"The Great University Con"

luka

Well-known member
The pit is a place all of us spend a significant portion of our lives. It's an unavoidable venue of modern life and treating it I think is worth doing and can be done well. By describing these things, taking the measure of them, we give them an objective concrete status which makes them much easier to negotiate.
 

luka

Well-known member
All of us know how we end up there and the measures we need to take to clamber out, but clambering out takes a little time, and while you are there it makes sense to send back reports, rock samples, description of flora and fauna.
 

luka

Well-known member
That way it ceases to be dead time, it's an approach which redeems that period of time. It's the path of Good Health and Emotional Hygeine.
 

luka

Well-known member
Treat that time with curiosity and compassion and serious concern. You deem it worthy of your attention. You become less impatient with yourself, less of a scold and a moraliser.
 

luka

Well-known member
You find that this time can yield it's own secrets and pleasures. It opens out in unexpected ways.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I think there’s a difference between recognising and discussing the pit vs celebrating it. Which is what 4chan does. It can be a dead end.
 

luka

Well-known member
Aesthetics is all about these matters of judgement. How much is too much? How far can you lean this way before toppling over etc
 

luka

Well-known member
What I admire about four chan, I've never been there, but my imagined version of it, is a) the talent pool which is extraordinary and unparalleled and b)the drive of it. A huge engine of creativity and inspiration. You have the best minds of that generation churning out ideas constantly. I'd like us to be a more modest, kinder version of that.
 

vimothy

yurp
I worked for project when I was in my twenties which did researched into this. it was all rather depressing. the tldr was that the perverse effects of audit culture had lowered rather than raised standards in education. they seemed to place most of the blame on the Blair govt rather than Thatcher, however.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
There’s an opportunity with COVID for people who had no plans for a life in healthcare to retrain. A huge, diverse talent pool. It could backed by a wealth tax, which is really philanthropy for a just cause, to switch the focus onto a war footing. Huge backlogs of standard procedures to more complex treatments that can’t just be left to congeal. Unemployment is only going to get worse in the short term, why not adapt sections of the education system and people with non-medical qualifications to recruit?

The desire for people to contribute is there. Whether the current govt could grasp this opportunity is another matter entirely. Farcical when we should be on a war footing.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I worked for project when I was in my twenties which did researched into this. it was all rather depressing. the tldr was that the perverse effects of audit culture had lowered rather than raised standards in education. they seemed to place most of the blame on the Blair govt rather than Thatcher, however.

I’d say it’s been a gradual evolution since I was at college in the late 80s and early 90s. There were protests against student loans including a memorable occupation of Westminster bridge that the cops really did not like, so they charged us with horses.

Then I think the first loans came in during my last year. Mine was £350 or something. In my first year I was able to claim housing benefit and got unemployment benefit in the summer holiday without too much aggro. Those both went in the early 90s too.

This was a big part of the student as consumer which I think has changed things irrevocably in my lifetime. Certainly Blair did nothing to put the brakes on.
 
Top