More about those groups and cliques I mentioned in the previous post.
They have a tendency to view themselves as the "elite" - the best, the brightest, the most beautiful, etc. They encourage this view of themselves in others.
Others almost too quickly help reinforce these pronouncements and proclamations.
The best education.
The best clubs.
Where the Elite go.
Sometimes, clubs, groups, cliques, etc. die out, or grow no further. We can look back in the past and laugh that we were a part of them.
It is when they become institutions that the problems set in.
In the former Soviet Union, if you were a high member of the Party, you could do what you want.
George Orwell, disillusioned and disabused socialist as a result of the heavy handedness of that Man of Steal...uhh... Steel....Stalin, wrote in his political allegory Animal Farm the famous words:
"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
Corruption becomes rife.
The most difficult challenge is the effort it takes to get into such groups, not the blood, sweat, and impossible expenditure of energy it takes to earn one's way out. Because there is no need of such effort. The in-crowd is the focus. Everyone else is out of it.
I was an avid watcher of the old television series Kung Fu. It was a fabulous show, full of life lessons.
I found the ending credit scene particular poignant.
The young acolyte Kwai Chang Kane must walk the distance of thirty yards on rice paper without leaving a trace, then remove a huge cauldron with his forearms, burning the dragons of the Shao-Lin temple imperishably and indelibly into his skin.
The act of removing the cauldron triggers the opening of a trapdoor.
The acolyte is confronted by the terrible aloneness of the outside world in the dead of winter, snow blizzarding down. And he, forearms burned, feet bare, in threadbare robes, faces it utterly alone.
He has left the place where he has been all his life.
Only then does the acolyte become a priest.
This is what his group life, his living in the Shao-Lin temple, has set him up for.
Not a cushy existence.
Not even "Servant, Well Done."
Rather, "Servant, Thy Work Has Just Begun."
But this is not what happens with the Elite.
Far from it.
How about with major universities?
How about so-called excellent schools?
There can be no doubt that originally these places had a reality that led to their current reputations.
But.
They have rested on their laurels.
Does real learning go on there?
Does real teaching go on there?
Maybe.
Sometimes.
But these are the elite!
So?
So does it matter if real learning and teaching go on there maybe or sometimes?
Apparently not.
If we're talking "Elite".
Elite? No longer.
Effete.