Modern Orthodoxy and Academia

Modern Orthodoxy has close ties to academia and often looks to it for wisdom and style. Often this has good results. This is nearly impossible for people on the right to understand, that something goes on in colleges other than fornication and teachings about evolution. I won't explain here why this show ignorance about the true chochmah and maddah that can be found in academia. But what the Modern world often forgets is the problems of the elite university upper west side of Manhattan kind of world. Even the liberal side of that world often forgets just how much big business and big aggressive government is tied into universities. Nearly all the famous ones have big bucks and that shouldn't be surprising. At the University of Michigan nearly all the great buildings were donated by rich guys: Rackham is from Ford money, the Law school from a Wall St. lawyer, Clements from Panama canal money. I'm not trying to sound anti-business and I'm not criticizing wealthy people for donating money to the school. I'm just saying that sometimes academic types live in a bubble and pretend they live in some cloud lined fantasy land. They are above money. Oh yeah sure.

The universities themselves take the life savings and future earnings of millions of kids that really have no interest in being intellectuals and only want to make a living, something schools don't really try to give them, despite appearances and promises otherwise. This whole fantasy effete quality of academia seeps into Modern Orthodoxy, often with very bad results. It's fine for the well paid leaders but not so good for the average Joe. Pre-nups are an example. This is a glamour issue, everyone loves to write papers about it. Does it really help the average couple to start off with a divorce plan? Does it really help every couple to start off life with massive debt from graduate degrees they'll never use? This is a problem with the typical American. How much worse for people living under the frum tax. Same with marrying late for the sake of that graduate degree. Academia feels like a religion. It all seems so holy and truthful. Some of it is truthful. Never forget though, it's built on money to a large extent and where there's big money, there's big untruths and selfishness.