> What precisely caused the observed reversal of the long-term trend around 1980 remains perhaps even more difficult to pinpoint.

Alan Bloom knew[1].

Paraphrasing Churchill, "If you're going through a Dark Age, floor it."

One hopes that the passing of the current crop of U.S. "leadership" supports actual reform.

Tech understands the need to decentralize; politics rather more resembles a singularity, and we only seem to grasp the danger in the party we abhor.

May we pass through this dip swiftly.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Closing-American-Mind-Education-Impov...

Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom (https://www.amazon.com/Closing-American-Mind-Education-Impov...) was a book I had to read multiple times. It gave me a new understanding of how deep culture and environment really do influence your opinions of the world. I spend a lot more time reflecting on my own opinions about the world and I'm much more mindful of the opinions I declare publicly because of this book.

Only $13.81, new: http://www.amazon.com/Closing-American-Mind-Education-Impove....

> The student explodes, “Then why the fuck did you accept the position?! Who the fuck hired you?! You should step down! If that is what you think about being a master you should step down! It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here. You are not doing that!”

Bloom places a heavy emphasis on extolling to college students the virtues of western intellectual tradition, and reactions like this one show why. Willingness to entertain ideas that could cause social disharmony is actually pretty unusual among world cultures. It's unusual in the western world, but even more so nearly everywhere else. It's not the natural order of things. It's a discovery, an achievement, but one that can be lost to time.