Technocracy is the Backdoor to Authoritarianism by Wimps
Meet Jake Jackson, Ph.D. (Philosophy), and enter the abyss of his (?) strange mind
Whenever you’re thinking, well, maybe I do hate academia enough for the time being, I’ll invite you to reconsider your state of mind.
Who is Mr. Jackson?
Well, according to his faculty page over at UPenn (C.V. here), he works on many things, incl. ‘Bio-Ethics’, but there’s not that much to learn.
Hence, I strolled off the reservation to his ‘private’ (sic) website, which apparently has but two functions: offering his amateur photography (at least he’s got a hobby) and his narrative bio. Still, he self-identifies as ‘existentialist’, hence it’s fair to assume that he’s been thoroughly brainwashed into ‘the church of postmodernism’ and its twin goddess of ‘virtue-signalling (pseudo) leftism’ and ‘(pseudo) nihilism’, by which is meant: a self-indulgent no-nothing with a big mouth.
Here’s from the mouth of the horse himself (apologies to horses):
My passions for photography and philosophy have the same root; these are ways of seeing the world and presenting ideas to others.
I have no idea what he means by that.
I also found an Instagram profile (which, ‘sadly’, is ‘private), but I think the description offered by Mr. Jackson is telling enough:
So, what does this have to do with technocracy, you might ask?
Well, it’s exactly people like Mr. Jackson here whose career paths outside academia would almost naturally lead him and his ilk to ‘work in government’ and, presumably later, the contemplation of ‘public service’.
Please re-read his bird dropping and marvel at the condescension: it’s not as if graduate students don’t know what they’re are getting into, in particular in the Humanities. If that ‘nugget of wisdom’ occurred to Mr. Jackson only after his Ph.D. ceremony, well, better late than never, I suppose.
Still, I’d argue that being ruled by maniacs, liars, and evil people is bad enough.
Having people like Mr. Jackson—and I’ve come across a great number of kindred spirits over the years—serve as their willing executioners is even worse.
What renders the technocrats so insufferable is—precisely their virtue-signalling BS.
I don’t know, are we being too harsh? It is kind of a clever take on the whole tenured professorship thing. Maybe he’s just poking fun at his profession.
He's an academic philosopher, and so he phrases things a bit, ahem, creatively. However, he absolutely is doing young people a favor. Anyone even remotely considering getting a PhD and going into academia should know that a successful academic career involves moving repeatedly early on, and then moving to a place you didn't actively choose for the rest of your career. (And an unsuccessful academic career generally means moving repeatedly early on, and then having to leave academia because you didn't land a permanent job.) That's just how it is. The added layer with the humanities is that almost no-one lands a permanent job, and most of the rare exceptions come from a tiny number of elite schools. Yes, bright young students (especially those who did not grow up in the upper middle class) should be reminded of that early and often, though professors in search of PhD students, especially at non-elite universities, don't like having their prospective students scared off by such talk.