Alan Jacobs

Joy is not the satisfied contemplation of an accomplished result, the emotion of victory, the satisfaction of having succeeded. It is the sign of an energy that is deftly deployed, it is a free affirmation: everything comes easy. Joy is an activity: executing with case something difficult that has taken time to master, asserting the faculties of the mind and the body. Joys of thought when it finds and discovers, joys of the body when it achieves without effort. That is why joy, unlike pleasure, increases with repetition, and is enriched.

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Hunt’s comments are as silly as they are outdated; his Nobel Prize clearly wasn’t awarded for political correctness. But this is precisely the point. Hunt is a scientist; his talents lie in biochemistry, particularly in cells and proteins, and not diplomacy. Due to the public humiliation of this 72-year-old man, British academia has now lost a talented scientist. The members of Hunt’s lab will no longer have access to his experience and knowledge. The work he had been pursuing will presumably now be abandoned….  

Hunt’s resignation reminds us that, in today’s universities, expressing the supposedly correct view on a matter is far more important than any contribution to knowledge an idiosyncratic individual might make. Academics and students alike are kept in line with speech codes, anti-harassment policies and safe-space initiatives. The pressure to conform to an approved way of behaving and speaking impacts on everyone, from students to world-renowned scientists. Everyone – male and female – is intellectually poorer as a result.

Hunt’s comments are as silly as they are outdated; his Nobel Prize clearly wasn’t awarded for political correctness. But this is precisely the point. Hunt is a scientist; his talents lie in biochemistry, particularly in cells and proteins, and not diplomacy. Due to the public humiliation of this 72-year-old man, British academia has now lost a talented scientist. The members of Hunt’s lab will no longer have access to his experience and knowledge. The work he had been pursuing will presumably now be abandoned….  

Hunt’s resignation reminds us that, in today’s universities, expressing the supposedly correct view on a matter is far more important than any contribution to knowledge an idiosyncratic individual might make. Academics and students alike are kept in line with speech codes, anti-harassment policies and safe-space initiatives. The pressure to conform to an approved way of behaving and speaking impacts on everyone, from students to world-renowned scientists. Everyone – male and female – is intellectually poorer as a result.

In a Wednesday press conference, Casebolt’s attorney, Jane Bishkin, revealed that prior to answering the call about the party, Casebolt had responded to two incidents that were especially trying. In the first of these, a man had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in front of his children. Casebolt consoled the widow and assisted in photographing the body. And after that, he was called to a scene where a teenage girl was threatening to kill herself by jumping from the roof of her parents’ home. Casebolt calmed the girl and the situation was resolved successfully. “The nature of these two suicide calls took an emotional toll on Eric Casebolt,” Ms. Bishkin told reporters. “With all that had happened that day, he allowed his emotions to get the better of him.”  

A police officer takes on many sorrows over the years, and speaking for myself, I can say that few of these sorrows have affected me more profoundly than the suicides, a tragedy to which my own family has not been immune. Casebolt’s frayed emotions do not excuse his behavior at the pool party; a police officer is obligated to conduct himself as a professional regardless of his emotional state. But our knowledge of his experiences just prior to the videotaped incident should inform our judgment of him. In the heavily fraught incidents that preceded the party call, Casebolt acted with care and compassion, performing at his best under demanding circumstances. Minutes later he performed at his worst, though sadly for him, only this last incident was recorded and broadcast to the world.

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Take tenure out of the University of Wisconsin and the people who can will - over time - leave. If we had a single national system, that would be one thing, as it would effect all equally. The departees wouldn’t have any place to go. But it won’t. Private universities, with the most outrageously high tuitions, will not do this. They are self-governing institutions. And even to the extent that boards of trustees are in tension with professors, they are driven by the quest for institutional prestige, not scoring political points. So the top academics will go there. The net effect of all this will be to kill off or bleed dry great state universities which are yes, still pricey, but not as crazy expensive and hard to get into as the prestige private universities.  

In short, it’s a big boon for education for the very rich.

Take tenure out of the University of Wisconsin and the people who can will - over time - leave. If we had a single national system, that would be one thing, as it would effect all equally. The departees wouldn’t have any place to go. But it won’t. Private universities, with the most outrageously high tuitions, will not do this. They are self-governing institutions. And even to the extent that boards of trustees are in tension with professors, they are driven by the quest for institutional prestige, not scoring political points. So the top academics will go there. The net effect of all this will be to kill off or bleed dry great state universities which are yes, still pricey, but not as crazy expensive and hard to get into as the prestige private universities.  

In short, it’s a big boon for education for the very rich.

“Tell me that you program in Java, and I believe you to be either serious or boring. In Ruby, and you are interested in building things quickly. In Clojure, and I think you are smart but wonder if you ship. In Python, and I trust you implicitly. In PHP, and we sigh together. In C++ or C, and I nod humbly. In C#, and I smile and assume we have nothing in common. In Fortran, and I ask to see your security clearance. These languages contain entire civilizations.”

- Paul Ford: What is Code?

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So don’t let these boys come up here and whisper sweet nothings in your ears about saving the world with free wifi and clean water. We could go all day tit for tat about how design has changed or samed the world. Talking about design to designers is like talking to a brick wall about bricks. Designers think everything is design. All professionals see their craft amongst the world … “When you think about it — and I mean really think about it — everything is meat distribution engineering.” — meat distribution engineer.  

Ultimately the rhetoric behind this debate resolution is elitist self-aggrandizing propaganda and voting for it won’t make you feel better about yourself. Negating won’t make you feel better either but it’ll help make your peace with your false religion.