The Future of Academia, English, Japanese and African

The other day I received a manuscript of a paper I recently delivered. On it were numerous pencil markings, and extensive commentary on how best to improve the paper to make it world caliber. The responder was a Chaired Catholic Ethicist who runs a prominent West Coast Ethics Center, and religiously, I believe she may have close ties to Opus Dei.

As I read her feedback I was in awe. This is the level of academic scholarship that I had grown accustomed to at places such as Davidson College, Duke University and the University of Notre Dame. Precision. Accuracy. The ability to follow an argument closely. The ability to give critical feedback, but done in a charitable manner. All of these traits I have learned from some of the greatest Theological Minds of the late Twentieth Century, men such as Geoffrey Wainwright and Stanley Hauerwas.

After savoring the opportunity for revision and eventual publication, however, I returned to my "normal work" teaching at an On-Line Baptist University and preparing to teach at a local state college here in St. Petersburg.

Upon returning to my normal work, my reaction was both filled with sorrow, but also saw promise.

I was filled with great sorrow simply because I notice that so many American youths literally waste all of the resources set before them. We have the finest universities in the world, yet most young adults are just looking to make enough cash to buy their next round of marijuana. We have top-trained Academics who must endure the hardship of university systems becoming increasingly enslaved to "Big Business" that elevates anything that makes money (e.g. College Football!) but then cuts back on necessary expenditures elsewhere (e.g. Professor pay).

But, as a visit to any college or university in America will show, whereas our own American youth are increasingly overweight, lazy and addicted to television, MySpace, and other Internet garbage, foreign students say from Japan, or Africa are increasingly finding our state university systems quite hospitable places for career advancement.

Moreover, although the United States of America seems to care less and less about Intelligence as a Virtue, at least our English heritage (with English universities such as Cambridge and Oxford) has placed a dollar value on the best in scholarship. In fact, I know one English writer, Joseph Pearce, a fellow rambunctious pro-Catholic intellectual who was even hired by Ave Maria University (Naples, FL) to serve as their "Writer-in-Residence." I met him during 2006 at the Coming Home Network Conference and he actually even enjoyed my on-line, pro-bono, free-lance writing.

So, whereas, many, many American youths will grow up to be nothing more than McDonald's workers (hard work that should not be snubbed!), sadly, it will increasingly be an Anglo-Japanese-African Intelligentsia that will rule the United States of America. Any African American congregation that I have attended has placed extreme emphasis on getting a good education, the Japanese are known for their pursuit of academic excellence, and well, the English are about the only part of America's heritage that still places the Professor on a pedestal.

So, for a new Intellectual Life in America, expect the new leadership class to no longer be American.

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, gadfly for Jesus