THE UNIVERSITY

Samfundskritik, or reflections over lunch at the university. Reading study curricula. Pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages of rules and regulations and competencies and skills, and I scroll, and I scroll, and I scroll, and I scroll, and I scroll, and I do't find any knowledge, and I scroll, and I scroll, and it's rhetoric, and rhetoric, and rhetoric, and rhetoric, and concurence and concurence and concurence and concurence, and more concurence as competition with invisible enemies and better universities whose study curricula are probably even worse, as they are also addressed to their worst enemies, and it's ranking, and ranking, and ranking, and ranking, and it's vacuous, and vacuous, and vacuous, and vacuous, and vacuous, and it's knowledge, they say, and it's interesting, they say, it was in the media just yesterday, and it's soundbites and soundbites and soundbites and soundbites, and it's in the media, it has just been made popular, and popular, and popular, and popular, and it's knowledge they say, because it was in the media, and the big professors are in the media every day every day every day, and it's vacuous and vacuous and vacuous and vacuous, and they all start believing it and I'm thinking that at the next big meeting on reforms and reforms and reforms and reforms I'll propose that we study the wisdom of students, for it's there it's there it's there it's there it's there, I'm sure of it, it's not popular, and it's not competitive, and it's not about being successful, and relevant, relevant, relevant, relevant, of course the wisdom of students is not relevant in a university that aims to be number one number one number one number one, even though it will never be number one, Oxford and Harvard are number one, even if that is a contradiction in terms as you can't have two universities that are number one, but then hey, we live in the age of Wittgenstein, and quantum physics, where all these things are possible, and not to forget the power of the media endorsing vacuous professors, and educated lawyers from Yale who have just turned creative writers and got their books on the bestseller list, with New York Times or something, there are many number one bestseller lists but it's no different than having Oxford and Harvard as number one universities, well, maybe not factually, but what's in a name, what's in a name what's in a name, a name is a name is a name is a name, well, the lawyer turned creative writer got the creative baby ranked number 15, but hey, it's the bestseller list, what do you know, that's something, you know, and the vacuous journalist asks, so, what's your advice to creative writers who may also experience 49 rejections like you did before they have their books ranked number 15 on New York Times number one bestseller list, well, they have to keep the dream alive, oh, wow, that's so deep, and the journalist doesn't say, could you please be more specific, and perhaps give me something other than a vacuous cliche, but there are no critical journalists out there any more, only gate keepers and gate keepers and gate keepers, oh, the ministeries of education around the world, we do live in a globalized world after all, all want gate keepers, and nobody asks bullshit what it is all about, but hey, the vacuous professors have just been in the media again alongside the creative lawyers who think that we need to keep the dream alive, so we do. Amen. It's nothing personal, just business as usual.