There was a time when an Ivy League education conveyed certain characteristics to its recipients. Not only the Ivies, but any of the more respected research universities, any of the elite schools. They were like America's Cambridge and Oxford. The education was first class, certainly, but they were also in the business of turning out ladies and gentlemen. They turned out refined individuals who could carry on sensible, knowledgeable conversations on subjects like literature, sociology, art, politics, and current events. They kept the point-of-view neutral, and they could express mild disagreements without resorting to tribal rage. They could competently speak a foreign language, and they understood the value of that ability.
The lucky young people who attended those universities in bygone eras learned how to get drunk quietly and politely.
They learned not to announce, and then defend, propositions that were obviously, foolishly wrong. They learned how to accept, without arousing suspicion, benefits, financial or otherwise, in return for support or assistance that could be either political, business-related, or social. They learned how to keep those transactions well hidden, and always maintained a surface of impeccable decorum.
They learned to make decisions that were based on evidence and reason. They learned about history and philosophy, which are great sources of common sense and feelings of human dignity. They learned to honor properly established scientific and legal precedent, which only makes sense, when you think about it.
They may have been on the conservative side or rather liberal in their politics, but in those days almost all politics took place in the center anyway.
It's not like that anymore.
Ron DeSantis got his undergraduate degree from Yale, magna cum laude, followed by a JD from Harvard, cum laude. Does it show? You can decide for yourself.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida looks and acts like a working member of the Three Stooges. I have never heard him say an intelligent thing. He starts hostile, tribal arguments at the drop of a hat. Recall that uncomfortable video of him bothering those two or three hapless high school students for wearing medical masks at some event that he was speaking at. “We have abolished that liberal mask mandate!” says Ron DeSantis. “You have your freedom back!”
Ron DeSantis has set off on a massive crusade against the Disney corporation, a legal crusade that will encompass property rights, contract rights, tax responsibilities, the provision of police protection, and insurance requirements, and that is only the short list. Being of the brotherhood myself, I can tell you that which any lawyer with an ounce of brains could tell you: NEVER FUCK WITH DISNEY. A friend of mine once represented a defendant being sued by Disney. At his client's deposition by Disney, Disney sent nine (9) lawyers to question the defendant.
What motivated Ron DeSantis to initiate this great battle? What was so important that it was worth this fabulously expensive, multi-year struggle? Just this: DisneyWorld gave a few mild signals to reassure their customers that the Disney Corporation welcomes its gay friends.
Laura Ingram of Fox Entertainment is another furious tribal warrior. She graduated from Dartmouth and then collected a JD from the law school of the University of Virginia, which is a top school. She sounds rather clever, while adhering very closely to the block-headed right wing talking points of the day. It all seems like a waste of a good education. Sean Hannity manages it with no education at all.
Kayleigh McEnany is a sleeper. She does not openly display any intellectual talents of any kind, yet she is a graduate of Georgetown University, including a year abroad studying at Oxford. Yes, that Oxford. She then went on to obtain a JD from the Harvard Law School. She reminds me of that movie, Legally Blond, except that there is no happy ending where the audience discovers that the protagonist is actually a highly talented lawyer.
Tom Cotton never lets on that he is an intelligent person, but the paper trail suggests that he is. He graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude, and he did it in only three years. He also graduated from the Harvard Law School. He also joined the Army and served as an infantry officer. That was attention to detail right there. This man actually is highly intelligent. I suppose, therefore, that we can believe that he means the things that he says. Tom Cotton frightens me. He probably frightens Harvard as well. They'll have to own him when he installs himself as The Leader someday.
Josh Hawley is an interesting case. He is best known as a person who sticks close to his base in his public utterances. He is also prone to the occasional faux pas (that raised fist during the January 6th insurrection). He graduated from Stanford University “with highest honors,” a member of Phi Betta Kapa. He went on to graduate from the Yale Law School. Even if he is a smart man, I doubt if he could find the bathroom in the dark. Fine education notwithstanding.
With academic credentials like those, you would expect these people to carry themselves with much more dignity than they display. You would expect them to say or do something intelligent once in a while. You would be disappointed.
Every now and then, one of their golf buddies will be quoted describing how these over-educated phonies really feel about the fascist Q conspiracies that they talk about ad nauseum on their shows or at their current job, like member of congress. In public we are only accustomed to the mask that they wear to fool the rubes into thinking that they believe all of that harebrained stuff in the talking points. We have become accustomed to hearing them offer opinions that elicit nausea in individuals more in tune with modern academia and mainstream American society.
All of the “own the libs” people really need to wake up. They are being milked for their votes. They have been drafted into the army of right wing hysterics by people who only want to relieve them of their money, their property, and their rights. It is a problem for all of us, because they are using the Rubes to come for all of our stuff as well.
For any Rubes who may be reading along, listen closely: Yes, masks help; yes, Fauci and Biden are doing good jobs; yes, Biden won the election fair and square; yes, you should keep your vaccinations up to date; and no, definitely no, the Democrats are not cannibalistic pedophiles. Read my lips: Putin bad.
The above mentioned individuals must realize that they are embarrassments to their alma maters, their families, and themselves. Forgive me for asking the obvious: why would they say such lurid, obnoxious things out loud? (Clue: “it makes a joyful sound! It makes the world go round!” Not there yet? Think Cabaret, think Joel Grey and Liza.)
The interesting issue for me is that we must now question the value of educations such as those described above. How was it possible for them to earn those honors? Are those elite universities still offering the same top-drawer educations that made them famous? Or are they now only catering to children of privilege, and even then, only trying to keep them happy? The things that some of these famous graduates say now make them seem dull-normal at best, often with a bit of crazy on the side. (A legal war with Disney? That is the biggest strategic error since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.)
What are we to believe now about our elite schools? It wasn't long ago that I was favorably impressed when I was introduced to someone who had a BA from Princeton, or Cornell, or other schools in that strata. And I was almost never disappointed when I had gotten to know them a little. They were a cut above; they were very intelligent ladies and gentlemen. Now I'm not so sure.
Have we gotten to the point where the schools themselves are just going for the money? Someone shows up who is arguably qualified academically, and does not need to borrow any money or get a scholarship to pay the huge tuition, so of course you let them in? Let them pay! Mischief be damned, baby needs a new pair of shoes! Somebody has to pay the bills around here.
I have seen a lot of that myself, and gotten a whiff of it in the recruiting materials that I have seen from universities around the world. Universities in countries with reputations for scholastic rigor. I hear echoes of, “foreign students paying cash for advanced degrees? Open wide the doors! Put on your best smiles! We welcome them!” (And we will make sure that all of the professors have been warned that they need to pass every subject, and get the degree, or else.)
Disclaimer: I am on the Law Faculty of a large, government university in an ASEAN country. I've been teaching there for fourteen years. We are a good group, and we take the job seriously.
When someone with the academic credentials of Ron DeSantis, or Tom Cotton, appears to lower his IQ by fifty points to appeal to a certain uneducated group of voters, you know that something is happening here. It may be the individuals, or it may be the institutions, but some damn thing is happening here.
What do you think is happening?
Blogger's Note: Why leave out Trumpski? He's an Ivy, right? I'm not buying it. That whole Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania thing was bought and paid for. Trump never opened a book. Trump is lucky if his IQ cracks 120, and he is a lazy-minded oaf besides. Big Mr. Businessman? He lost money IN THE CASINO BUSINESS. His book should have been called, “The Art of the Skim.” Trump should be on the Putin's Friends Sanctions List. If you showed him a simple mate-in-two chess puzzle he'd say, “it can't be done.”
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