Brexit might put ideas into others’ heads.”
________
Habb.
Oh I don’t know about, being misguided, there seem to be quite a bit of goodwill towards Scotland from the EU. I’m sure even if Scotland were a independent nation, and never part of the UK, that Scotland would be offered the chance to join the EU.
However I do agree that the EU, is being rather nice just now to Scotland under the present political context.
As well as Mr Verhofstadt, Elmar Brok, the German chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, claimed that Scotland is his “big love” after studying in Edinburgh in his younger days.
All in all, I suppose it’s better to be liked than loathed, wouldn’t you agree? ?
On reading some of Crag’s “Rectorial Address”, much of it was very funny and quite obviously true (which would be why the university authorities would not find it politically acceptable). I particularly liked the bit – about being dragged into the pub.
The truth about the origins of oil have now reached the top of the world’s geopolitical establishments. This is a far better translation than Thierrey Meyssan’s piece last week – though still not perfect – as The Rockerfeller’s always knew the truth – it was just in their financial interests to state the complete opposite.
This will challenge most people’s core beliefs, because they have been programmed and brainwashed with lies that do not conform to the most fundamental laws of physics, and for most people faith is far more powerful than scientific proof (or even common sense).
Dmitry Orlov won’t like this – but that is his problem, even if he has obviously got an exceedingly high IQ.
“Trump – business against war by Thierry Meyssan”
http://www.voltairenet.org/article195279.html
Extract
“According to the Rockefellers, oil and gas are depletable resources which will soon be running out (Peak Oil, a theory which was vulgarised in the 1970’s by the Club of Rome). Their use expels carbon particles into the atmosphere and thus provokes global warming (a theory vulgarised in the 2000’s by the «Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change» and Al Gore) [4]. It is time to move on to renewable sources of energy. On the contrary, according to Rex Tillerson, nothing we know so far can truly validate the idea that oil is a sort of compost made of scraps of biological matter. We are continually discovering new deposits in areas bereft of source rock, and at ever-increasing depths. Nothing proves that hydrocarbons will run out in the centuries to come. And nothing proves that carbon particles expelled into the air by human activity is really the cause for climatic evolution. For this debate, each of the two camps has financed an intense lobbying campaign in an attempt to convince political deciders, in the absence of a determining argument [5].
These two camps are of course defending diametrically opposite positions in terms of foreign policy. This why the fight between the Rockefellers and Tillerson certainly had an impact on international politics. Thus, in 2005, the Rockefellers advised Qatar – whose wealth is derived from ExxonMobil – to support the Muslim Brotherhood, and then, in 2011, to invest in the war against Syria. The Emirate sank tens of billions of dollars to support the jihadist groups. But on the contrary, Tillerson considered that although clandestine war may be good for imperial politics, it is not good for business. Since the defeat of the Rockefellers, Qatar has progressively been withdrawing from the war, and is now dedicating its spending to the preparation of the World Football Cup.”
Tony
Here is the University of Toronto with a cabal of administrators and deranged academics ganging up on one Jordan Peterson. Mr Peterson’s crime? He refuses to use “compelled speech” in regard to any matter and specifically with regard to gender pronouns.
You can read all about it here
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/christie-blatchford-if-gender-identity-debate-at-u-of-t-was-about-free-speech-then-the-battle-is-truly-lost
Unfortunately Professor Peterson refuses to surrender to the baying mob and so it is absolutely necessary that he be personally and professionally destroyed. Most people would likely not be supportive of the destruction of Professor Peterson and so it is considered necessary not to overly publicize he predicament.
Luckily for the lunatics inside the University of Toronto no-one here is likely to be interested. After all the destruction of western seats of higher learning needs to be spun so as to somehow require Scottish independence.
People that run universities are engaging in acts of destruction and vandalism that is analogous to the Taliban destruction of Buddhist artifacts in Afghanistan. The amazing thing is: No-one cares.
Once again, it’s all about the money and egos “jobs” and fear.
The eternal “shame and blame” game marginalising the authentic troublemakers. culminating in the macabre situation described by Craig
with lunatics in charge of the global asylum. Loony here is one of the sanest I’ve encountered.
Loony
IMHO. Buddhas are not works of art, they are propaganda for a system of mind-control. Art should hint at the unfathomable greatness of the Divine, not belittle it to an extra big stone.
I tend to agree with you about very big Buddhas and their status as works of art. Veneration of bigness and imagery is a bit Trumpy, somewhat idolatrous, and vacuous, rather unsubtle, and may indicate psychological characteristics that are not particularly desirable, such as the inability to withstand or think about the purpose of such ‘impressive’ monuments.
The point, however, is more that disapproval of the merits of the ‘art’, by others with a different perspective, is not a reason to destroy them.
It strikes me that it is peculiar to date the degeneration of the Scots Educational system from the time of the Union. Surely the era to which continual reference is made-the Scots Enlightenment- was at its peak in the C18th, after the Union?
Then there is the matter of what that Enlightenment was all about. What it was that Hume and Smith and the many others such as Steuart, were actually doing. They appear to have been engaged in the construction of an ideology to serve the ruling class of Empire and promote and justify the new capitalist society.
Indeed Cobbett, a very useful guide in such questions, described the ideology of Poor Law, East India Company and Industrial Capitalism as Scotch Feelosophy. He was thinking about those fruits of the Scots Universities, the Edinburgh Reviewers, the Mills (to whom Blake took such a dislike) and Political Economists.
(A chap from Porlock has just arrived so I must break off, leaving the question “Was there are labouring class/peasantry worse treated, by its gentry, between Ireland and Poland, than the Scots? )
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/calgary/anthony-hall-human-rights-complaint-1.3938438
Another unhappy university situation.
As Loony said: it is a global problem.
In New York City, where the girls are so pretty we find this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR9hMj6OLfM
Apparently the star of the show is an NYU Professor. Current fees at NYU come in at a bargain basement £49,062 pa. Total cost of attendance (fees, accommodation, books and other expenses) is estimated at $71,754 pa.
Somewhere there will be a veritable army of careers advisers recommending that young people go to study at NYU. How many people would volunteer to pay this persons salary? Although they are unlikely to cutting their own personal checks people seem quite happy to turn a blind eye to one of the greatest con jobs in history.
Anon1
February 14, 2017 at 20:04 ad hominem:
” The truth is that the wealthiest residents prefer that the roads are kept in a state of permanent disrepair so as to deter unwanted traffic. ”
I wonder why the trolls are so upset with Sharp Ears. Could it be the mention of the use of academic awards to reward Zionists, the rubbishing of the biased Amnesty report accusing Assad of crimes against humanity, AND the sheer gall to live in a home county.
All the roads round the HS2 repairs terminal near me have been newly tarmac-ed. Why not have a pop at me for living in war-bombed Birmingham? Londoners popping up here on £200 day return tickets shall at all times wear rosy coloured spectacles and visit a few flashy buildings in the city centre.
Say a big hello to Jonathon Brown – Associate Professor at Georgetown University.
http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/brownj2/
What kind of knowledge does Professor Brown impart tot his students I hear you ask. Well fear not for I will explain.
Professor Brown thinks that slavery as practiced by Europeans was brutal and violent and an altogether bad thing. However slavery as practiced by Muslims was quite a good thing – as the slaves were protected by sharia law and had really “quite good lives”
Also according to the good Professor consent is not a necessary prerequisite for sex. Some may ask why university administrators tolerate the imparting of such views. But hey who cares – no-one apparently. Dontcha know that US Universities are beset by a rape culture. Only an idiot would wonder how you could have a rape culture when consent is not required for sex.
Still the good news is that Professor Brown is infused with altruistic munificence and so has posted his lecture online for all to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpFatRwdPm0
You certainly have it in for universities. And have noticed – though it’s hardly news – that they pay their senior management staff exorbitant salaries to run the places just like megacorporations. While the academic staff sart with insecure contract work, if they’re lucky, and if they’re really blessed may eventually get tenure at, say, a third of what a relatively poor vice-chancellor pulls down. And non-academic staff have seen their income fall continuously, in real terms, since 2008. This isn’t the universities’ fault. This is society’s fault. It’s a failure of social justice, across the board, and a triumph for crass materialism. If you have any realistic plan for reversing the societal trend, I’ll be very glad to hear from you. Vested interests will always promote vested interests, no matter who else takes a hit. How do we unvest those interests?
You are largely correct in that universities cannot be viewed in isolation – the corruption and hollowing out is everywhere. It is all encompassing.
It is the fault of the universities in that they allowed the situation to develop. There are people inside universities with far more levers of influence at their disposal than say coal miners ever had. At least the miners tried, which is far more than the spineless intellectual class ever did.
As you say everything has been hijacked by vested interests, and there is little that can be done about it from an individual perspective. But then that is the idea – they want people to consider themselves powerless.
But there are things that can be done. At the moment it is still possible to vote against vested interests. Brexit and Trump are examples. Soon there will be more examples. They may all fail – and if they do then hopefully the people will double down and vote for ever more extreme outcomes, and will continue to do so until certain interests are divested and are once again used for the benefit of society.
Clearly this is not a solution without risk, but consider the alternative. Those with power are absolutely determined to provoke war with Russia. This will be a species ending event, pretty much any other outcome will be preferable. You no longer have the opportunity to say “OK I will surrender and live as a peasant,- just don’t kill us all” Those with power want you to die like a peasant.
“I do not crave honours, having turned down a LVO, OBE and CVO from the Queen.”
Might have come in useful if you’d ever gone on Countdown though, Craig;)
Hey Becky – I am two things (i) A long standing admirer of your comments and (ii) an Idiot.
Could you help an idiot out by explaining how you can have a rape culture in a culture whereby lawful sex is not predicated on consent.
LOL Loony
pre-dick-ated – puns are corny but you get the idea, the quality of the fore-play makes up for any deficiency in the after-care – right?
Thank you for your kind words Craig. I have long been a great admirer of your work and integrity. Your blog is indispensable reading. Keep telling the truth. That is our only hope.
People who are in the UK, America and the other Five Eyes countries are in a total lunatic asylum.
In France, on the other hand, people are taking back their liberties, and the presstitutes never report it, because you live in a police states.
In France people are happy…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guMfsv_0meA
You know that I’m just waiting for the security service vermin to use the race card with regard to the widespread civil unrest in France this month.
Nothing to do with the now permanent state of emergency (with all civil liberties suspended), and the massive protests against the neo-con agenda.
Naw, it’s all to do with the twerrorists, innit.
Cue the next totally ridiculous false flag event…
I’m still waiting for Shatnersrug to tell us about the people he said he knew who died in the Paris attacks on Friday 13th November 2015?
I live in France, where there are major protests going on against the neo-con agenda, and I’ve yet to meet anyone whose loved ones were killed or injured in these twerrorist attacks.
Maybe it’s just me, or maybe you lot live in totally psycho police states where the news media is completely controlled.
Let’s go bomb another country. Yay!