It's a shame I stopped reading when I did on the wikipedia academic elitism link when I got to the nugget I was looking for, because *this* nugget is a real gem:
"Some observers argue that, while academicians often perceive themselves as members of an elite, their influence is mostly imaginary: "Professors of humanities, with all their leftist fantasies, have little direct knowledge of American life and no impact whatever on public policy."[3]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_elitism#cite_note-2> Academic elitism suggests that in highly competitive academic environments only those individuals who have engaged in scholarship<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholarly_method> are deemed to have anything worthwhile to say, or do. It suggests that individuals who have not engaged in such scholarship are cranks<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_(person)>. Steven Zhang of the Cornell Daily Sun<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_Daily_Sun> has described the graduates of elite schools, especially those in the Ivy League<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League>, of having a "smug sense of success" because they believe "gaining entrance into the Ivy League is an accomplishment unto itself."[*citation needed<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed> *]" On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Douglas Roberts <[email protected]>wrote: > I, OTOH, was fairly certain I was going to encounter approximately the > same amount as usual of, what do we call it? Pollyanna-like behavior: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyanna_principle > > No, that's not quite right. > > Academic ivory tower elitism? > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_elitism > > Well no, that doesn't quite capture all of it either. Although this one > sentence comes fairly close to capturing the dietary element that abounds > here on FRIAM: *Another criticism is that universities [substitute > academics here for the purpose of my point] tend more to > pseudo-intellectualism than intellectualism per se; for example, to protect > their positions and prestige, academicians may over-complicate problems and > express them in obscure language.* > * > * > The Osterich Effect, but as applied to societal problems rather than > economic ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_effect > > Some combination of the above, perhaps. > > --Doug > > > On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 9:53 AM, glen <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Douglas Roberts wrote at 09/26/2012 09:03 PM: >> > dead gang members are far more productive members of society than >> > live ones, I suspect. >> >> And here I was worried I wouldn't get enough _hate_ in my diet today. >> >> -- >> glen >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> > > > > -- > Doug Roberts > [email protected] > [email protected] > http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins > <http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins> > 505-455-7333 - Office > 505-670-8195 - Cell > > -- Doug Roberts [email protected] [email protected] http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins <http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins> 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
