The ‘higher’ education system in America really is just a complete disappointment. The pursuit of knowledge should not be capitulated towards midwits. Not only are the probably not going to understand what they’re taught, but the academic environment is necessarily shifted towards a less intelligent audience, which means those who are actually intelligent are neglected. It’s infuriating and suffocating.
University is entirely wasted on midwits who are predestined to be middle managers anyways; they will never use the information provided by universities. Those who are actually intelligent are forced to liblarp om papers, never speak in class discussion (lest they come off as a know-it-all), and struggle to maintain their sanity in such a stifling environment.
The ultimate effect of this is twofold: 1. Midwits think they are smarter than they are, because they have a degree (nevermind the fact that they probably never use it). 2. Actually intelligent people are forced to hide their nature, thus depriving society of their services and vice versa.
I’ll give an example of what I mean. This happened to me today (time of original writing), at my university (major STEM school), in HY-310 (Craft of History) for anyone who isn’t a history major, it’s supposed to be a relatively advanced class that only humanities majors/minors take (usually specifically history majors/minors). The class is basically to teach you how to read, write, and think like a historian. The class demographic breakdown is fairly typical (lots of women, couple of insufferable Neolibs/Marxists, and older guy going back to Uni, and a few average young guys). Basically, we were supposed to read this article about women in the Renaissance (Did Women Have a Renaissance?, by Joan Kelly. Not an awful read I guess but I digress) and then we were to outline the article using some established format or whatever. I turned my outline in like 40 minutes before class and barely followed the guide for the outline (notes are for women) to the point where I’m sure the teacher thought I barely read the article and wasn’t going to be able to discuss it in class. Either way I got a 10/10 on the assignment, but whatever. Anyways, I only kind of half listened to the discussion going on because it was very clear that the people in the class thought it was an intensive, dense, read (it was not, read it for yourself) and I thought that was kind of funny, but I didn’t join the discussion. At one point, however, she asked some question that kind of got my attention (it was about the meaning of Dante’s Inferno) and one of the insufferable libs in class tried to answer and promptly flopped. Before I caught myself, and before the teacher corrected her, I started to explain what it meant (and then everyone clapped) but I realized that I really didn’t want to talk to these people. I half explained it and then the teacher explained the rest, and I went back to half listening. At one point she mentioned something about critiquing the article, and again I blurted out how I didn’t think she really had a good understanding of Neoplatonism (author is a Marxist so go figure) and then the professor asked me to explain to the class what I meant, and before I knew it I was explaining the philosophy of beauty as virtue to a class full of people that didn’t even know Neoplatonism was a word, much less how it was viewed in the Renaissance. After that point I figured the dam was already broken so I started actively participating in the discussion and basically answered every question on my own (and then everyone clapped), until the professor pointed it out and I felt bad.
The point of that story is that often times, at least in a college setting, the people who actually know the most about a subject probably don’t care to discuss it with the class because the class is primarily composed of retards who are a net drain on intellectual discourse. There was basically nothing in that article that was out of my depth, but I had no desire to discuss it with those people because I knew they were not my peers. Not only does that illustrate my point about how hard it is to find people who are truly intelligent, but it also speaks volumes about our ‘higher’ education system.
To be clear: I do not think this current system is natural. I think college, as a modern institution, is fundamentally flawed. College should be exclusively for the academic elite. There should be nobody going to college just to have a degree. If you aren’t going to college to go into a STEM field, to get into grad school, or to enrich yourself as a person, I hate you. Not only are these kinds of people not going to actually use their degree, but they are also depriving their intellectual superiors of an actually enriching education. High-school should be the last stop in education for most people (with the possible exception of trade/tech schools), which would also necessitate the complete overhaul of the American education system for the ground-up (topic for another post?). We were much better off when the average college graduating class had, at most, a few dozen people in it.
The only solution to this that I can see is essentially us just winning the culture war. Universities are perhaps the places where are enemies are entrenched the deepest (Uncle Ted said as much), so I don’t think it’s even possible for us to fix this issue from the inside.
We are going to have to struggle through university, biting our tongues and biding our time. Once we are through it, we can start our work in earnest. We need to produce great works of art, literature, and music; we need to become influential legislators; we need to control as many cultural and political institutions as we possibly can. Then, and only then, can we pry academia from the claws of our enemies.
Our struggle will be long and arduous, but we will win. Even now, there are things in motion to turn the tide of the culture war (note: this is especially true nowadays). Network allies, form coalitions, voting blocs, activist groups, institutions, anything to increase our cultural presence.
I remember in high school they made me read a book by this mutt nigger celebrity named Trevor Noah. It was "Born a Crime" and it was about him growing up in south africa as a fatherless mixed child and facing hecking racism n sheeit. I barely read it, which sucked because it was a "dual credit" class so they constantly made me write essays about how wholesome the novel was and it made me nostalgic for 10th grade where I read classics from the 1960s and the quizzes were multi choice.
I always participate in class as much as I can, I don’t much care how I am percieved. It often gets to the point where the teachers know I have an answer to whatever question they are asking and a simple nod from me lets them know I’ll answer if nobody else raises their hand.
Because of this many teachers ask if I am willing to TA for them once I finish undergrad. I have no intention to teach so I politely decline.
One student told me I saved the class for her since she could simply bounce off what I’m saying for free participation points.