Universities Are the Enemy–More

In an earlier post, I wrote: Well, of course universities are the enemy of the Trump administration, and all other things stupid.

A key characteristic of college graduates is that we are unlikely to believe that “socialism is evil,” a core platform of the current-day Republican party.

We find this this so hard to swallow because we are aware of the social democracies of Europe, Central America, and Oceana; in fact, many of us have visited these nations and have come to see why their people consistently rank at the top of the World Happiness Rankings.

We also understand that the United States is far from a pure market economy, in that it offers its people a great number of free services: roads, bridges, tunnels, firefighting, national defense, embassies, air traffic control, food safety, libraries, public schools, FEMA, criminal justice and corrections, law enforcement, OSHA, auto safety, disease control, the upkeep of our local, state, and national parks and beaches, animal control, space exploration, and dozens of other items.

Stupidity (along with mean-spiritedness) is really what U.S. politics rests on at this point; without it, the entire Republican party would collapse.  Sure, it would be supported by a handful of greedy billionaires who couldn’t care less about the needs of the world’s people, but it would control a tiny fraction of the electorate.

Are we headed toward oligarchy?

We wouldn’t be the first democracy to topple.  I go back to what so many of my acquaintances from overseas have told me, “You have been the envy of the world since long before I was born.  Now we just feel sorry for you.”