The american intelectual tradition

Cherico

Well-known member
After the American revolution, America's intelectuals had to justify their existance.

While some people say America was anti intellectual its more correct to say that after a brutal revolution the people of the America's were suspicious of a whole lot of European things including the European intelectual tradition. The european ideal of education was one that went back to greece and it was based on the idea that being educated makes you a more complete person.

Telling that to a collection of people who just finished a bloodsoaked revolutionary war, that have very little money and have a very legitiment worries about constant frontier attacks is a very good way to be ignored at best. So america's intelectuals had to justify their existance and that justification was simple. Pragmatism.

Education can help make you more successful, that is the justification for education in America the start of the 3 Rs. Practical research was paid for and used to improve the lives of common american's. It was used to create skilled labor and good employees to make society richer. As time went on there was a deal struck between corperate america and our educational system.

Training people costs money, sucks and there is a chance another company will pouch your best people. Let us train people for you, our students will take the fincial cost of training upon themselves and you can just hire them out of the gate. It was a damned good deal, well for every one except the smucks stuck with college loans.

Thing is the colleges broke the deal, they got political they got preditory, its become a mess and they forgot the one word that americas entire intelectual tradition is based on pragmatism.

Colleges are expected to have a Return on investment, and that isnt happening.

Its for this reason among many others that I think the college bubble will burst, the ones that survive will be the ones that drop the bullshit and remember that the relationship between America and its intelectual class is purely transational fail to do your job and you will lose everything.
 

ParadiseLost

Well-known member
After the American revolution, America's intelectuals had to justify their existance.

No, they were too busy ruling America to spend time justifying their existence.

While some people say America was anti intellectual its more correct to say that after a brutal revolution the people of the America's were suspicious of a whole lot of European things including the European intelectual tradition.

What. No, seriously, what. Whoever says America was anti intellectual is a moron. America was one of the most intellectual and well educated countries on earth during the revolution, and essentially had a ruling class of (1) rich people who had received classical educations and (2) civil leaders and intellectuals who had given themselves self-taught classical educations.

The european ideal of education was one that went back to greece and it was based on the idea that being educated makes you a more complete person.

Telling that to a collection of people who just finished a bloodsoaked revolutionary war, that have very little money and have a very legitiment worries about constant frontier attacks is a very good way to be ignored at best. So america's intelectuals had to justify their existance and that justification was simple. Pragmatism.

Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson spoke French, Latin, and Italian, and additionally could read Greek and Spanish.

Hell, many of America's founders went to college, and at the time in America you were expected to read Greek and Latin before you went to college.

It was concerned a general competency.

The very idea that America was some kind of anti-intellectual pragmatic culture during its founding is just historical ignorance.

Education can help make you more successful, that is the justification for education in America the start of the 3 Rs. Practical research was paid for and used to improve the lives of common american's. It was used to create skilled labor and good employees to make society richer. As time went on there was a deal struck between corperate america and our educational system.

Training people costs money, sucks and there is a chance another company will pouch your best people. Let us train people for you, our students will take the fincial cost of training upon themselves and you can just hire them out of the gate. It was a damned good deal, well for every one except the smucks stuck with college loans.

Most companies maintain extensive training programs, during which it is often assumed you learned nothing in college.

No actual deal was made between corporate America and colleges.

What actually happened is a cultural shift from the belief that college was something for intellectuals, the upper class, and the professions to the belief that college was something for everyone.

Thing is the colleges broke the deal, they got political they got preditory, its become a mess and they forgot the one word that americas entire intelectual tradition is based on pragmatism.

Colleges are expected to have a Return on investment, and that isnt happening.

Its for this reason among many others that I think the college bubble will burst, the ones that survive will be the ones that drop the bullshit and remember that the relationship between America and its intelectual class is purely transational fail to do your job and you will lose everything.

Colleges were always political. In the American Revolution there were loyalist colleges and there were Revolutionary colleges. The pretense that at some time in the past colleges were politically neutral spaces is nonsense.

Colleges still have a good ROI. You are still better off going to college than not.

The main reason some people who go to college fail isn't because colleges failed them, its because they themselves are failures. Some people are just fuck ups. Harsh, but true.

The idea that America and its intellectual class are distinct entities that have a relationship is something based in nonsense identity politics and the more garbage interpretations of Marxism.



Honestly, you sound like a far-right winger who bought into a lot of leftist propaganda, which is hilarious.
 

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