Looking back through my previous interest in those ancient offices, I noticed that my items around that time also included a writer who grasped tenure.
Here’s the connecting point, from June 12, 2017. The item about the ancient offices came the next day, triggered by purchasable prestige vs real aristocracy.
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Reading some miscellaneous crap this morning.
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This is a highly academic discussion of the GOAL of Die-Versity, in the context of Duke’s punishment of a professor who refused to attend Die-Versity Training. The prof finally resigned, which is MUCH smarter than trying to “work within the system”. The author seems to be saying that Die-Versity is a goal without a goal, an ever-receding horizon.
It’s not really all that fancy. Die-Versity is just a way to get rid of heretics and achieve Absolute Purity Of Sorosian Thought. Die-Versity Training is Room 101.
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Second article surprised the fuck out of me. This piece is in the Guardian, so I peeked at it with squinty eyes, ready to click out instantly to preserve my brain from Sorotoxin. AMAZINGLY the article is a straightforward direct ACCURATE description of the problems with academic science. The author GETS IT. Peer review and tenure work together to get rid of heretics and achieve Absolute Purity Of Sorosian Thought.
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Then I cooked and ate my usual morning ramen, and looked at a car magazine while eating as usual. Collectible Auto was open to an article about the limited-production ’53 Caddy Eldorado, which was a “sporty” convertible.
Cadillac had little trouble selling them despite the then-astronomical price of $7750. That figure may seem reasonable by today’s standards, but in 1953 it was enough money to buy three cars: a Cadillac Sixty-Two convertible, a Pontiac sedan, and a Chevrolet business coupe.
Actually you could buy four typical family sedans for the price, but the author was pointing out that the Eldo was essentially the same car as the Caddy 62 convertible. You were paying two extra cars solely for the PRESTIGE of the Eldo.
Aha.
Just like college. It’s all about prestige, nothing more and nothing less. Universities have provided the SAME service for 800 years. Colleges keep aristocrats busy and certify their prestige status. That’s all. That’s why universities cost four times as much as proper job training.
Lunatic propaganda about the “Open Forum For Robust Debate” is a recent advertising trick which wasn’t part of the appeal even 70 years ago.
Here’s a 1949 radio ad for Equitable’s college finance plan that pushes pure and simple prestige. It’s worth hearing for the atmospherics as well as the text. You want your son or daughter to WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN in life, don’t you????? The only way to WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN is with a college education!!!!!!
Well, it was true for a while, just as the Eldorado signified WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN for a while. Now the purchasable prestige value is basically gone from both areas. We’re back to raw gene-based aristocracy but we haven’t admitted it yet. We still pay four times as much even though we’re getting exactly nothing.
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Beatrix marks this week as special because it’s a strong (ecliptic) full moon in Scorpio.
When was the last strong full moon in Scorpio? May and June 2017, according to online astrologers.
Constants and variables: I’ve been constantly interested in tenure since 1959. I’m always ready to notice a writer who blows it or gets it. On this question the stars must be controlling the other writers, not my interest. I haven’t always been interested in the ancient offices like Gold Stick and Portcullis Pursuivant, so the stars are presumably controlling my interest in that question.
Polistra's Mill 