[211] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: Northeastern to review tenure?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Wally)
Fri Apr 27 00:24:15 2001
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 00:26:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Wally <wally@sub-zero.mit.edu>
To: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
cc: "Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>, mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <200104270311.XAA28115@gold.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0104270018450.3010-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> To make more "slots" for young researchers, we could as a society,
> decide to fund more research beyond just the hidden subsidies for
> industry via DOD, DOE and NIH.
Are you mad?
There is no 'we', there is no 'society', and there is *no damned way* that
anyone with real power is going to listen to (for instance) 50,000 people
marching quietly down an empty street.
Ha ha I got *topical* all of a sudden.
To the point: Do you really object to the fact that corporate interests
and government interests are the same? Do you really think that the
culture of hell-for-leather technological and scientific development in
this country can *ever* be separated from the money that powers it? How
many great researchers have you *ever* met that are also capable teachers,
or for that matter capable *public speakers*?
MIT is a top-notch academic institution because (1) the students do all
the goddamned work for themselves and (2) MIT has fostered a culture in
which it's OK to be obsessed with your own thing. It has nothing
whatsoever to do with 'capable educators'. [Addendum: the humanities
department, by and large, is peopled with *outstanding* teachers. And most
of them are innovative researchers and writers within their fields; the
fact is, it's the science and engineering students at this school who
shoulder the burden of (I like this phrase) pedagogical malfeasance. And
most of them don't know what they're missing (ignorance, in the many forms
it takes at this school, is bliss).
W.
