Britain, where Williams is based, already appears to be in the process of 'reverting to the epistemic state of nature.' Early last week, shortly after Williams posted this essay, the latest in an epidemic of 'knife crime,' mostly carried out by the beneficiaries of mass immigration or their progeny, occurred when the British-born teenage son of Rwandan refugees attacked the pre-teen girls attending a 'Taylor Swift dance lesson' in Southport, wounding about ten of them and killing three. The response of police to the ensuing protests contrasted sharply to the kid-glove treatment police have accorded to the pro-Palestinian ('from the river to the sea') protests and recent protests and riots by members of the immigrant community, a phenomenon Brits refer to as 'two-tiered policing.' The newly elected Prime Minister, whose Labor Party achieved a parliamentary majority with a historically low percentage of eligible voters, has given authoritarian speeches blaming the protests on the mythical 'far right' while failing to alleviate the concerns of citizens about the safety of their children. Thanks in part to mass immigration, Britain has become what AK calls a 'low-trust society.' Against this backdrop, Williams' call for 'maintaining and improving our best epistemic norms and institutions, and winning trust in, and conformity to, them' seems a bit divorced from reality.
As an engineering retiree with past associations with a few engineering schools and living in a university town with a large engineering college, I take exception to Hanania's characterization of universities. It's probably true of many humanities programs as well as social and behavioral sciences but less so for say math, chemistry, and physics. Maybe even less for most economics departments. And professional colleges will vary too. But where I have the most heartburn is for engineering and computer science. Of course there's variation in the caliber of the professors but for the most part he's not describing the ones I know. I don't know if DEI has crept into the hiring beyond a pronounced favoritism for hiring women engineers but it's not a part of the day to day for the people I know and most are not detached from the real world.
Lol. I just posted a comment complaining how his opinion doesn't much apply to stem, especially T/E. (S/M suffer from typically being in the same university college as social and behavioral sciences, as well as humanities)
Given what you say it seems odd the quote starts with "universities."
I really liked what Dan Williams wrote in your first quote. There is something to like in the second too but he frames it too strongly. The absence of culture and institutions increases bad behaviors but humans are still highly social animals who get some things right no matter how bad the situation(s).
“We have to try to make sure that the incentives people have are to work within and improve those norms and institutions rather than evade and degrade them.” No, I know that nothing I can do will “make sure” of any grand social condition, so I will not even *try*. I judge that it would be good if society gave people good incentives, but this leads me to no particular plan of action.
Britain, where Williams is based, already appears to be in the process of 'reverting to the epistemic state of nature.' Early last week, shortly after Williams posted this essay, the latest in an epidemic of 'knife crime,' mostly carried out by the beneficiaries of mass immigration or their progeny, occurred when the British-born teenage son of Rwandan refugees attacked the pre-teen girls attending a 'Taylor Swift dance lesson' in Southport, wounding about ten of them and killing three. The response of police to the ensuing protests contrasted sharply to the kid-glove treatment police have accorded to the pro-Palestinian ('from the river to the sea') protests and recent protests and riots by members of the immigrant community, a phenomenon Brits refer to as 'two-tiered policing.' The newly elected Prime Minister, whose Labor Party achieved a parliamentary majority with a historically low percentage of eligible voters, has given authoritarian speeches blaming the protests on the mythical 'far right' while failing to alleviate the concerns of citizens about the safety of their children. Thanks in part to mass immigration, Britain has become what AK calls a 'low-trust society.' Against this backdrop, Williams' call for 'maintaining and improving our best epistemic norms and institutions, and winning trust in, and conformity to, them' seems a bit divorced from reality.
As an engineering retiree with past associations with a few engineering schools and living in a university town with a large engineering college, I take exception to Hanania's characterization of universities. It's probably true of many humanities programs as well as social and behavioral sciences but less so for say math, chemistry, and physics. Maybe even less for most economics departments. And professional colleges will vary too. But where I have the most heartburn is for engineering and computer science. Of course there's variation in the caliber of the professors but for the most part he's not describing the ones I know. I don't know if DEI has crept into the hiring beyond a pronounced favoritism for hiring women engineers but it's not a part of the day to day for the people I know and most are not detached from the real world.
Not sure why you omitted Hanania's caveat "disclaimer here: I’m talking about the social sciences, I have no direct experience with STEM"
In fact, what he's saying does not apply to STE faculty although it does somewhat apply to M faculty in my experience.
Academics are selected for being incurious about politics, so if their work doesn't relate to politics they're typically very curious about it.
Lol. I just posted a comment complaining how his opinion doesn't much apply to stem, especially T/E. (S/M suffer from typically being in the same university college as social and behavioral sciences, as well as humanities)
Given what you say it seems odd the quote starts with "universities."
I really liked what Dan Williams wrote in your first quote. There is something to like in the second too but he frames it too strongly. The absence of culture and institutions increases bad behaviors but humans are still highly social animals who get some things right no matter how bad the situation(s).
about the Williams quote - that's Haidt thesis in "the righteous mind"
about academia - academia is (and always has been) a combine of 3 different institutions
the actual academia that finances the scholars and researches and their pupils
a vocational school for white collar professions
adult daycare for the useless scions of the aristocracy
in recent years the useless scions of the regulatory state bureaucrats have inflated the third one
“We have to try to make sure that the incentives people have are to work within and improve those norms and institutions rather than evade and degrade them.” No, I know that nothing I can do will “make sure” of any grand social condition, so I will not even *try*. I judge that it would be good if society gave people good incentives, but this leads me to no particular plan of action.