Well it is something of a conundrum, I imagine, wanting to give your child every advantage while wishing that didn't involve patronizing this incestuous relationship between elite society, prestigious institutions, and US News and World Report. At some point (and this definitely applies to my life experience) I'm guessing most progressiv…
Well it is something of a conundrum, I imagine, wanting to give your child every advantage while wishing that didn't involve patronizing this incestuous relationship between elite society, prestigious institutions, and US News and World Report. At some point (and this definitely applies to my life experience) I'm guessing most progressives try living according to the "put your money where your mouth is" philosophy before they eventually get discouraged and tired of making their life more difficult for something that doesn't appear to be working, and gets harder with every new thing they learn.
Applying that to this specific situation – well, you get one shot at trying to provide your kid a good college education, and with the way parents stress themselves with guilt these days, they probably drive themselves nuts worrying that they'll deny their offspring a ticket to financial security because they happened to be in the thrall of an idealistic opposition to college elitism at the time. Better to just advocate for change but in the meantime work with the imperfect world you've got. My son is nowhere near that age, and I'm no Ivy Leaguer myself, so I don't think I'll have to deal with that particular self-guilting exercise, but still, I can imagine.
As for the idea that these institutions produce their share of right wingers, you'll get no argument from me. Part of that is undoubtedly attributable to disillusionment with the left based on what they see on campus. Now, don't misunderstand; I don't find that to be a moral justification for running to embrace the right wing fringe, so I'm certainly not trying to lay all the blame at our feet. But from a practical standpoint (which is how I usually tend to evaluate things) I always do warn that extremism just breeds more extremism, and I think that has shown itself to be the case in recent years.
That being said, I have no doubt that a lot of the right wing crankery these places churn out is little more than a cynical ploy to profit off of ignorance and disinformation, and that if anything it just makes it easier to look at themselves in a mirror if they imagine all of their opponents as obnoxious little proto-Nazis. But I don't let that get in the way of criticizing my side, because I agree with David French on this one – criticism of the right needs to come from the right (which is why I support the Bulwark), and criticism of the left needs to come from the left. And I am hoping that this is a wake-up call for many of us who are too worried about giving the right a boost if we call out bad things on the left, because that's how Republicans got themselves into their mess.
Well it is something of a conundrum, I imagine, wanting to give your child every advantage while wishing that didn't involve patronizing this incestuous relationship between elite society, prestigious institutions, and US News and World Report. At some point (and this definitely applies to my life experience) I'm guessing most progressives try living according to the "put your money where your mouth is" philosophy before they eventually get discouraged and tired of making their life more difficult for something that doesn't appear to be working, and gets harder with every new thing they learn.
Applying that to this specific situation – well, you get one shot at trying to provide your kid a good college education, and with the way parents stress themselves with guilt these days, they probably drive themselves nuts worrying that they'll deny their offspring a ticket to financial security because they happened to be in the thrall of an idealistic opposition to college elitism at the time. Better to just advocate for change but in the meantime work with the imperfect world you've got. My son is nowhere near that age, and I'm no Ivy Leaguer myself, so I don't think I'll have to deal with that particular self-guilting exercise, but still, I can imagine.
As for the idea that these institutions produce their share of right wingers, you'll get no argument from me. Part of that is undoubtedly attributable to disillusionment with the left based on what they see on campus. Now, don't misunderstand; I don't find that to be a moral justification for running to embrace the right wing fringe, so I'm certainly not trying to lay all the blame at our feet. But from a practical standpoint (which is how I usually tend to evaluate things) I always do warn that extremism just breeds more extremism, and I think that has shown itself to be the case in recent years.
That being said, I have no doubt that a lot of the right wing crankery these places churn out is little more than a cynical ploy to profit off of ignorance and disinformation, and that if anything it just makes it easier to look at themselves in a mirror if they imagine all of their opponents as obnoxious little proto-Nazis. But I don't let that get in the way of criticizing my side, because I agree with David French on this one – criticism of the right needs to come from the right (which is why I support the Bulwark), and criticism of the left needs to come from the left. And I am hoping that this is a wake-up call for many of us who are too worried about giving the right a boost if we call out bad things on the left, because that's how Republicans got themselves into their mess.