Consider the life of the young person in America: The only remaining ~formative~ postsecondary institutions with prestige are universities. Yet formative only in the sense of uprooting masses of young people and nudging them towards therapeutic reliance and complacency.
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This papers over purposelessness and generational anxiety. Yes, some unis teach skills or orient to some version of the good via liberal arts. But the vast majority optimize for nothing (think “global leadership”). Students are never told that they are *for* something.
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There r ~12 unis w/ enough prestige to truly optimize for “global leadership”—such is the shrinking treadmill of institutional meritocracy + intense competition. Even then, coveted “global leadership” amounts to retooling soap company ad teams. Meaningless enough for self-care
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That countless unis tout their “global leadership” shows a mimetic desire for something few really want (or have). Adulthood is bound up in meaning, not in prestige. And it’s not as hard as it sounds to give people meaning in their lives—just allow them to be *for* something!
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Imagine these university welcome speeches to freshmen: “You are going to operate thousands of new public nursing homes” “You are to be trained to staff nuclear fusion reactors” “You will produce beautiful furniture” “You will serve as interpreters for the deaf”
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And of course, honesty for the meritocrats at the inevitable Ivy top: “You made it, congratulations. You are power laws made manifest—now tremble before the terrifying reality of power, be humble, and we will guide you as you guide each other.” or just go and make money lol
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Absent this we are left with the current reality that many are forced to bootstrap their own adulthood. For the hyper-creative this is fine. They’ll never institutionalize for long. Better to leave them to drop out and create new institutions—this is their critical function.
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Replying to @wilks_isaac
Almost nothing actually *happens* when you turn 18 (nothing socially legible, at least) With no formalized rite of passage, and few default paths towards self-sufficient adulthood, it seems almost inevitable that most non-autodidacts become NEETs and wage slaves
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Replying to @choosy_mom @wilks_isaac
But from a parenting/pedagogy standpoint, I’m curious if it’s possible to cultivate these hyper-creative, institution-building capacities in young people, rather than simply hope that they have the right personality type
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Replying to @choosy_mom
good point. maybe—a lot of it is probably inborn. people’s visceral reactions to authority are I’d imagine often determined by their psychological makeup. interesting question as to how to instill a sense of highly conditional discipline in kids
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chad donkey from shrek 2 Retweeted Visakan Veerasamy
If anything, the educational status quo suffocates these tendencies in students who *do* have self-directed inclinations https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1136899384069591040?s=21 …https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1136899384069591040 …
chad donkey from shrek 2 added,
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