I was accepted at all the schools I applied to so the final choice depended on a) amount of financial aid offered and b) opportunities afterward - and because my college has a tangental relationship to Oxford I've never, in this country, felt excluded by people educated there.
I may be v naive, but the thought of choosing a uni for "opportunities" never crossed my mind. I chose mine based on the city it was on, pretty much, and on the fact that it asked for better grades than the other offers I got. I was lucky enough to start in 1996, though, which meant I was one of the last years' intake not to have to pay fees.
― Neil S, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
HM, points taken but you're suggesting (inadvertently, I think) that poly students didn't get fees or grants paid. I still think whenever rich people emote about there being no money for whatever, that they are probably lying or don't want to spend it on people who aren't just like them.
My family's finances were pretty much set to 'skint' and I wanted to get the fuck out of Dodge. These things tend to sharpen the mind, as does growing up somewhere fairly egalitarian where you nevertheless discover how the world works versus how you'd like it to work. My dilemma was whether to do trad journalism at Northwestern (best course in the US for undergrads) or go to an art college with excellent fiction and expository writing courses. The college was near NYC, which I saw as the ultimate opportunity, so it won. It wasn't until I arrived there that I saw how starry it was or how the alumni were very good at looking after each other.
― chavatar (suzy), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 18:10 (twelve years ago) link
i couldn't find the example of grayling being an asshole that i wanted to, but i did find this at the new humanist, which is headlined 'AC Grayling politely rebukes an attempt to reconcile religion and science'. the word 'politely' is being used in some newfangled sense that i don't actually understand, in that headline, i think.
http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2009/03/ac-grayling-politely-rebukes-attempt-to.html
― thomp, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 13:37 (6 hours ago)
lol i remember thathttp://blog.voyou.org/2006/11/25/curse-you-richard-dawkins/
― http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
http://versouk.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/cimg2348.jpg
― Antoine Bugleboy (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 21:00 (twelve years ago) link
o shi huge image. massive apologies to anyone whose browser didn't downsize it.
― Antoine Bugleboy (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 21:01 (twelve years ago) link
Grayling seems to me to epitomise a certain kind of academic/intellectual who is like a super-high functioning version of Steve Carell's character from Anchorman. They've somehow immersed themselves enough in the patterns and movements of a tiny culture to be pretty significantly successful in it, but whenever they overstep those narrow boundaries they're revealed to have an IQ of 58.
― Antoine Bugleboy (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
pfft, who knows. it's evidently open season on the guy; but it's 'richly amusing' to me that this whole thing has opened up another front in the war between the neo-god-bothering 'left' and #team_atheism.
― an actual guy talking in an actual rhythm (history mayne), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 21:20 (twelve years ago) link
Grayling doesn't seem so much like Brick as like those Doctor Hilary or Raj Persaud dudes who turn up on morning TV all the time i.e. maybe he is qualified to be a populariser but i'm not sure he's done any work ever that isn't just tabloid hackwork
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 21:50 (twelve years ago) link
also what's the god vs atheism angle? i missed that in the articles, except obv Dorkins' involvement. jesus our public "intellectuals" are lame, at least the French guys have the decency to take themselves difficult to understand
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
you guys had raymond williams
― horseshoe, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:07 (twelve years ago) link
and dont forget jeremy clarkson
― ☂ (max), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
was william empson a public intellectual? he was the man
― horseshoe, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
even I'm not old enough to remember if Williams or Empson had media profiles. our media was pretty different back then so it's quite possible. don't really think Grayling or Dorks are fit to be mentioned in the same breath.
also lol max
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:15 (twelve years ago) link
clarkson should start a university
― ☂ (max), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
University of Real Life, son
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:19 (twelve years ago) link
williams was fairly well known, empson not really. more of a specialist, not involved in any public causes. but not completely obscure.
also what's the god vs atheism angle?
oh eagleton (who made his name shitting on williams as it goes) is the most prominent hater so far.
― an actual guy talking in an actual rhythm (history mayne), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:23 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i picked that up in the Crazy Terry thread after i asked the question in here. also lol Marx not being total Whig History
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 22:24 (twelve years ago) link
also what's the god vs atheism angle? i missed that in the articles, except obv Dorkins' involvement.
grayling has been doing press lately for his new 'atheist's bible' (or whatever it's called) which compiles wisdom literature and i guess bits of philosophical reflection in a manner deliberately meant to mimic the bible, without being theistic (or supernatural, or something like that).
― j., Thursday, 9 June 2011 02:20 (twelve years ago) link
not like Grayling to publish a cut and paste job
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 9 June 2011 08:18 (twelve years ago) link
Really Grayling should have got Toby Young on board, just before we shoot the lot of them into the sun.
Grayling seems to me to be similar to Alain de Botton, in the sense that his "philosophy" is along the lines of Rabbi Lionel Blair "that's like life" homilies, IMO.
― Neil S, Thursday, 9 June 2011 11:35 (twelve years ago) link
Trying not to be drawn into this too much, but yeah, one thing that really strikes me is that I don't actually consider these people to be good draws as academics at all - they're mass-market paperback pulp pop humanities people. You'd get a much better class at a normal bloody university.
― emil.y, Thursday, 9 June 2011 11:38 (twelve years ago) link
How about making attendance at NCH compulsory for anyone who goes to Young's "free school"?
― Neil S, Thursday, 9 June 2011 11:44 (twelve years ago) link
Toby Young didn't come to any harm in Camden's state schools. Tosser.
― chavatar (suzy), Thursday, 9 June 2011 11:46 (twelve years ago) link
i see that as an argument against Camden's state schools.
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 9 June 2011 12:24 (twelve years ago) link
I don't actually consider these people to be good draws as academics at all - they're mass-market paperback pulp pop humanities people.
kinda groaning here. not even a big fan of colley or cannadine, but they're not what you just said.
― an actual guy talking in an actual rhythm (history mayne), Thursday, 9 June 2011 12:48 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i think saying this guys don't have chops in a strictly academic sense is trying a bit hard
― caek, Thursday, 9 June 2011 12:58 (twelve years ago) link
fucking philosophy anyway, what's the point of it?
― sometimes all it takes is a healthy dose of continental indiepop (tomofthenest), Thursday, 9 June 2011 13:10 (twelve years ago) link
Young draws on his own experience and offers Grayling the following advice: “Don’t give an inch. No compromise, no surrender.”
I'm sure he could fit in an hour a year to teach English Lit.
― модный хипстер (ShariVari), Thursday, 9 June 2011 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
When it comes to "public intellectuals", Freddie Ayer stomps A.C. Grayling into a thousand million billon zillion particles
― Tom D has taken many months to run this thread to ground (Tom D.), Thursday, 9 June 2011 13:29 (twelve years ago) link
The real concern for state universities will be whether companies like the one i work for want to muscle in on the game - offering standardised, high-quality, brand-name education in London / Shanghai / Mumbai / wherever, undercutting fees and hoovering up staff with no requirement to provide unprofitable / niche courses.― модный хипстер (ShariVari), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 15:56 (4 weeks ago) Bookmark
― модный хипстер (ShariVari), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 15:56 (4 weeks ago) Bookmark
Four weeks ahead of the game!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14011448
This is just the start. Much more significant a story than Grayling's finishing school.
― модный хипстер (ShariVari), Thursday, 7 July 2011 17:01 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/sep/18/ac-graylings-university-open-60-students
lol
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Wednesday, 19 September 2012 09:56 (eleven years ago) link
yuk yuk yuk
― conrad, Wednesday, 19 September 2012 14:22 (eleven years ago) link