Apr 14·edited Apr 14Liked by Nathalie Martinek PhD
I assume you have read john taylor gatto. He and other have documented painstakingly how and why education has been altered, used and weaponized. Academia, was started for a purpose, and it was NOT the betterment of humanity, but the more efficient control of an already intelligent but difficult to handle people... Top down power structures are grossly inefficient, but they offer that control. that influence. This is how allopathic medicine destroyed healers with "patent " medicine (it is far more profitable). You do realize that homeopathic hospitals were once dominant, but this was changed by ---you guessed it academia. Read the hundred year lie, or, is your cardiologist trying to ill you. many books were written on this subject. all you need are public libraries and a form for the debate of ideas. anything else is for political influence. Another field that was completely diverted, was archeology. same problem, science in general has been massively twisted from where it would have naturally gone. top down power structures are the problem. lateral power structures do it better and are more difficult to corrupt. I have been in 3 co ops. you can get the same things done, in a healthier way, in a co op.
Excellent essay, thank you for sharing. It makes me think about milk.
My career has been varied, but nearly three decades have been in food and the first ten I ran a dairy distribution company. I learned very early about microbe counts.
Milk and other food isn't wholesome and tasty one day, then suddenly spoiled and nasty the next (regardless of the code date). Spoilage is a function of how many bugs are alive in the milk. Their number is a function of the starting point (after pasteurization), time, temperature, and integrity of the packaging.
I think the same applies in the academy. The "bugs" were always there but conditions changed (I saw the start when I began college in '91). It's been the equivalent of leaving the jug open and on the counter for days.
I don't know how the curdled, stinking mess can be "restored." Shifting metaphors, maybe it's like a house with a big meth lab. The shell can probably be saved, but everything inside has to be gutted and built new.
I was never a part of Academia, but I've found that groups of people are the same no matter where they congregate. Jung's archetypes live out in every workplace, institution, and corporation that I have been a part of. Corruption, lies, power struggles - it's everywhere. Can academia be fixed? Maybe but when it comes to groups I always go back to the spoke in the wheel or the weakest link in the chain analogy. Every person's contribution to the whole is dependent on their ability to manage their shadow, and most people don't even acknowledge their shadow, much less learn to how manage it.
In a recent event at the Danube Institute we discussed the economics of the modern university system and how it replicates the redistributionist tactics used by the Babylonian priestly class to facilitate their lifestyles by imposing debt servitude on others. Cynical system.
I think the corruption you noted in the post-doc years reflects the scarcity of opportunities in the space at elite universities.
My idea for fixing the academy is to let a thousand flowers bloom. If we can make the cost of research equipment and reagents much cheaper, then there will be a lot more labs and a lot more options for people to find labs that are a good fit. Assuming most people are basically good, then most cultures will converge on norms similar to your phd.
When the barrier to entry for a lab is very high, then the entire focus of the endeavor is to protect the space and not to find the truth.
What do you think regarding the size of an "institution?" Does this/would this apply on a family system level? Small community? Even if there are no other inherent institutions within? I know you ask for your readers' opinions, but I have more questions than answers. :)
I read as many of your articles as I can. You are a prolific writer. 😉
as i put it elsewhere, in my dyslexic typing left handed, were you actually under the impression academies was for humanity’s benefit. It never was. As it is not, it was always, a mechanism for “civilizing” those who could think well enough for themselves. for control. it was never ever needed. never asked for a the cowering public of simpering ninnies. that is the marketing lie. all that ever was needed were public libraries. open debates. Who funded the first universities? just look. none of them ever intended us to be well. thus is how allopathic medicine dominated real healers. this is how real historians were drowned out by the history that serves the few. academia, ivory towers of bullshit.
Nathalie, thank for you this fantastic essay -- I resonate so deeply with your observation that understanding narcissism became the "hidden curriculum" of your job. Though I hadn't yet landed on that phrase, I feel that understanding narcissism became the "hidden curriculum" of a role I had cherished in a global media organisation, which I left two years ago because the rot you describe ran so deep. I came to see my experience as an "initiatory ordeal" and -- though my career is by no means all sorted now -- I do feel like I have a much deeper understanding of the reason for our malaise, and agree that all social chnage work should begin with a thorough study of the mechanics of narcissism, which is why I believe your work is so valuable. (PS, apologies if I've missed this, have you ever come across Paul Levy's work on "Wetiko." It feels very aligned with your approach). Thank you!
Really great question! Not sure I know the answer. I am personally skeptical of academia having any kind of a moral revival right now, but my cynicism also makes me sad because high quality research is so vital to a functioning society. It would be interesting to see if there are any good case studies of a rotten institution being reformed and what factors came together for that to happen.
Thank you for the mention, Nathalie. This is a very honest and eye-opening firsthand account of how these institutions affect people, and I really enjoyed your comparison between narcissism and ‘infectious ideas’ and literal tumor growth. Very vivid imagery.
I don’t know if these institutions can be saved. I certainly hope so, as universities have the money and the power, and salvaging their integrity would be the easiest way. However, to borrow your analogy, you cannot turn an apple back once it is rotted, and it might make more sense to replace these old institutions with new ones. I think this will happen organically as people turn away and look for alternatives—Platforms like substack already seem to be filling this role.
Malignant behaviour destroying an environment? It will happen over and over again in every office situation. You can’t stop it, much like the rates of cancer morbidity being 50% (that gets all of us in the end, second only to heart) the odds of you being attacked are similar. But will it get you? Or do you have to move on again when it takes root? I can’t see this behaviour ever being eradicated……
🙏 Great post, now shared on Dr Pierre Kory’s Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid027xymqxivtboTK3wUNDPFmBBHLidYDfSs12pNhmUvqchPjfzJYAV9t7kH4gJtGpA4l&id=100076303818569
I assume you have read john taylor gatto. He and other have documented painstakingly how and why education has been altered, used and weaponized. Academia, was started for a purpose, and it was NOT the betterment of humanity, but the more efficient control of an already intelligent but difficult to handle people... Top down power structures are grossly inefficient, but they offer that control. that influence. This is how allopathic medicine destroyed healers with "patent " medicine (it is far more profitable). You do realize that homeopathic hospitals were once dominant, but this was changed by ---you guessed it academia. Read the hundred year lie, or, is your cardiologist trying to ill you. many books were written on this subject. all you need are public libraries and a form for the debate of ideas. anything else is for political influence. Another field that was completely diverted, was archeology. same problem, science in general has been massively twisted from where it would have naturally gone. top down power structures are the problem. lateral power structures do it better and are more difficult to corrupt. I have been in 3 co ops. you can get the same things done, in a healthier way, in a co op.
Excellent essay, thank you for sharing. It makes me think about milk.
My career has been varied, but nearly three decades have been in food and the first ten I ran a dairy distribution company. I learned very early about microbe counts.
Milk and other food isn't wholesome and tasty one day, then suddenly spoiled and nasty the next (regardless of the code date). Spoilage is a function of how many bugs are alive in the milk. Their number is a function of the starting point (after pasteurization), time, temperature, and integrity of the packaging.
I think the same applies in the academy. The "bugs" were always there but conditions changed (I saw the start when I began college in '91). It's been the equivalent of leaving the jug open and on the counter for days.
I don't know how the curdled, stinking mess can be "restored." Shifting metaphors, maybe it's like a house with a big meth lab. The shell can probably be saved, but everything inside has to be gutted and built new.
My impression is academia is truly a horrible place to work.
I was never a part of Academia, but I've found that groups of people are the same no matter where they congregate. Jung's archetypes live out in every workplace, institution, and corporation that I have been a part of. Corruption, lies, power struggles - it's everywhere. Can academia be fixed? Maybe but when it comes to groups I always go back to the spoke in the wheel or the weakest link in the chain analogy. Every person's contribution to the whole is dependent on their ability to manage their shadow, and most people don't even acknowledge their shadow, much less learn to how manage it.
this might interest you.
In a recent event at the Danube Institute we discussed the economics of the modern university system and how it replicates the redistributionist tactics used by the Babylonian priestly class to facilitate their lifestyles by imposing debt servitude on others. Cynical system.
https://twitter.com/philippilk/status/1777660332476871026
I think the corruption you noted in the post-doc years reflects the scarcity of opportunities in the space at elite universities.
My idea for fixing the academy is to let a thousand flowers bloom. If we can make the cost of research equipment and reagents much cheaper, then there will be a lot more labs and a lot more options for people to find labs that are a good fit. Assuming most people are basically good, then most cultures will converge on norms similar to your phd.
When the barrier to entry for a lab is very high, then the entire focus of the endeavor is to protect the space and not to find the truth.
Thank you Nathalie. Great story and info here.
What do you think regarding the size of an "institution?" Does this/would this apply on a family system level? Small community? Even if there are no other inherent institutions within? I know you ask for your readers' opinions, but I have more questions than answers. :)
I read as many of your articles as I can. You are a prolific writer. 😉
as i put it elsewhere, in my dyslexic typing left handed, were you actually under the impression academies was for humanity’s benefit. It never was. As it is not, it was always, a mechanism for “civilizing” those who could think well enough for themselves. for control. it was never ever needed. never asked for a the cowering public of simpering ninnies. that is the marketing lie. all that ever was needed were public libraries. open debates. Who funded the first universities? just look. none of them ever intended us to be well. thus is how allopathic medicine dominated real healers. this is how real historians were drowned out by the history that serves the few. academia, ivory towers of bullshit.
Nathalie, thank for you this fantastic essay -- I resonate so deeply with your observation that understanding narcissism became the "hidden curriculum" of your job. Though I hadn't yet landed on that phrase, I feel that understanding narcissism became the "hidden curriculum" of a role I had cherished in a global media organisation, which I left two years ago because the rot you describe ran so deep. I came to see my experience as an "initiatory ordeal" and -- though my career is by no means all sorted now -- I do feel like I have a much deeper understanding of the reason for our malaise, and agree that all social chnage work should begin with a thorough study of the mechanics of narcissism, which is why I believe your work is so valuable. (PS, apologies if I've missed this, have you ever come across Paul Levy's work on "Wetiko." It feels very aligned with your approach). Thank you!
Really great question! Not sure I know the answer. I am personally skeptical of academia having any kind of a moral revival right now, but my cynicism also makes me sad because high quality research is so vital to a functioning society. It would be interesting to see if there are any good case studies of a rotten institution being reformed and what factors came together for that to happen.
Thank you for the mention, Nathalie. This is a very honest and eye-opening firsthand account of how these institutions affect people, and I really enjoyed your comparison between narcissism and ‘infectious ideas’ and literal tumor growth. Very vivid imagery.
I don’t know if these institutions can be saved. I certainly hope so, as universities have the money and the power, and salvaging their integrity would be the easiest way. However, to borrow your analogy, you cannot turn an apple back once it is rotted, and it might make more sense to replace these old institutions with new ones. I think this will happen organically as people turn away and look for alternatives—Platforms like substack already seem to be filling this role.
What are your favorite kdramas?
Malignant behaviour destroying an environment? It will happen over and over again in every office situation. You can’t stop it, much like the rates of cancer morbidity being 50% (that gets all of us in the end, second only to heart) the odds of you being attacked are similar. But will it get you? Or do you have to move on again when it takes root? I can’t see this behaviour ever being eradicated……