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Chris- I don't disagree
with your assessment of the gullibility and tendencies of US TV watchers.
However, your view of why Donald's show is popular is more straightforward
than mine. I think he gets a mixture of those you mention, those who watch
because they like watching train wrecks (but are too sophisticated to admit they
watch COPS or American Chopper), and an equal blending of reality show watchers
and perhaps not a few other
groups. I'm also not quite so
positive of his assessments of this market. His past is, after
all, littered with many failures as well as his obvious successes. The
markets within which academia has survived are perhaps not quite what Trump
perceives them to be. I agree that people will go into business and offer their
tricks and "to do to your business" what Donald taught them. I also think
that many of our business leaders will not react terribly well to that- how many
of them have egos nearly as large as Trumps and how many also believe they
benefited from their educations- either way it is a slap in the face, so to
speak. Remember, this isn't the first of these "I can fix everything that's wrong with education" schemes (and I don't even think it is the best one). Remember for example, “What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business school” and other such attempts and how long they lasted. Perhaps Trump thinks that these earlier attempts (offered as they were in book form) are as flawed as their bookish origins- that they became, a sheep in wolf's clothing as it were. But I suspect he is wrong. I think your assessment that this is "cult of personality" is exactly correct. But what happens when one divorces the personality from the equation. What works for the Donald isn't going to work for most of us. I think that is the strength of the traditional educational values on depth, analysis, and plodding rigor, as you so aptly put it! It does work for most people and in most situations. I think Trump's followers are going to find that without Trump they have bought (and I think they will buy it!) a kind of a reverse Trojan horse. I actually think that Trumps "University" would benefit many university trained folk as motivation training but I just don't see it proceeding far beyond that. But you do make an excellent point. And that is we must take such erosions of true education seriously and respond to them as you have by teaching our students what the value of such education really is. To ignore these charlatans as irrelevant would be a grave mistake. Take care. Tim From: Christopher Green [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 12:34 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: Re: Trump Unveils Launch of Trump University " Perhaps you are right, but my guess is that Trump understands the market in play here much better than we do. I suspect that he senses that the time is ripe to reject most of the old university apparatus -- "credits," "degrees," gowns, dust, snobbishness, etc. in favor of what is perceived as "real," "modern," immediate, unsentimental, direct, aggressive, and ultimately (it is hoped) successful. His TV show tells you everything you need to know about the kind of business image he likes to project, and its popularity tells you how people react to it (when it's not directed at them personally). The message is that he "cuts through the BS" and that this is what brings success. (And that almost everything traditional scholars value -- careful analysis, plodding rigor, subtlety, attention to counterexamples, sensitivity to context, and the time and effort that all these things require to develop -- is exactly the BS he has in mind.) " --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
