Our universities have become powerful agents of the two-tier social order: the well educated, prosperous and optimistic haves and everyone else. During the latter half of the twentieth century our colleges and universities fueled a thriving middle class that has since been devastated by job loss to China and India and the widespread selling down the river of the bulk of hardworking Americans. Our institutions now produce candidates for the elite. American society is now more divided between rich and poor than Ancien Regime France just prior to the French Revolution. This is not good.
Too Much of a Good Thing
When I put single peanuts on the top fence rail outside my window the squirrels snatch them up immediately. When I put a whole pile on the fence they become skittish. They run up then back away then run up and sniff and back away then they proceed to snatch one. Are all animals afraid of too much of a good thing. Is this why humans are afraid of bliss? It is simply too good to be true that we have access to this state of mind at most times.