Counting The Cost
You know it and don't need me to tell you - the world is changing.
Bastiat Free University was born in the enthusiasm of a "can do" decade, the summer of the long Kondratieff wave. The anticipation of fall and winter for the world also carried the distant promise of spring.
Now that it is late fall or early winter you can feel the chill within the social mood. Skepticism is rampant, the desire for uniformity increasing. The final gasps of the industrial age are heard from a factory castle with hoarfrost on the windows. The dying dotard within is seeking his legacy by rule of law; nothing must change, any extant institutions are to be considered inviolate.
The bureaucrats of the passing age are of course in agreement. Their armies promoting failing kings are marching to forestall spring offensives by new and "dangerous" ideas. The Russian winter will once again destroy arrogance, but not before great damage is wrought.
Spring is yet hidden beyond a mist shrouded valley of almost incomprehensible dimensions.
What then of Bastiat Free University. We are in the marches between the past and the future; and we are not yet fully realized. We have no authority in the strategies of conquest, we are but a slight hindrance, a small obstacle, virtually unseen from within ideological campaigns for power.
The BFU game plan, developed during the heady days of summer, was to ride out the winter storms and like wheat planted before the first freeze burst forth as an early sign of spring. Unfortunately our autumn reception has been cooler than anticipated, there has been little cultivation beyond our own efforts.
Our field is being paved with regulations supporting mere bureaucratic certification rather than quality learning; all the better for battling forces to traverse. The high guilds of educational accreditation are ensconced by their roaring fires - seeking functionaries to exalt their humility.
They have found their toadies and are sending them forth.
The war maintained by supporters of central authority is a holding action, straining to delay liberating advances. The futility of their actions will not decrease the horrible cost in lives wasted. What then is the best strategy for BFU? Do we remove ourselves from the field of battle and return in a more accommodating season?
Do we count our task as done; knowing the seeds we planted will sprout from fertile soil enriched by blood spilled for an ignoble cause? Do we continue in the fields during winter, or retire from battle to await the promised thaw?
The primary reason to continue is that we may help avert disaster as the new age dawns. Perhaps that is hubris, and we are better off observing and preparing.
Our shared future is a race between sedentary fools courting disaster to maintain their power; and innovation sparked by empowered individuals meshing by reputation to achieve their personal goals.
Should Bastiat Free University attack, defend, or perhaps withdraw while awaiting an advantageous season?
.
Bastiat Free University was born in the enthusiasm of a "can do" decade, the summer of the long Kondratieff wave. The anticipation of fall and winter for the world also carried the distant promise of spring.
Now that it is late fall or early winter you can feel the chill within the social mood. Skepticism is rampant, the desire for uniformity increasing. The final gasps of the industrial age are heard from a factory castle with hoarfrost on the windows. The dying dotard within is seeking his legacy by rule of law; nothing must change, any extant institutions are to be considered inviolate.
The bureaucrats of the passing age are of course in agreement. Their armies promoting failing kings are marching to forestall spring offensives by new and "dangerous" ideas. The Russian winter will once again destroy arrogance, but not before great damage is wrought.
Spring is yet hidden beyond a mist shrouded valley of almost incomprehensible dimensions.
What then of Bastiat Free University. We are in the marches between the past and the future; and we are not yet fully realized. We have no authority in the strategies of conquest, we are but a slight hindrance, a small obstacle, virtually unseen from within ideological campaigns for power.
The BFU game plan, developed during the heady days of summer, was to ride out the winter storms and like wheat planted before the first freeze burst forth as an early sign of spring. Unfortunately our autumn reception has been cooler than anticipated, there has been little cultivation beyond our own efforts.
Our field is being paved with regulations supporting mere bureaucratic certification rather than quality learning; all the better for battling forces to traverse. The high guilds of educational accreditation are ensconced by their roaring fires - seeking functionaries to exalt their humility.
They have found their toadies and are sending them forth.
The war maintained by supporters of central authority is a holding action, straining to delay liberating advances. The futility of their actions will not decrease the horrible cost in lives wasted. What then is the best strategy for BFU? Do we remove ourselves from the field of battle and return in a more accommodating season?
Do we count our task as done; knowing the seeds we planted will sprout from fertile soil enriched by blood spilled for an ignoble cause? Do we continue in the fields during winter, or retire from battle to await the promised thaw?
The primary reason to continue is that we may help avert disaster as the new age dawns. Perhaps that is hubris, and we are better off observing and preparing.
Our shared future is a race between sedentary fools courting disaster to maintain their power; and innovation sparked by empowered individuals meshing by reputation to achieve their personal goals.
Should Bastiat Free University attack, defend, or perhaps withdraw while awaiting an advantageous season?
"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer
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Labels: educational guilds, Eric Hoffer, Kondratieff winter, long Kondratieff wave
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