What’s The Opposite of Diversity?

12 Replies to “What’s The Opposite of Diversity?”

I don’t think it’s coincidence that both my federal and provincial ridings voted NDP. That hotbed of communism, sometimes known as the University of Alberta, is in the vicinity.

Not surprising. Academia and ivory towers are known for being bastions of ideas being elevated beyond their sensible limits.
Conservatism means recognising what works and trying to maintain items in a working order because we recognise that it’s difficult to build things but easy to destroy them. If all ideas are equal then there’s no need to stick with what works. That it will kill millions doesn’t bother many academics because the people that will be hurt aren’t known to them personally. As the poor in other countries are abstractions, ivory tower thinkers don’t feel any guilt in ensuring (for example) energy poverty and malnutrition.

Yes,exactly.
And THAT is why I have never trusted the higher education crowd to run a lemonade stand,they live in their fantasy world of academia, never touched by the miseries of the real world.It’s why so many academics embrace communism, bypassing socialism as it takes too long.
If anyone here ever had the misfortune to work for or with a company that was started by a dreamer who decided to leave the academic world,because “anyone can do it and I can do it better because I’m SO intelligent! I have four degrees!”, as I have, you’ll know what I mean.

Check out the roster for Liberals at Ottawa U, I suspect the proportions might be similar. This is the institution famous for its bull pen of Liberal professors always available to criticize anything PM Stephen Harper might accomplish. Also famous for the insufferable President Allan Rock, former Liberal Justice Minister and his hilarious run in with free speech and Ann Coulter. As one of his e=mails suggested as a former Minister he really couldn’t prevent Coulter from speaking, but that someone should do something to do just that. Strangely the nightly commentary on national news channels has dried up since Oct 2015.
Todays Ottawa Citizen has an interview reflecting on his past 8 years as President. Oddly the reporter never mentions Ann Coulter and Rock doesn’t bring the incident up; nice cozy relationship.

When I was an undergrad, most of my profs had spent time in industry or were closely associated with it. Most of the ones I had while I was a grad student didn’t and some of them were proud of it.
Another thing is that academics love spending other people’s money for their research. (Sound familiar?) I don’t think I ever met one who bought equipment or supplies using their own cash.
When one runs for political office, one has to pay a deposit to show that one’s campaign is serious. Every time I suggest something similar for academic research, I usually get hostile reactions, as if they’re too good to pay at least part of their research themselves. (And don’t give me the argument about them being poorly paid. I know of several who are earning far more than I ever did while I was a professional engineer in industry. Nice work if one can get it.)

Tom Lehrer’s
“Ivy covered professors in ivy covered halls”
comes to mind here

… of ideas being elevated beyond their sensible limits.
Nothing new under the Sun. Aristophones wrote, 2500+ years ago, a (an) hilarious play where Socrates appears in a basket suspended above the ground to pontificate. (forgt which one) they’re all worth reading.

I encourage friends and colleagues to stop donating to the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Alberta because of their lack of acceptance to broad ideas.
I owe my own personal success to having dropped out of high school after a few months and working and travelling instead. I completed high school remotely while working full time in half the time than what friends I did have who were trapped/lost in the school system. When they graduated they had no clue, had no passions and were completely unprepared. Meanwhile I had visited 5 continents, knew what work was and was well established in an independent career.
For a lot of kids, school dulls the mind. It turns people to lazy drones rather than independent thinkers and actors. More kids should quit and finish online instead and use their time more wisely rather than listening to a bunch of loser teachers and profs.

Off topic a bit. I’ve noticed a trend making its way on the Twitter-verse which seems a bit contrived to say the least. It’s a line-up of the usual Liberal protagonists trying to advance the notion that there are conservatives poisoning the independent thinking of the CBC. What could be more absurd? Their story is that some of these personalities in the upper echelons of the CBC contributed to the latest CPC federal election campaign. True, they did. Of course we all know what these whores were up to..buying the affections of anyone who may control their futures…but certain factions want to drive home a fiction, and to Hell with the consequences for anyone involved. They of course intend to deflect the huge scandalous CBC financing gifted by the Libs.

One problem is that the academic system’s little more than a money-harvesting operation now. Only those subjects that bring in lots of funding are investigated, regardless of whether or not they’re important.
Also, only those which need lots of $$$ are worth considering. The poor researcher who simply needs a pad of paper and a computer to examine something will likely not have a long career. But, do research on something trivial, but which brings in large grants (say, wearable computers), and getting tenure’s a possibility.
As for school dulling the mind, current educational doctrine is to blame for that. It’s not about learning new ideas or skills any more. It’s all about self-esteem and feelings. Don’t make the kiddies feel bad by flunking them if they have no talent for the subject. Instead, lower the standards so that *everyone* passes and, thereby, feels good.
It’s quite a change from when I was an undergrad 40 years ago.
And people wonder why I quit teaching.

As I have mentioned numerous times in the past, this takeover of the educational system by the left began quietly in the 1960s and is now pretty much complete. And we wonder why so many people vote for the false utopia of Marx.

Homeschooling or death. There is no more choice.

12 Replies to “What’s The Opposite of Diversity?”

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