As IF Times

link:  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/claudine-gay-harvard-universitys-embattled-president-stepping-rcna131930

By now, the news headlines have subsided but the controversy  lingers.  Claudine Gay has resigned from her position as the president of the august Harvard University under increasing public pressure, not to mention evidence, that she had improperly inflated her academic credentials.  Specifically, other academics have revealed that much of her academic work was plagiarized from their work without acknowledgment.  In her resignation letter, which we assume she wrote herself, she blames racism as the source of her outing, not her academic shortcomings. Ironic, since racism was likely the reason for her appointment.

In the wake of this revelation, the entire industry of DEI: Diversity, Equality, Inclusion, is now under closer scrutiny.  This movement grotesquely invaded institutions at all levels over the past generation led by government policies and which then became de facto mandates at all large corporations.  These mandates are of course another manifestation of people living in fantasy rather than accepting reality. The absurdity of quotas based only on race or other characteristic deemed favorable as a means of postings or promotion in society can only happen in the human world. While humans may occupy the top of the pyramid in the animal world, a certain gene exists within us that is innately self-destructive as if we had a built in limiting mode.   We may wonder what happened to cause the sudden disappearance of prosperous civilizations such as the Aztecs or the Romans; perhaps this is a clue.

When policies are promulgated to promote mediocrity over efficacy, the natural order of rational behavior is cast aside for the preferred objective of emotional gratification.  Rational people can accept that actions lead to consequences, whether or not those consequences are desirable.  In our modern time of vast access to information and knowledge, this truth should be self-evident and yet, denying observable realities is the acceptable norm.

It’s hard to fault Gay, since she was bright enough to work within a system that actively encouraged her ascension through the ranks by understanding the milieu of her environment.  Clearly she didn’t need to run the academic gauntlet since the fix was already in.  Her profile fit the narrative…except that the MOST important aspect, academic excellence, was clearly not a consideration.  This phenomenon is clearly played out in thousands of employment scenarios throughout our modern society, **cough, cough Karine Jean-Pierre** The infamous ‘Peter Principle’ is rampant throughout our society but with the modern twist of social entitlement.  Claudine Gay is not the issue. The issue is the zeitgeist that promotes this activity.  Gay is the desired result of such zeitgeist.

Interestingly, this ties into the most massive change embarking upon mankind, the rise of Artificial Intelligence, specifically with the popularity of such as Chat GPT.

Most people think of Chat GPT as computer generated solutions.  In fact, this powerful program actually searches and collates KNOWN articles and solutions to assemble a response for the user. In other words, it’s essentially an advanced search engine.  It draws upon the vast body of knowledge already known in order to produce a ‘solution’.  For example, if you were to pose the question of how to build a bridge, you would get all kinds of responses based on what humans have already done.  But this will not take into account possible advances in technology which would make these responses obsolete.  If you were to pose ‘how to live forever’, there would be no solution since no data exists on this. What you would probably get are compilations from articles written on longevity by….humans.

Thus, original work and research by humans must be encouraged in order for humans to progress.  It is not enough to regurgitate what is already known. This is precisely why the likes of Claudine Gay and our present social environment of entitlement is so dangerous.  This kind of irrational thinking and spurious credentials have far reaching destructive consequences for all.  Injudicious use of such as Chat GPT will result in many more intellectual frauds to shape our societies based only on their membership in the right demographic. It’s the manifestation of the old computer expression, GIGO; garbage in, garbage out.  Imagine the combination of DEI and ChatGPT.  Now that’s truly frightening.

As it happens, the luster of a Harvard association was lost long ago when such intellectual giants as Al Gore, Brian Stelter and Lori Lightfoot were included onto their roster.  It has become the home of failed politicians and propagandists.  Which begs the question; where will Claudine go?

link Extra hot sauce: Harvard Biz profs $4 food fight.

On a slow news day, we find this little gem.  It’s not as if Harvard graduates don’t already convey the perception of insular, entitled and arrogant jerks already, but along comes this story which pretty much seals the deal.

This associate professor, Ben Edelman found it sufficiently galling that a Chinese restaurant overcharged him 4 bucks on his take out order that he decides to make a federal case out of it; or at least a State case by invoking Massachusetts law upon the restaurant’s owner.   It should be noted that this guy is supposed to be a negotiation guru teaching at Old Crimson.  Even more arrogantly, he offers that for a measly ransom of triple the 4 dollar overcharge, he can be persuaded to look the other way.

First thing to note for everyone out there; no Asian person would eat out of a bunch of cardboard boxes.  The fact that he is too lazy to actually sit down in a restaurant and eat like a civilized person already says a lot about his likely wanting social skills.  The only thing that can be legitimately eaten from boxes is pizza.  Despite the portrayal in TV and movies, eating Chinese food from boxes is déclassé in the worst way.

Secondly, Edelman probably suffers from small member syndrome or was perhaps beaten by his older siblings. He feels the need to flex his “obviously” superior position in society to essentially bully the regular folk to remind them of their status.  There’s a very popular description for people like this.  It starts with a “d” and ends in “bag”.  In a recent book, The Seven Deadly Virtues, the author Andrew Ferguson writes that:

” certain forms of ignorance are available exclusively to intellectuals who know so much that they have forgotten how much they don’t know ”

This description seems apt for Edelman who, while possibly is adept at teaching negotiation, is most certainly a boor in real life and not really that good at it himself.  I’m sure his classes will be the hot ticket on campus now. Amusingly, this follows right on the heels of the outing of his kindred spirit  over at MIT, the now infamous Jonathan Gruber.  He of course publicly stated that the American voters were “too stupid” to understand the Obamacare construct.

Thirdly, since Edelman offers to be mollified by payment by the restaurant of an amount triple the offending error, I would think that opens him up for a charge of extortion.  Perhaps some of his Harvard Law buddies can make an example out of him.