Football, Universities, Academics, & Balinese Cockfighting

[Elduderino]

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012 ... iversities

I found this article interesting and thought a few more might as well; at one point it compares football at American Universities to Balinese Cockfighting (really).

[Kimber45]

As an intellectual pursuit, sociology is barely an appertif at a seven course seating of knowledge, wisdom and enlightenment.

While I tip my cap to any person who has earned a baccalaureate degree, anyone who has spent six months of eight hour days observing the ongoings within a Starbucks cafe, followed by six more months serving in the Peace Corps overseas, will have sufficiently formed enough personal observation to be a qualified sociologist.

The Stanford University intellectual opines that a competitive and successful football program adds value to the academic institution. . . No s*** Sherlock.

People inherently and instinctively like winning. Maybe our current political economy has devalued success a bit, whether that success is personal or business related, but being first or being better is, and will always be, a fundamental value in our society.

[Tray Dub]

As an intellectual pursuit, sociology is barely an appertif at a seven course seating of knowledge, wisdom and enlightenment.

While I tip my cap to any person who has earned a baccalaureate degree, anyone who has spent six months of eight hour days observing the ongoings within a Starbucks cafe, followed by six more months serving in the Peace Corps overseas, will have sufficiently formed enough personal observation to be a qualified sociologist.

The Stanford University intellectual opines that a competitive and successful football program adds value to the academic institution. . . No s*** Sherlock.

People inherently and instinctively like winning. Maybe our current political economy has devalued success a bit, whether that success is personal or business related, but being first or being better is, and will always be, a fundamental value in our society.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Sociology is a widely denigrated field, but it is only denigrated by those who have no real acquaintance with the accomplishments of social critics. Go read Baudrillard, Foucault, Gramsci, Butler, or any number of other amazing contributors to sociology and tell me they found their ideas while sitting at a coffee shop. (Of course, you won't actually read any major works, because for you to have even made typed out that post means you're intellectually lazy enough to judge something without a shred of familiarity. So you're definitely not going to read the most profound, challenging authors sociology has produced.)

I'm not a sociology major, by the way.

[Kimber45]

Oh please. Sociology will coorelate the popularity of bicycling as the preferred mode of urban transportation by homosexaul men aged 25-35 with the decline of wild red meat in the native American diet, create a scatterplot, and conclude that some statistically significant evidence exists for a conclusion that NAFTA is economically advantageous trade policy for Canada.

How in the world does chickenfighting enter a discussion about the effects of a successful sports program on the overall health of a university?

Rhetorical question.

[Tray Dub]

Oh please. Sociology will coorelate the popularity of bicycling as the preferred mode of urban transportation by homosexaul men aged 25-35 with the decline of wild red meat in the native American diet, create a scatterplot, and conclude that some statistically significant evidence exists for a conclusion that NAFTA is economically advantageous trade policy for Canada.

How in the world does chickenfighting enter a discussion about the effects of a successful sports program on the overall health of a university?

Rhetorical question.

Would you be willing to tell me what experience with sociology you have? Have you taken any classes, and if so where? And who have you read? It's really sad that that's the impression you got.

[Braveheart]

Oh please. Sociology will coorelate the popularity of bicycling as the preferred mode of urban transportation by homosexaul men aged 25-35 with the decline of wild red meat in the native American diet, create a scatterplot, and conclude that some statistically significant evidence exists for a conclusion that NAFTA is economically advantageous trade policy for Canada.

How in the world does chickenfighting enter a discussion about the effects of a successful sports program on the overall health of a university?

Rhetorical question.

[Kimber45]

Sociology is such a soft science its offensive to science to even be part of the term.

And, yes, my undergraduate transcript from UO has some sociology credits on it. Of course, those transcripts are over 20 years old so I neither have them, nor do they mean anything.

Also, what's the deal with theistic metaphysics. If you want to talk about a real waste of time, this branch of philosophy would be it.

p.s. Even got a nibble from Braveheart.

[Tray Dub]

Sociology is such a soft science its offensive to science to even be part of the term.

And, yes, my undergraduate transcript from UO has some sociology credits on it. Of course, those transcripts are over 20 years old so I neither have them, nor do they mean anything.

Also, what's the deal with theistic metaphysics. If you want to talk about a real waste of time, this branch of philosophy would be it.

p.s. Even got a nibble from Braveheart.

So... you have no experience with sociology fresher than twenty years, and the experience you did have was "some credits" (is that a self-serving way of saying one class? or two?), and you feel comfortable judging the entire field? And dismissing the career of every sociologist? Don't you think that's pretty damn pompous?

[Kimber45]

So... you have no experience with sociology fresher than twenty years, and the experience you did have was "some credits" (is that a self-serving way of saying one class? or two?), and you feel comfortable judging the entire field? And dismissing the career of every sociologist? Don't you think that's pretty damn pompous?