During my time in college, I often heard the lament that contemporary university presidents were merely overeducated hand-shakers and fundraisers, chosen more for their ability to mouth amiable pieties to rich people than for their institutional vision or faith in their mission. Well, looks like that was pretty much on-target.
"The simplicity of stating a question can belie its complexity," our fearless leader whose name I always forget in conversation tells us. He had better hope this is true, because his essay is little more than a list of random questions.
But my favorite was the Reed president's, which presents us with the truly baffling claim that, "If you really care about diversity, embrace it. And change." What this means in context, apparently, is that you should enjoy being mugged, and stop trying to impose your oppressive, crime-thwarting ways on people who would apparently prefer to have their purses stolen.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
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6 comments:
While you mention words from wise men, you completely neglect the Female First World problems angle:
But my life, like that of most women trying to juggle a job, some kids, a husband and her hair, never seems to settle into anything that approximates ritual. Unless, of course, you include chaos as a meaningful pattern of events.
Oh, and don't forget the dead chipmunk.
Oh, I didn't read that one. I did read the one from the woman who loosely converted her entire resume into prose and listed all the important political theories she invented.
Wow. The Reed guy poses as a crime-fighting action hero and a sensitive white liberal at the same.
Very well played, sir.
Yeah. That was embarrassing.
You know, between refining our truth-yearning and sensitive souls, being serious but not taking ourselves too seriously, and combating both crime and [generic racial issues], it's truly an exhausting education we're getting over here.
Zimmer’s essay had me at the photo. Why if he hangs out in oak paneled libraries in his free time, he will fit in perfectly here. Less the oak paneling.
It was very sick-making. I hope that these people were playing to their faculty, but I fear that by now they've all been marinated in that foul swamp so long that they actually think that way.
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