Allan Bloom Interview (3/3)

[@JLizard]

Right! Students with a philosophical way of thinking should not have to go to the university as "outsiders'.

[@lazarusravelstein1311]

Here is Saul Bellow on Ravelstein from a long time ago. "A summary of his argument was that while you could get an excellent technical training in the U.S., liberal education had shrunk to the vanishing point. We were in thrall to the high tech, which had transformed the modern world. The older generation saved towards the education of its children. The cost of a B.A. had risen to $150,000. Parents might as well flush these dollars down the toilet, Ravelstein believed. No real education was possible in American universities except for aeronautical engineers, computerists, and the like. The universities were excellent in biology and the physical sciences, but the liberal arts were a failure." Amen to that.

[@JLizard]

@@lazarusravelstein1311 Doners made it clear to U admin to devalue the notion of "knoweldge for the sake of knowledge in itself". The U is not a safe haven for thinkers, rather it is a prison where students are being watched. And their dissertations are set on a shelf to get dusty. Secretly studied. And then pounced upon. The Closing of the American Mind.

[@vkorchnoifan]

This guy was against relativism.

[@lazarusravelstein1311]

His book was a touch of genius. I've read a thousand books, at least. I reference this book often. If you want to understand the modern mess in our "elite" universities this is the book to go to. Bloom was a Progressive, urban, urbane, gay, charming Mid-western boy, with an intellect that encompassed millennia. The fact that only 27 people watched this clip affirms the cultural and intellectual decay he prophesized. I think it's terminal.

[@JLizard]

Bloom documented the end of an era. That train has left the station and will have to travel around the world if it is to return.