Author Topic: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod  (Read 34187 times)

Offline LiveFreeorDie

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Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials

by law professor Adam J. MacLeod

I teach in a law school. For several years now my students have been mostly Millennials. Contrary to stereotype, I have found that the vast majority of them want to learn. But true to stereotype, I increasingly find that most of them cannot think, don’t know very much, and are enslaved to their appetites and feelings. Their minds are held hostage in a prison fashioned by elite culture and their undergraduate professors.

They cannot learn until their minds are freed from that prison. This year in my Foundations of Law course for first-year law students, I found my students especially impervious to the ancient wisdom of foundational texts, such as Plato’s Crito and the Code of Hammurabi. Many of them were quick to dismiss unfamiliar ideas as “classist” and “racist,” and thus unable to engage with those ideas on the merits. So, a couple of weeks into the semester, I decided to lay down some ground rules. I gave them these rules just before beginning our annual unit on legal reasoning.

Here is the speech I gave them.

********************************

Before I can teach you how to reason, I must first teach you how to rid yourself of unreason. For many of you have not yet been educated. You have been dis-educated. To put it bluntly, you have been indoctrinated. Before you learn how to think you must first learn how to stop unthinking.

Reasoning requires you to understand truth claims, even truth claims that you think are false or bad or just icky. Most of you have been taught to label things with various “isms” which prevent you from understanding claims you find uncomfortable or difficult.

Reasoning requires correct judgment. Judgment involves making distinctions, discriminating. Most of you have been taught how to avoid critical, evaluative judgments by appealing to simplistic terms such as “diversity” and “equality.”

Reasoning requires you to understand the difference between true and false. And reasoning requires coherence and logic. Most of you have been taught to embrace incoherence and illogic. You have learned to associate truth with your subjective feelings, which are neither true nor false but only yours, and which are constantly changeful.

We will have to pull out all of the weeds in your mind as we come across them. Unfortunately, your mind is full of weeds, and this will be a very painful experience. But it is strictly necessary if anything useful, good, and fruitful is to be planted in your head.

There is no formula for this. Each of you has different weeds, and so we will need to take this on the case-by-case basis. But there are a few weeds that infect nearly all of your brains. So I am going to pull them out now.

First, except when describing an ideology, you are not to use a word that ends in “ism.” Communism, socialism, Nazism, and capitalism are established concepts in history and the social sciences, and those terms can often be used fruitfully to gain knowledge and promote understanding. “Classism,” “sexism,” “materialism,” “cisgenderism,” and (yes) even racism are generally not used as meaningful or productive terms, at least as you have been taught to use them. Most of the time, they do not promote understanding.

In fact, “isms” prevent you from learning. You have been taught to slap an “ism” on things that you do not understand, or that make you feel uncomfortable, or that make you uncomfortable because you do not understand them. But slapping a label on the box without first opening the box and examining its contents is a form of cheating. Worse, it prevents you from discovering the treasures hidden inside the box. For example, when we discussed the Code of Hammurabi, some of you wanted to slap labels on what you read which enabled you to convince yourself that you had nothing to learn from ancient Babylonians. But when we peeled off the labels and looked carefully inside the box, we discovered several surprising truths. In fact, we discovered that Hammurabi still has a lot to teach us today.

One of the falsehoods that has been stuffed into your brain and pounded into place is that moral knowledge progresses inevitably, such that later generations are morally and intellectually superior to earlier generations, and that the older the source the more morally suspect that source is. There is a term for that. It is called chronological snobbery. Or, to use a term that you might understand more easily, “ageism.”

Second, you have been taught to resort to two moral values above all others, diversity and equality. These are important values if properly understood. But the way most of you have been taught to understand them makes you irrational, unreasoning. For you have been taught that we must have as much diversity as possible and that equality means that everyone must be made equal. But equal simply means the same. To say that 2+2 equals 4 is to say that 2+2 is numerically the same as four. And diversity simply means difference. So when you say that we should have diversity and equality you are saying we should have difference and sameness. That is incoherent, by itself. Two things cannot be different and the same at the same time in the same way.

Furthermore, diversity and equality are not the most important values. In fact, neither diversity nor equality is valuable at all in its own right. Some diversity is bad. For example, if slavery is inherently wrong, as I suspect we all think it is, then a diversity of views about the morality of slavery is worse than complete agreement that slavery is wrong.

Similarly, equality is not to be desired for its own sake. Nobody is equal in all respects. We are all different, which is to say that we are all not the same, which is to say that we are unequal in many ways. And that is generally a good thing. But it is not always a good thing (see the previous remarks about diversity).

Related to this:  You do you not know what the word “fair” means. It does not just mean equality. Nor does it mean something you do not like. For now, you will have to take my word for this. But we will examine fairness from time to time throughout this semester.

Third, you should not bother to tell us how you feel about a topic. Tell us what you think about it. If you can’t think yet, that’s O.K.. Tell us what Aristotle thinks, or Hammurabi thinks, or H.L.A. Hart thinks. Borrow opinions from those whose opinions are worth considering. As Aristotle teaches us in the reading for today, men and women who are enslaved to the passions, who never rise above their animal natures by practicing the virtues, do not have worthwhile opinions. Only the person who exercises practical reason and attains practical wisdom knows how first to live his life, then to order his household, and finally, when he is sufficiently wise and mature, to venture opinions on how to bring order to the political community.

One of my goals for you this semester is that each of you will encounter at least one idea that you find disagreeable and that you will achieve genuine disagreement with that idea. I need to explain what I mean by that because many of you have never been taught how to disagree.

Disagreement is not expressing one’s disapproval of something or expressing that something makes you feel bad or icky. To really disagree with someone’s idea or opinion, you must first understand that idea or opinion. When Socrates tells you that a good life is better than a life in exile you can neither agree nor disagree with that claim without first understanding what he means by “good life” and why he thinks running away from Athens would be unjust. Similarly, if someone expresses a view about abortion, and you do not first take the time to understand what the view is and why the person thinks the view is true, then you cannot disagree with the view, much less reason with that person. You might take offense. You might feel bad that someone holds that view. But you are not reasoning unless you are engaging the merits of the argument, just as Socrates engaged with Crito’s argument that he should flee from Athens.

So, here are three ground rules for the rest of the semester.

 

1.  The only “ism” I ever want to come out your mouth is a syllogism. If I catch you using an “ism” or its analogous “ist” — racist, classist, etc. — then you will not be permitted to continue speaking until you have first identified which “ism” you are guilty of at that very moment. You are not allowed to fault others for being biased or privileged until you have first identified and examined your own biases and privileges.

2.  If I catch you this semester using the words “fair,” “diversity,” or “equality,” or a variation on those terms, and you do not stop immediately to explain what you mean, you will lose your privilege to express any further opinions in class until you first demonstrate that you understand three things about the view that you are criticizing.

3.  If you ever begin a statement with the words “I feel,” before continuing you must cluck like a chicken or make some other suitable animal sound.

********************************

To their credit, the students received the speech well. And so far this semester, only two students have been required to cluck like chickens.

 

Adam J. MacLeod is an associate professor of law at Jones School of Law at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama.

(Taken from http://newbostonpost.com/2017/11/09/undoing-the-dis-education-of-millennials/)
« Last Edit: December 13, 2017, 01:19:15 PM by BabyShark »

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2017, 01:02:26 PM »
Quote
One of the falsehoods that has been stuffed into your brain and pounded into place is that moral knowledge progresses inevitably, such that later generations are morally and intellectually superior to earlier generations, and that the older the source the more morally suspect that source is. There is a term for that. It is called chronological snobbery. Or, to use a term that you might understand more easily, “ageism.”

lol that is one goofy term "chronological snobbery", a literal euphemism for an "ism" (ageism) which this curmudgeon so detests. sounds like he's using his feelings a little too much and not enough le logic.

Offline CumSavorer4385

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2017, 08:40:36 PM »
He seems rather small minded and uninformed OP, but thanks for sharing this perspective. Cheers!
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Offline LiveFreeorDie

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2017, 08:57:26 PM »
Calling him "small minded and uninformed" is an example of what he's talking about.

You are unable to address his actual points and truths, so you resort to insults that offer nothing to anyone.

You are not successfully presenting an alternate point of view, which is exactly what he is saying is going on with this generation that struggles to engage in a reasonable way.

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Offline CumSavorer4385

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2017, 09:07:57 PM »
Calling him "small minded and uninformed" is an example of what he's talking about.

You are unable to address his actual points and truths, so you resort to insults that offer nothing to anyone.

You are not successfully presenting an alternate point of view, which is exactly what he is saying is going on with this generation that struggles to engage in a reasonable way.

Everything he says is either so plainly obvious that it is a trivial banality or a distorted strawman of various types of people and beliefs he has a general animus towards. To me, it sounds like a vacuous whine, and there's not really much of substance there to engage. Cheers.
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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2017, 09:29:25 PM »
it doesn't even seem like he knows what ageism means when he defines it as the belief that today's generation morally superior to our older generations.  also i think it's objectively true that for instance not treating homosexuals as mentally ill people and ostracizing them from society is morally reprehensible and a lot worse than treating them as actual normal human beings today. how are these guys in a position to teach anyone? mind boggling.

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2017, 09:31:23 PM »
it doesn't even seem like he knows what ageism means when he defines it as the belief that today's generation morally superior to our older generations.  also i think it's objectively true that for instance treating homosexuals as mentally ill people and ostracizing them from society is morally reprehensible and a lot worse than treating them as actual normal human beings today. how are these guys in a position to teach anyone? mind boggling.


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Offline Lambchops

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2017, 09:18:19 AM »
This guy is awesome. He's facing an uphill battle though. So many people don't want to think anymore, they google their opinions. It's a real pity he's teaching in a law school - what a waste.
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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2017, 12:59:31 PM »
It's a real pity he's teaching in a law school - what a waste.

@Lambchops Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :)

Can you explain what you mean by the above statement?

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #9 on: December 14, 2017, 01:28:53 PM »
Hello, is this the thread for undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod?
    

Offline Lambchops

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2017, 01:49:07 PM »
It's a real pity he's teaching in a law school - what a waste.

@Lambchops Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :)

Can you explain what you mean by the above statement?

In my experience most lawyers are amoral creatures that are concerned with making money and little else. I'm sure there are exceptions, but that would seem to be the norm I have encountered.

I just think it's a pity to have someone so devoted to teaching critical thinking just to have the recipiants of this education end up as lawyers anyway.

.... what a waste
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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2017, 04:39:21 PM »
the article belongs on /r/badphilosophy

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #12 on: December 14, 2017, 05:37:49 PM »
who else is disturbed at the education level in america where professors write like prepubescent fans of sam harris? of course, it's not just america, canada has that raging cultist lunatic jordan peterson.

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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #13 on: December 15, 2017, 01:58:07 AM »
who else is disturbed at the education level in america where professors write like prepubescent fans of sam harris? of course, it's not just america, canada has that raging cultist lunatic jordan peterson.

I don't know anything at all about this guy apart from the quoted speach. Which I like. I think it's clearly not a thesis, or "writing" per se, but a speach intended to appeal to the minds of young students, hence the style. He might have a bunch of other opinions that I hate IDK.

As I read it, the point of it is to try to wean them off the social media driven mass political correctness whereby opinion is driven primarily by what statements attract the most comments/retweets and lead them back to deciding on their own judgements and values, by using their own reasoning.

I don't think this speach is trying to talk anyone out of supporting the validity of any particular "ism", just trying to get people to use their own brains to come to that conclusion. Social media driven ethics are a very dangerous thing, because already people are becoming very effective at mass-manipulation via troll farms etc.

Public opinion that is driven by mass-hysteria never ends well, we should be teaching young people to differentiate between information, advertising, campaigning and straight-out bull****. I worry that the next generation may lose the ability to tell these apart.  :(
« Last Edit: December 15, 2017, 03:15:04 PM by BabyShark »
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Re: Undoing the Dis-Education of Millenials by law professor Adam J. MacLeod
« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2017, 11:05:03 AM »
>I don't think this speach is trying to talk anyone out of supporting the validity of any particular "ism"

that's literally what it's doing.