The reaction of certain cloistered demographics, particularly college professors and students, to the recent election is pretty baffling to anyone who lives outside of their bubble and might have lived thru more than one change of party in the Whitehouse. It is easy enough to dismiss the behaviour as infantile tantrums because that is what they are but that doesn't explain how so many became so infantile, entitled and willing to show their asses in public. Yes, they are the third or fourth generation raised on an exclusive diet of self esteem and participation awards and sheltered in safe places with trigger word warnings protecting their fragile bloated egos. But that is just a platform and like the agar it is the medium for growing the pathogen, not the pathogen itself.
The pathogen is ignorance and it has become virulent. Generations ago our public schools abandoned any topic that might open a mind to this country's (little c) constitution and how our electoral system (not just the electoral college) actually works. This void has been filled by ridiculous examples of "votes", popularity contests delivered by five intense minutes of thumb-numbing twittering such as last week's end of show vote on The Voice. It's highly likely that the similarity of "popularity" and "popular" confuses these feral minds and the TV format has led them to believe that a winner is "whoever gets the most votes" rather than the fifty percent plus one required in the real world. Seeing a three-way vote split 41% to 39% to 20% means that 41% is a "winner" because the producers of The Voice say so. Suggesting that an "election" where 59% vote for someone else is anything but a "win" is met with a confused look.
It's easy but dangerous to dismiss this silliness as the product of a vacuous mind. That this virulent ignorance has such a powerful grip on academia which should be all but immune does not bode well for our collective future.
The pathogen is ignorance and it has become virulent. Generations ago our public schools abandoned any topic that might open a mind to this country's (little c) constitution and how our electoral system (not just the electoral college) actually works. This void has been filled by ridiculous examples of "votes", popularity contests delivered by five intense minutes of thumb-numbing twittering such as last week's end of show vote on The Voice. It's highly likely that the similarity of "popularity" and "popular" confuses these feral minds and the TV format has led them to believe that a winner is "whoever gets the most votes" rather than the fifty percent plus one required in the real world. Seeing a three-way vote split 41% to 39% to 20% means that 41% is a "winner" because the producers of The Voice say so. Suggesting that an "election" where 59% vote for someone else is anything but a "win" is met with a confused look.
It's easy but dangerous to dismiss this silliness as the product of a vacuous mind. That this virulent ignorance has such a powerful grip on academia which should be all but immune does not bode well for our collective future.
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