VAST ERUDITION

Jacques Barzun has been writing books since the time my mother and father first met in or about 1937, the year he became a Professor at Columbia University. The year I joined the Baha’i Faith Barzun published his The House of Intellect, that was in 1959. Barzun had been embarked for many years on a sustained exploration of the influences that distract people from clear, direct and critical thinking. His whole life has been spent exploring this theme. The first blow in his long campaign was the book Education in America, first published in 1944, the year of my birth. This book, a tour de force outlined the major deficiencies and impediments in the education system from school to college, ranging from the notion that learning just had to be fun, to the Teacher Training Schools in the colleges and the soul-destroying drudgery of the PhD ordeal.

In yet another of his books The House of Intellect, Barzun identified intellectuals themselves as the major agents in the erosion of the life of the mind, the trashing of the house of intellect, along with the influence of distorted views of Science, and the unhelpful contribution of Business inspired by misplaced Philanthropy.  Barzun was a force of critical thought who was difficult for other intellectuals to deal with due to his vast erudition.-Ron Price with thanks to Rafe Champion, “Style in the House of Intellect,” The Rathouse.com, 2002.

I was just too busy, Jacques,
getting through high school
and then university and then
surviving all those years as a
teacher: why Jacques it kept
me on overhead-full until 1999.

And you were still churning out
books I had never read or even
heard of—until just the other day.
I won’t get through all thirty, but
I’ll get a handle on your ideas
reflecting, as they do, the view
that our age is in a dark heart
of a world of transition with its
slough of despond, its spiritual
paralysis, its potential for joy
and its hope for truths that
are perennial but not archaic,
all coated with an immense,
a vast, erudition that few can
keep up with or play the game.
Ron Price
July 24th 2006
(updated for Gear Live
Forums on 1/6/‘08)

that is true.  people themselves are to blame for not wanting an education. people are easily influenced by others and that can ultimetly destroy people.

People are just to lazy now adays. They dont want to learn anything they just want to get what they can, and take the short path getting there. They dont want to take the time out to learn something that they could take with them for the rest of their lives.

People are too lazy these days, i have to say, i’m one of those lazy people. i would rather shop online then to go out and shop. (a little of it is due to high gas prices) but when technology is so innovative, you barely have to leave your house. amazon fresh ships you your grocery’s, online computer websites ship you computer parts.

I would still rather learn at school about stuff we might never need to apply in real life.
Sadly, there are lots of preppy people at school who are more concerned about the opposite gender, Facebook, and MySpace. But still, you might trace it up to the government, who don’t impress upon the school districts to teach the right things.
However, online courses are never bad

I agree, we are becoming a lazy culture.  I was driving to the store the other day and was thinking about how lazy people are.  I know people who won’t walk down a flight of stairs, but will instead take the elevator, angering everyone else in the elevator at that time.  We have become a society that values exercise less and less, and hence our unbelievably high obesity rate (33%).  It is sad when about 2/3 of your country is considered overweight…

Totally, Buckeye! Even worse is that we’re aware of the problem but we’re not doing much about it. I mean, we have education, we have solutions… but we don’t have resolve

I agree with you all.People don’t have time these days or atleast they pretend like that.People now-a-days only finds shortcuts to achieve something 7 don’t wanna learn & listen to others.that ain’t good at all.

Thanks for all those responses to my prose-poem in praise of Barzun and commenting on his ideas from my personal experience. I wish you all well in your own efforts to understand our complex world.-Ron Price, Tasmania

we all have up and down as a student myself i just flunk my 1st semester at college.living is very hard and there is nobody to blame for it
just hope i get another chance…

Life has many ups and downs and one must persist. But persisting is easy to say and not that easy to do. A sense of discouragement sets in so easily….I wish you well in your down periods which often go away if you wait long enough. Ups are followed by downs and visa-versa.-Ron