Sublime

The academic study of literature leads basically nowhere, as we all know, unless you happen to be an especially gifted student, in which case it prepares you for a career teaching the academic study of literature—it is, in other words, a rather farcical system that exists solely to replicate itself and yet manages to fail more than 95 percent of

THERE ARE NO LONGER schools of philosophy, and this is a shame. It is true that philosophy is still done within schools—more precisely, within the philosophy departments of universities—but the cultural role played by philosophy departments is quite unlike the role played by the ancient philosophical schools. For one thing, those who sign up for

Elite colleges are admitting primarily those students whose social background allows them to provide an application profile that fits what the universities regard as “their kind of student,” much as it was in the 1920s. On the margins, they accept students of protected classes who may well deserve to be there on their own merits. What is excluded

The tiny group of “have yachts” are more politically coherent and powerful than the enormous mass of “have-nots,” and they will act to keep it that way.