This is an enormously important observation and commentary on our system of “higher education“, which had never occurred to me until I just read this now. And I write this as somebody who has a PhD in engineering.
What was crystal clear to me even before this article, is what the article states at the beginning, higher education has never been more useless to the people who participate in it than it is now, and yet participation rates are indeed at an all-time high. The thesis outlined here explains why that is so, and as it points out - it details an alternative that we do not yet have that must be put in place so that this completely destructive system of “higher education” that we now have in the US may be replaced by something more valuable and meaningful to not just the students participating, but for our society is a whole, if we are to survive .
The usual university education is overpriced and converts most students into debt-slaves, who can be more easily forced into compliance with bad policies. Replacing this process is essential to restore education and civilization.
Decentralization, guilds and apprenticeships will help accomplish this. Connecting them with the natural law Giver would ensure their viability.
In our family, the college tradition is reversing. We have long realized that more time spent there is detrimental. Also it has been policy to avoid the useless classes and instructors.
Academia has generally been exposed as a fraudulent system. Therefore there is no participation or giving by alumni. Also, no college sports.
People can apply extreme pressure to these institutions.
The work to expose blatant (purposeful) plagiarism, and research fraud is inspiring.
According to the source that Johann cited, college attendance is declining, just rather slowly, which I think might be partly a function of current political polarisation, which isn't going to last forever (I expect a system breakdown in the not-too-distant future.)
If you want to make the argument that some kind of costly initiation ritual is psychologically important to human societies I can see the case for it, but spending 20 years on the initiation-pipeline within conformist ritualistic institutions seems... excessive?
I agree, both that attendance rates are slightly dropping, but to my way of thinking, not nearly enough to damage the deadly system of “higher education“, and I certainly agree with the observation of “spending 20 years… As being excessive. that’s why I’m a huge fan and supporter of homeschooling as of educating children
I have been to enough college graduations to see the ritual is merely a self conscious parody of one. A degree confers status to some but for many it is a hollow exercise layered with the hangover of a brutal debt load.
Is a directionless rite of passage based on extending one’s adolescence enough to sustain it?
Liberalism acts as a solvent even on, or especially on itself. Turns out 4 years of nihilism produces a despairing degree holder.
Yes we must make more public our own rituals; Eucharistic processions, prayers before meals, reverent wedding and funeral services, but that was always true.
The college & lending industry swindles are cannibalizing their futures. Whether we provide alternative initiation rites or not, a reckoning is coming.
As someone who is currently in university, the thought of it being a sort of ritual never occurred to me. I guess it is because I am not what you would call a "true believer" in the ritualism, I am just there to obtain credentials that are required for entry in the field I am planning to enter. Perhaps I am an unknowing participant? Interesting to think about.
Your experience is not unusual. It is a transaction void of any real ties to the credentialing institution. The pomp & circumstance, emotional tues to an Alma mater and Latin inscriptions engraved on archways, crests and degrees must seem eccentric.. A more apt ceremony would involve a cash register, receipts and IOU’s.
And yet, there was a time when those Latin inscriptions engraved on archways meant something, and carried real weight.
The use of classical Latin, and the degrees, acted as a tether to the deep past, and made one feel attached to a very long thread that wove its way back to ancient Rome and Greece.
Now, most students know not a single word of Latin or Greek, and little to nothing of the foundation upon which our civilization rests.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. This is why I am pushing to create a gap year project for my sons after they graduate from high school. This is still a work in progress and I have two years to firm it up (before my oldest graduates). I would like it to fulfill a rite of passage, especially for a young man. My sons currently don't get why I'm all for this, so I appreciate your words so that I might be able to share it from your point of view.
I love this idea. I have five kids. The first four are done with college - two went on to advanced degrees (law school and masters program). My youngest is a junior in high school and he, of all the kids, seems the most disinclined to go on to college. This article has me rethinking the whole paradigm. We are a religious family, raised with faith and tradition, but the author's thesis still rings true to me. I am curious to know if you have a gap year project in mind yet.
I have a few years so I am playing around with ideas. (My oldest is a sophomore.) I have some friends that introduced me to the Danish folk high schools, so I am considering that route. There are also some microcolleges (I've looked at this website: https://thoreaucollege.org/microcollege-movement/) in the US. I just started looking into some kind of exchange program, but I'm not sure if that's what I want. Essentially, I would like to create some kind of "quest" for lack of better term, where they would have to make their own way, preferably overseas, in a different culture/place, and figure out life. I could see some kind of checkpoints or experiences needed before the year is through. There are some good gap year stats in the book, "Latebloomers" by Rich Karlgaard. And I have the book "Of Boys and Men" by Richard Reeves, but I haven't finished it yet... but I've heard such great things about it and seen it referenced in many places. I would like to help them craft a meaningful, inquiry/project based year where they can figure things out on their own, with help from mentors and local resources, and have fun along the way. It's definitely an idea in progress, but I am interested in possibly connecting with others who might be interested in helping to develop this idea. I have experience in education and project/inquiry based learning, so I am hoping to lean into that, and my sons' natural strengths and passions, to help them individualize this.
Also, there will definitely be a spiritual aspect to their year as I want to fan the flame of their spirit as much as their mind and body for this experience!
Terrific first guest post. Might be the first thing I’ve read that tries to explain the persistent attraction of educational institutions that provide less and less value with every year, to the point that the experience is now almost a liability.
I went to college in the early 90s. Actually had a class called “Western Civilization I” (also II the next semester). Everyone, including me, more or less hated it. What lucky fools we were, at the end of an era.
I think you’re on to something here. My uncle (mother’s brother) was a WWII veteran and, although he could have gone to college on the GI bill, got out of the Army and started a family and a career in business, and never got around to getting a college diploma. Like your highly successful acquaintance, my uncle was always slightly embarrassed and regretful about not having been to university. My mother and my other uncle both matriculated at the same university. They were from an upper middle class family. Conversely you can still see people from less privileged backgrounds showing obvious pride at being the first in their families to have a college education. Colleges and universities still play an important role to many, even if objectively speaking they are not remotely worth the cost any more.
This might sound crass and hickish, but a distinctly American rite of passage for young men could involve killing a deer, because real men are hunters. Thoughts?
The myth of the universities is the myth of the enlightenment. Reason is god and reason is triumphant.
The reason they have descended into an expensive transaction is because the myth that human beings can control reality through the scientific method is failing.
We’ve decided as a culture that data is everything and that reason is impossible. Universities cannot reconcile this.
So now what was an initiation ritual is now a cadaver wearing a skin suit. Pay 100000 to party and take a course on 20th century Spanish film and we’ll give you this piece of paper at the end.
How would you say "We’ve decided as a culture that data is everything and that reason is impossible", or that "the myth that human beings can control reality through the scientific method is failing"? Is this about the replication crisis or COVID messaging, or something similar?
Yeah, here are some examples of non scientific beliefs:
Gender is fluid
Take this untested vax of be ostracized
Wear these masks that aren’t proven to do jack crap
We’re going to shut the country down for a virus with a 99% survival rate.
It’s fake science. They scream “follow the science” (data is everything) Statistics, experts, and studies that are deliberately lying. Cadaver wearing a skin suit.
The universities don’t actually believe in science anymore, just power.
It’s more that reason isn’t real. Power is all that matters. We can make the studies say what we want them to say in order to gain power.
When the rituals of the culture are no longer coherent to their beliefs and their myths, they no longer compel or inspire.
The Catholic mass in most places is a good example of this.
“Everyone is saved” but we’re still conducting the sacrifice.
We confess our sins and ask for mercy, but believe that we just need to be good people and that sin is a concept no longer applicable to modernity.
The mass is just a gathering of the community but we’re still standing and professing our faith.
This leads to a heartless, unenthusiastic, wrote ritual. People at these parishes go but only out of a lingering sense of duty.
If you go to mass in a place where the people and the priest truly believe, it’s a wildly different experience. It’s moving, powerful, and expressive.
Going to university now is like going to a parish where neither the people nor the priest believe any longer. Graduation and orientation ceremonies are boring, monotonous transactions.
This is also why the vitalist and traditionalist collaboration ultimately cannot happen. The founding myth and its meaning is so fundamentally conflicting.
We need to let these two communities develop their own rites and see who wins over time.
Really enjoyed this piece. Spot on with your analysis of university as an initiation ritual / rite of passage- one of the very few that western secular society has (and it does a poor job at it). The lack of these transitionary experiences and boundaries they define results in a lot of misdirection in the process of leaving adolescence and growing up. Not to mention a gaping lack of meaning left by a spiritually bereft culture and cosmology.
If you haven’t, check out Byung Chul Han’s book “The Disappearance of Ritual”. I think a lot of it pairs well with the thinking in this piece.
I think this insight is related to a thread NRP highlighted last week on catering to the bottom quintile. If high schools cannot expell disruptive or low effort students, then those of curiosity are dragged down. Elevating the expectations of high school, will increase the reputation of a diploma and give credence to the ritual of graduation. Colleges would follow by preening nonsense.
And high schools could be experimental in its purpose: 2023 iPad curriculum, 1970s afternoon autobody shop, 1770s Latin and French tutoring, 1370s josting and chivalry, or Athenian gymnasium and socratic dialogues.
We need parallel Christian educational organizations that have college level ‘leadership institutes’ to provide the crucible and initiation. Then the online courses as needed for the rest to develop subject matter expertise.
Thanks for having me Auron!
This is an enormously important observation and commentary on our system of “higher education“, which had never occurred to me until I just read this now. And I write this as somebody who has a PhD in engineering.
What was crystal clear to me even before this article, is what the article states at the beginning, higher education has never been more useless to the people who participate in it than it is now, and yet participation rates are indeed at an all-time high. The thesis outlined here explains why that is so, and as it points out - it details an alternative that we do not yet have that must be put in place so that this completely destructive system of “higher education” that we now have in the US may be replaced by something more valuable and meaningful to not just the students participating, but for our society is a whole, if we are to survive .
Glad you found it important! Appreciate the comment
The usual university education is overpriced and converts most students into debt-slaves, who can be more easily forced into compliance with bad policies. Replacing this process is essential to restore education and civilization.
Decentralization, guilds and apprenticeships will help accomplish this. Connecting them with the natural law Giver would ensure their viability.
Completely agree.
If you're interested, I analysed this position at greater length here: https://becomingnoble.substack.com/p/seizing-the-moment
In our family, the college tradition is reversing. We have long realized that more time spent there is detrimental. Also it has been policy to avoid the useless classes and instructors.
Academia has generally been exposed as a fraudulent system. Therefore there is no participation or giving by alumni. Also, no college sports.
People can apply extreme pressure to these institutions.
The work to expose blatant (purposeful) plagiarism, and research fraud is inspiring.
Correct!
According to the source that Johann cited, college attendance is declining, just rather slowly, which I think might be partly a function of current political polarisation, which isn't going to last forever (I expect a system breakdown in the not-too-distant future.)
If you want to make the argument that some kind of costly initiation ritual is psychologically important to human societies I can see the case for it, but spending 20 years on the initiation-pipeline within conformist ritualistic institutions seems... excessive?
I agree, both that attendance rates are slightly dropping, but to my way of thinking, not nearly enough to damage the deadly system of “higher education“, and I certainly agree with the observation of “spending 20 years… As being excessive. that’s why I’m a huge fan and supporter of homeschooling as of educating children
I have been to enough college graduations to see the ritual is merely a self conscious parody of one. A degree confers status to some but for many it is a hollow exercise layered with the hangover of a brutal debt load.
Is a directionless rite of passage based on extending one’s adolescence enough to sustain it?
Liberalism acts as a solvent even on, or especially on itself. Turns out 4 years of nihilism produces a despairing degree holder.
Yes we must make more public our own rituals; Eucharistic processions, prayers before meals, reverent wedding and funeral services, but that was always true.
The college & lending industry swindles are cannibalizing their futures. Whether we provide alternative initiation rites or not, a reckoning is coming.
As someone who is currently in university, the thought of it being a sort of ritual never occurred to me. I guess it is because I am not what you would call a "true believer" in the ritualism, I am just there to obtain credentials that are required for entry in the field I am planning to enter. Perhaps I am an unknowing participant? Interesting to think about.
Your experience is not unusual. It is a transaction void of any real ties to the credentialing institution. The pomp & circumstance, emotional tues to an Alma mater and Latin inscriptions engraved on archways, crests and degrees must seem eccentric.. A more apt ceremony would involve a cash register, receipts and IOU’s.
And yet, there was a time when those Latin inscriptions engraved on archways meant something, and carried real weight.
The use of classical Latin, and the degrees, acted as a tether to the deep past, and made one feel attached to a very long thread that wove its way back to ancient Rome and Greece.
Now, most students know not a single word of Latin or Greek, and little to nothing of the foundation upon which our civilization rests.
Now they’re taking remedial reading courses or marinading in crude grievance jargon.
Worry not, the de-constructors are de-constructing themselves into oblivion.
Lots of people think as you do. You can get out as fast as possible with the least tuition, and strive to be a completely non- participating alumnus.
I had never thought of it this way before. Eye opening for sure, great piece!
Appreciate it!
Hi "Ben", here's a free piece of elaboration:
https://www.thevenusproject.com/product/jacque-fresco-incentive/
ORION A. D.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. This is why I am pushing to create a gap year project for my sons after they graduate from high school. This is still a work in progress and I have two years to firm it up (before my oldest graduates). I would like it to fulfill a rite of passage, especially for a young man. My sons currently don't get why I'm all for this, so I appreciate your words so that I might be able to share it from your point of view.
That's a good idea. Make sure there's challenge, responsibility, and even a little risk to overcome
I love this idea. I have five kids. The first four are done with college - two went on to advanced degrees (law school and masters program). My youngest is a junior in high school and he, of all the kids, seems the most disinclined to go on to college. This article has me rethinking the whole paradigm. We are a religious family, raised with faith and tradition, but the author's thesis still rings true to me. I am curious to know if you have a gap year project in mind yet.
I have a few years so I am playing around with ideas. (My oldest is a sophomore.) I have some friends that introduced me to the Danish folk high schools, so I am considering that route. There are also some microcolleges (I've looked at this website: https://thoreaucollege.org/microcollege-movement/) in the US. I just started looking into some kind of exchange program, but I'm not sure if that's what I want. Essentially, I would like to create some kind of "quest" for lack of better term, where they would have to make their own way, preferably overseas, in a different culture/place, and figure out life. I could see some kind of checkpoints or experiences needed before the year is through. There are some good gap year stats in the book, "Latebloomers" by Rich Karlgaard. And I have the book "Of Boys and Men" by Richard Reeves, but I haven't finished it yet... but I've heard such great things about it and seen it referenced in many places. I would like to help them craft a meaningful, inquiry/project based year where they can figure things out on their own, with help from mentors and local resources, and have fun along the way. It's definitely an idea in progress, but I am interested in possibly connecting with others who might be interested in helping to develop this idea. I have experience in education and project/inquiry based learning, so I am hoping to lean into that, and my sons' natural strengths and passions, to help them individualize this.
You might like this school as inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIpRydPTN0
They do a final year adventure where the graduating class tours Europe, paying their way by public performances
Also, there will definitely be a spiritual aspect to their year as I want to fan the flame of their spirit as much as their mind and body for this experience!
"Splendid" idea! Start here:
https://www.thevenusproject.com/product/jacque-fresco-incentive/
College education has been de-sacralized. A victim of its own success as a machine for delegitimization and demoralization.
Terrific first guest post. Might be the first thing I’ve read that tries to explain the persistent attraction of educational institutions that provide less and less value with every year, to the point that the experience is now almost a liability.
I went to college in the early 90s. Actually had a class called “Western Civilization I” (also II the next semester). Everyone, including me, more or less hated it. What lucky fools we were, at the end of an era.
This is where I put the plug in for Hilldale College. Two of my kids attended there. It is an amazing school and has a strong Western core.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I think you’re on to something here. My uncle (mother’s brother) was a WWII veteran and, although he could have gone to college on the GI bill, got out of the Army and started a family and a career in business, and never got around to getting a college diploma. Like your highly successful acquaintance, my uncle was always slightly embarrassed and regretful about not having been to university. My mother and my other uncle both matriculated at the same university. They were from an upper middle class family. Conversely you can still see people from less privileged backgrounds showing obvious pride at being the first in their families to have a college education. Colleges and universities still play an important role to many, even if objectively speaking they are not remotely worth the cost any more.
This might sound crass and hickish, but a distinctly American rite of passage for young men could involve killing a deer, because real men are hunters. Thoughts?
Could certainly play a role. Part of leaving one's childhood behind is encountering and accepting the possibility of death
The myth of the universities is the myth of the enlightenment. Reason is god and reason is triumphant.
The reason they have descended into an expensive transaction is because the myth that human beings can control reality through the scientific method is failing.
We’ve decided as a culture that data is everything and that reason is impossible. Universities cannot reconcile this.
So now what was an initiation ritual is now a cadaver wearing a skin suit. Pay 100000 to party and take a course on 20th century Spanish film and we’ll give you this piece of paper at the end.
We can do better, team. We really can.
Completely agree.
If you're interested, I analysed this position at greater length here: https://becomingnoble.substack.com/p/seizing-the-moment
I read, replied, restacked, and told my friends the day you posted. 🪶
Massively appreciate it
How would you say "We’ve decided as a culture that data is everything and that reason is impossible", or that "the myth that human beings can control reality through the scientific method is failing"? Is this about the replication crisis or COVID messaging, or something similar?
Yeah, here are some examples of non scientific beliefs:
Gender is fluid
Take this untested vax of be ostracized
Wear these masks that aren’t proven to do jack crap
We’re going to shut the country down for a virus with a 99% survival rate.
It’s fake science. They scream “follow the science” (data is everything) Statistics, experts, and studies that are deliberately lying. Cadaver wearing a skin suit.
The universities don’t actually believe in science anymore, just power.
To add to the “reason is impossible” piece:
It’s more that reason isn’t real. Power is all that matters. We can make the studies say what we want them to say in order to gain power.
When the rituals of the culture are no longer coherent to their beliefs and their myths, they no longer compel or inspire.
The Catholic mass in most places is a good example of this.
“Everyone is saved” but we’re still conducting the sacrifice.
We confess our sins and ask for mercy, but believe that we just need to be good people and that sin is a concept no longer applicable to modernity.
The mass is just a gathering of the community but we’re still standing and professing our faith.
This leads to a heartless, unenthusiastic, wrote ritual. People at these parishes go but only out of a lingering sense of duty.
If you go to mass in a place where the people and the priest truly believe, it’s a wildly different experience. It’s moving, powerful, and expressive.
Going to university now is like going to a parish where neither the people nor the priest believe any longer. Graduation and orientation ceremonies are boring, monotonous transactions.
"It’s more that reason isn’t real. Power is all that matters. We can make the studies say what we want them to say in order to gain power"
Yeah, I think that gives me a clearer idea of what you're saying. I appreciate the explication.
This is also why the vitalist and traditionalist collaboration ultimately cannot happen. The founding myth and its meaning is so fundamentally conflicting.
We need to let these two communities develop their own rites and see who wins over time.
Agree
Really enjoyed this piece. Spot on with your analysis of university as an initiation ritual / rite of passage- one of the very few that western secular society has (and it does a poor job at it). The lack of these transitionary experiences and boundaries they define results in a lot of misdirection in the process of leaving adolescence and growing up. Not to mention a gaping lack of meaning left by a spiritually bereft culture and cosmology.
If you haven’t, check out Byung Chul Han’s book “The Disappearance of Ritual”. I think a lot of it pairs well with the thinking in this piece.
We have a number of Dark Rituals of pseudo-initiation. On the brighter side and absolutely morally serious: The 12-Step Program.
I think this insight is related to a thread NRP highlighted last week on catering to the bottom quintile. If high schools cannot expell disruptive or low effort students, then those of curiosity are dragged down. Elevating the expectations of high school, will increase the reputation of a diploma and give credence to the ritual of graduation. Colleges would follow by preening nonsense.
And high schools could be experimental in its purpose: 2023 iPad curriculum, 1970s afternoon autobody shop, 1770s Latin and French tutoring, 1370s josting and chivalry, or Athenian gymnasium and socratic dialogues.
Very well said. Here’s the plan:
We need parallel Christian educational organizations that have college level ‘leadership institutes’ to provide the crucible and initiation. Then the online courses as needed for the rest to develop subject matter expertise.