The Guardian
article, (see below: Universities Australia chairman warns of public
hostility to 'evidence and expertise'), raises the matter of
university research and professional expertise that seems to be
challenged by irrational hearsay and matey commonsense with a degree
of hostility, indeed, a belligerent, blind, self-assured hatred. Why
are universities, their staff and their research, being ignored;
mocked? It is a serious question that needs looking into, as the
world is being hammered by the quirky self-promotional Norman Vincent
Peale ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ ideas: see -
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/27/not-lies-donald-trump-truth-norman-vincent-peale
In Australia, skeptics not only pride
themselves on their brazen ignorance, but also actively promote this
in the N V Peale rawly ‘positive’ way that allows one to declare
the day beautiful, blue and sunny when it is gray, bleak and pouring
rain, with the simple technique: “prayerise, visualise, actualise.”
We have seen One Nation, (a right-wing political party in Australia),
‘climate-skeptic’ politicians travel to the southern limits of
the Great Barrier Reef, don diving equipment and perform for cameras
beside the lush colours of this healthy portion of the reef, all to
‘prove’ that the scientific reports telling of the serious
bleaching of large portions of the northern realms of this wonder of
the world are all ‘fake news’: that they, the extremists and
polemicists, are right – yet again! “Where’s the empirical
evidence?” is the refrain that seems pleased with itself to have
used such an impressive, ‘scientific’ word as ‘empirical’ -
meaning based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or
experience rather than theory or pure logic:
as if the huge percentage of
bleached reef meant nothing, or
was merely a natural phenomena, nothing to do with man-made climate
change. The chorus is
that the ‘experts’ are lying to us; deceiving us with
‘alternative facts’ that suit their own skewed agenda.
The world gets
interpreted and promoted in a particular manner that dismisses
quality research, factual evidence and scholarly learning. Cynical
populism reigns with its own indulgent certainty, egged on by catchy
crowd enthusiasms, Mad Max manias, maintained by the Australian love
of the amateur folk hero who overcomes everything with simple
commonsense, or so the story goes. John Williamson’s song, True
Blue, (see below), embodies much of the blokey characteristics of
this folk tale: ‘Will you tie it up with wire/Just to keep the show
on the road.’ Here the common man has commonsense that outshines
the prestigious gleam of the learned specialist involved in his
effete, ‘other-worldly’ research: the academic in the cliché
arrogant isolation of the ivory tower. There is a certain blasé,
self-satisfied enjoyment in this attitude that loves the mockery that
its rude ignorance promotes. The skeptics appear to know that words
like ‘empirical’ can always win the debate, in a way similar to
those who argue against evolution seem to maintain their position
with selective words and sealed ideas.
How often are
architects ignored as fools, self-centred artistes, genius asthetes?
- see:
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/seeing-architects-as-what_3.html
Here a colleague’s experience with uninvited door-knocking
inquisitors is told; how the question is always about the builder: no
one has ever asked about the architect. The man in the street knows
that builders design and build and that architects are an
irrelevance. I have had a similar experience where I was driving
around with three brothers, wealthy country boys, who were ‘looking
for ideas for a home.’ Two had built themselves the homes of their
own design; the third had prepared the plan and was now looking for
clues to finish off the elevations. It is difficult to gauge the
impact of brotherly competition here, but in the whole of the drive
that meandered randomly around in the region for about half an hour
looking at all of the newer houses, a tour during which the brothers
quizzed one another on ideas and opinions, not one ever asked me what
I thought or might do, or directed any comment to me. I was just an
architect, a phantom raised in a university, a waste of space; the
‘void’ discussed in
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/seeing-architects-as-what_3.html
If I had been a plumber, or even a builder, I would have been made
more welcome in this debate. The ordinary Australian loves
commonsense outcomes and despises learning and scholarship, dismisses
it with ‘alternative’ options that are always superior and carry
the silent subtext - ‘idiot.’
Why? Why does one
complain about being ignored? The Guardian article notes the rise of
‘the wisdom of the layperson’ with some dismay. What can one do
about the momentum of ignorance that so freely labels matters as
‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ with a brash smugness and
an irrational NVP certainty, now seemingly endorsed and practised by
the President of the USA?
How can this
stupidity be remedied, overcome? Given our new ‘Trump’ world, and
an emboldened ‘One Nation’ populism that whips up the hopes of
those wanting to hear this hyped blurb with a self-fulfilling
hysteria, it will be difficult. Sadly the institutions and
professions do little other than encourage this dismissive attitude
that labels factual understanding as being pretentious and elitist,
and learning as upper-crust arrogance, both of which are seen to get
in the way of ordinary ‘honest’ commonsense. There is something
morally challenging, doubtful, in scholarship that eludes the
straightforward ‘genuine’ approach of the ordinary man/woman:
baffles it. It is as if there is a perceived otherness, something
lesser, inferior, that is being given power and momentum by a
perceived ‘moral’ challenge to become this assured, brash, blind
expression; the demanding classic put down of knowledge and
understanding.
It is difficult
to talk about universities as a whole; but as an architect, one can
relate to the Schools of Architecture within the regional
universities, in this case those in southeast Queensland. How do
these relate to the crowd manners that see them brushed aside as an
irrelevance? What happens in these schools at: the University of
Queensland; the Queensland University of Technology; Griffith
University; and Bond University? Does a small State like Queensland
need such a concentration of schools of architecture? This is another
question for another time. It has been said that programmes like
Kevin McCloud’s Grand Designs (see:
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/is-architecture-just-grand.html
) have made architecture a very popular course for tertiary students.
No doubt the business models of these schools are encouraging the
numbers to grow too, irrespective of the actual demands for such
expertise.
Who knows what
goes on at these institutions that train architects? It is a
reasonable question, but the answer is a challenge: it is all a
silent mystery. Unless one is intimately involved in any of these
schools on a regular basis, to be ‘one of them’ as it were, the
goings on in these places is a total unknown. The situation, even for
one in the profession, is such that as a visitor to any of these
locations, one is left feeling lost, literally in the dark: outcast
as a stranger bamboozled by the prestige and status, the special
difference that these places adopt and thrive on. They exist as the
proverbial ‘ivory towers’ with some degree of happy, protected
isolation, well beyond the ordinary everyday experience, and the
challenges it brings. This characteristic becomes the core quality of
a university, its inherent prestige, its standing, and is possibly
the rationale behind the various colleges and institutes being
renamed as ‘universities.’ The new name ‘lifts’ the image
even if everything else stays the same.
Academia - arches and sandstone: a cloistered environment
If one in the
profession is made to feel like this, imagine how the ordinary
‘man-in-the-street’ feels. Is there any wonder that the pubic
response to learning is blatant mockery; dismissiveness? Learning,
scholarship will never gain any respect until it begins to encompass
and embody things ordinary. All schools of architecture in Queensland
other than that at the private Bond University Abedian School of
Architecture, are publicly funded; but all have constructed a wall to
keep the public well outside, while the intimate games of
self-promotion and self-protection are played out, unsupervised, to
the in-house rules. Challenges of ‘open’ universities seem to be
boxed out in favour of things concealed, safe and sound – pushing a
public silence, a difference that fails to get involved even in local
architectural and planning issues. Why is all the apparent expertise
of research and scholarship so isolated from any public involvement
where it might be useful? When the occasion does arise, and a
professor is asked by the media to comment on an issue, the response
is usually so convoluted and esoteric that the vision of the ordinary
man is not only confirmed, but also further confounded. Little wonder
that commentators are rarely drawn from academia: see -
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/why-we-need-universities.html
and http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/universities.html
But things do not
have to be this way. Schools can play a significant public role, and
they should: indeed, they must if they are going to gain the respect
of the many. A good example of universities getting involved with the
public is the ‘MY HORSE(DOG) GOES TO UNIVERSITY’ stickers seen
cars. This refers to the veterinary school that opens up clinics for
animals, both large and small, that the public might choose to bring
in for diagnosis and treatment. It is a good example of how a
university can gain respect from the ordinary person.
Something has to
happen if we are to overcome the horrendous circumstance that sees
power, authority and respect ripped away from those who know, and
placed into the hands of those who appear to promote their
foolishness with just too much blind and misguided, smug glee. That
universities are now seen as, and are being run as businesses, does
not help anything. Here the ideals of learning are themselves
perverted by numbers and dollars, placing students in the role of
consumers who have ‘rights’ to achieve, and creating 'attractive' courses to increase enrolments. Universities need to look
very carefully at the critique given to them by the masses. Calling
out for the education of the crowds is a self-defeating strategy that
just will not work. It only reinforces the very issues that are
causing the problems.
The Guardian
report notes the role that universities have in ‘fostering economic
opportunity and social inclusion.’ If places of learning and
scholarship are not able to resolve these problems, then one has to
be concerned about their ability to train anyone at all. There
appears to be a certain irony in the circumstance, but it is not one
that can be pushed aside with a mirrored mockery of the ignorant
critics. This will only continue the reciprocal, stubborn abuse.
Rigour, commitment and openness are required; a care for detail,
research, place and people that shatters the image of ‘ivory’
remoteness and encourages those now feeling ostracised to understand
how relevant universities can be; how essential they truly are, by
involving these mad, misguided, manipulated crowds participating in
the everyday without the pomp or glory that is so easily adopted from
the historical sites of learning throughout the world: Oxford;
Harvard – echoes of elitism that only stimulate things manic and
raucous in the outsiders who know nothing but the positive power of
mayhem and noise.
Co-producing cannot mean a lack of commitment and rigour
Australian Islamic Centre, Newport
How? One is left
pondering the Murcutt solution to mystery and difference. In his new
Newport mosque – see:
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/01/murcutts-mosque-meanings-sources.html
he has opened up the prayer space of the mosque with a glass wall
facing the street. A ‘shop front’ glass wall to the school of
architecture is really no solution. It will only turn participants
into actors in a display from both points of view. As with the
mosque, the glass wall is more a simplistic factual pun, a play on the word ‘openness’ rather than a considered intellectual response to the problem: it ignores symbolism and experience to naively suggest that real physical transparency will be the solution.
Universities need to have a more creative approach than this rude, rudimentary reaction.
Can they be better? They have to be: the well-being of the world and Everyman might depend on
it.
SEE: Universities Australia chairman warns of public hostility to 'evidence and expertise'
ttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/01/universities-australia-chairman
-warns-of-public-hostility-to-evidence-and-expertise?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Email
THE REPORT
Universities Australia chairman warns
of public hostility to 'evidence and expertise'
Barney Glover says public debate
overrun by ‘extremists and polemicists’ and expertise needed to
solve world’s problems
Universities Australia chairman Barney
Glover will tell the National Press Club expertise is needed to cure
diseases, navigate technological disruption and prevent catastrophic
climate change. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Paul Karp
Wednesday 1 March 2017 06.04 AEDTLast
modified on Wednesday 1 March 2017 06.05 AEDT
Debate needs to put a premium on the
value of expertise because the public square has been overrun by
“extremists and polemicists” in the post-truth era, the chairman
of Universities Australia will say.
In a speech to the National Press Club
on Wednesday, seen by Guardian Australia, Barney Glover will warn of
a “creeping cynicism – even outright hostility – towards
evidence and expertise”.
Glover cites the example of the British
Conservative MP Michael Gove declaring after the Brexit vote that
“the people of this country have had enough of experts”.
What does the future hold for students
starting university today?
Glover will say that expertise is needed
to solve problems as broad as curing cancer and preventable disease,
navigating technological disruption, lifting living standards,
overcoming prejudice and preventing catastrophic climate change.
Glover laments that phrases like
“post-truth” politics and “alternative facts” – the latter
coined by Donald Trump’s lieutenant Kellyanne Conway - have entered
common usage and “agendas have displaced analysis in much of our
public debate”.
Glover will say an emphasis on expertise
“doesn’t discount the wisdom of the layperson”.
“And it doesn’t mean universities
have all the answers,” he said. “Far from it.”
But universities are “unequivocally
the best places to posit the questions” and perform an “essential
function” standing up for evidence, facts and truth.
Universities also have a role fostering
economic opportunity and social inclusion, Glover will say, in the
face of growing alienation and disruption in the economy.
“Universities help us make the very
best of disruption, ensuring we are able to ‘ride the wave’.”
This was particularly important in
regions that have relied on blue-collar industries including Geelong,
Mackay in central Queensland, Wollongong and Newcastle in New South
Wales, the northern suburbs of Adelaide and Launceston.
“These communities have been wrenched
economically, socially and at the personal level by automation,
offshoring and rationalisation,” he will say. “For places like
these, universities can be a lifeline.”
Glover praises the role of universities
in fostering start-ups, citing a Universities Australia commissioned
survey that found that four out of five start-up founders in
Australia are university graduates.
“Many start-ups, too, have been
nurtured into existence by a university incubator, accelerator,
mentoring scheme or entrepreneurship course,” he will say. “There
are more than 100 of these programs dispersed widely across the
country, with many on regional campuses.”
He says the start-up sector raised $568m
in 2016, up 73% on the previous year, and will have created more than
500,000 new jobs by the time today’s kindergarten students finish
high school.
Glover will also discuss Universities
Australia’s Indigenous strategy, which will be launched on
Wednesday evening.
Glover notes Malcolm Turnbull’s
comments while delivering the Closing the Gap report that there “is
no gap” between tertiary-educated Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians.
“This statistic affirms something that
most of us know instinctively,” he will say. “Education
transforms lives. Australian universities now have 74% more
Indigenous undergraduate students than in 2008.
“And yet while Indigenous people make
up 2.7% of Australia’s working-age population, they account for
only 1.6% of university students.”
The Universities Australia Indigenous
strategy will set targets to maintain an Indigenous student growth
rate that is at least 50% above the growth rate of non-Indigenous
enrolments and ideally 100 % above.
Universities Australia will implement
measures to ensure that, by 2025, Indigenous students achieve the
same retention rates by field as domestic non-Indigenous students and
achieve equal completion rates by 2028.
“These are ambitious targets and they
may not be easy to achieve. But lack of ambition on this front is not
an option.”
Since you’re here …
… we’ve got a small favour to ask.
More people are reading the Guardian than ever, but far fewer are
paying for it. Advertising revenues across the media are falling
fast. And unlike some other news organisations, we haven’t put up a
paywall – we want to keep our journalism open to all. So you can
see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent,
investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to
produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters –
because it might well be your perspective, too.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who
likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.
True Blue
John Williamson
Hey True Blue, don't say you've gone
Say you've knocked off for a smoko
And you'll be back la-ater on
Hey True Blue, Hey True Blue
Say you've knocked off for a smoko
And you'll be back la-ater on
Hey True Blue, Hey True Blue
Give it to me straight, face to face
Are you really disappearing
Just another dying race
Hey True Blue
Are you really disappearing
Just another dying race
Hey True Blue
True Blue, is it me and you
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a cockatoo
Is it standin' by your mate when he's in a fight
Or just Vegemi-ite
True Blue, I'm a-asking you
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a cockatoo
Is it standin' by your mate when he's in a fight
Or just Vegemi-ite
True Blue, I'm a-asking you
Hey True Blue, can you bear the
load
Will you tie it up with wire
Just to keep the show on the road
Hey True Blue
Hey True Blue, now be Fair Dinkum
Will you tie it up with wire
Just to keep the show on the road
Hey True Blue
Hey True Blue, now be Fair Dinkum
Is your heart still there
If they sell us out like sponge cake
Do you really care
Hey True Blue
[Chorus: x2]
If they sell us out like sponge cake
Do you really care
Hey True Blue
[Chorus: x2]
