“God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference”. (The text on a birthday card produced by Oatmeal Studios, of North Adams, Massachusetts).
Witty, but Epicurean, too. Don’t waste time on disagreeable people, enjoy the friends who are real friends, as opposed to acquaintances, and work on your health, including eyesight, all for a pleasant life.
Not all the activities of religion are harmful, e.g raising money for charity, Sunday schools and teaching children consideration and love. If the Sermon on the Mount were the sum of Christianity no one could argue. It is fear of death, indeed, everything to do with fear and support of the establishment, that is dangerous. If Jesus of Nazareth were shorn of his supernatural accretions given him by church tradition, he would be a fine model, a guru not unlike Buddha.
In the US about 75% of all children have a cellphone; in Britain the figure is closer to 90%. Recent research by the London School of Economics found that in schools that banned phones, test scores improved by 6%. Banning phones had the most positive impact on low-achieving pupils and those from low-income families: for them, it was equivalent to having an extra hour of teaching a week. However, it had no discernible effect on high achievers, less easily distracted by phones. Most British schools ban mobile phones, but in the US, bans are now being gradually lifted.
It is right to ban phones in the classroom, and they should be temporarily impounded if used. But the real reason for children having phones is so that they can contact their mothers, often late or unable to collect their kids after school, and reassure them that they are safely on their way home. Some parts of the media seem to base their whole business plans on stoking up fear of child murders, abductions and abuse. In the old days children walked home from school and no one thought twice about it. Now it is a different matter. Recently, near Washington DC, the police picked up two children walking home from school, arrested them, took them into care and are threatening to take the parents (both, incidentally with PhDs) to Court for being irresponsible parents, or some such stupid nonsense. Civilisation may not be in decline, and the crime figures are indeed lower, but fear is, without doubt, more prevalent, a very un-Epicurean emotion.
“That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject”. Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905-06
Some think that the humanities have become so disconnected from the real world that they are of small interest to most people. Examples of this might include:
Philosophy: In a whole video course I took some while ago the lecturer’s arcane and jargon-filled discussion contained nothing about ethics or how to live one’s life. In universties what is taught is the history of philosophy at best and the meaning of words at worst. Little is offered about the modern world and its problems. It has become irrelevant.
Economics: Thanks to people like Yanis Varoufakis (Greek Finance Minister) the practice of economics is threatened with healthy change. For the last generation it has been dominated by economic and statistical modeling. Debates have concentrated more on techniques than on real life situations.
Sociology: With some notable exceptions, sociologists have also been seduced by the quantitative modeling game at the expense of a more nuanced study of society. It is also accused of political correctness that prevents discussion of real societal problems.
Music: Music schools have impressed on their pupils the importance of innovation, which has meant the abandonment of beauty and melody in favor of “extended instrumental techniques” and dissonance. This has discouraged audiences and endangered the future of “classical” music. Fortunately, some composers are now returning to more accessible music that pleases the ear.
Art: Probably the most egregious of trends is the emphasis on “concept” art, at the expense of the disciplines of drawing and painting in the fine art tradition. This has brought the art world a degree of derision never before seen. A whole industry now identifies “promising artists” and promotes their work as financial investments that have to be manipulated to keep the rich punters buying. A giant ponzi scheme, but who cares?
Be thankful that the academic community has yet to mess up subjects like History and Politics. The good news is that there are people with common sense out there and the disappointing trends can be reversed.
