Oh, RISD. Many, many years ago I applied to its MFA program, along with four or five others, and was rejected by them all. Two years in a row. One of my college art profs called this 100% failure rate a "dubious honor". At the time I was devastated. Now? I can only thank God that He knew better than I did.
As someone born and raised in RI (got the hell out in 1997!), RISD has always been a liberal cesspool. And don't forget - it's right down the street from Brown. If you walk down the streets of Providence around the college campus areas, every single store has a rainbow flag and a blm flag in their windows. RI is lost. The whole state. My entire family is there and they don't see it. They're completely blind to it all because they've never lived anywhere else to see what normalcy looks like.
I'm not from RI but I graduated from URI back in the 90s, just as NAFTA kicked in and Clinton gave China Most Favored Nation trade status. All the textile mills that sustained the RI economy were either gone or on their way out by the time I graduated. It's now a depressed, high unemployment dump. It's a shame because the southern RI and Narragansett Bay/Newport area are beautiful. SAD.
When I was working for a major manufacturer in RI in the late 80's/early 90's, I had to pick up a client at the airport for my boss. He was shocked to see how wooded parts of the state were from the air. He had no idea that we had forests and beautiful coastlines. I can't imagine what he'd think of it today. It's not the same at all.
The gloss is that some folks who thought the Boston puritans were "a bit much" founded RI as a sort of multiculti alternative.
Interesting that they bought land from the Narragansetts. The badass 'Gansetts were so fiercely kicking the asses of the Wampanoags that, ironically, Wamp sachem Massasoit decided to ally with the Plymouth settlers in 1620. It worked for a few generations, but then the tribes together recognized they were being overrun by palefaces. They tried to exterminate the English in King Phillips War, per capita about the worst bloodletting in US history.
Lesson learned? I dunno. As Vonnegut said, history-- read it and weep.
Very well-researched and depressing as all hell. Revolutions are about the self-perceived "outs" wanting to replace the perceived "ins." That's exactly what's going on here.
It is truly disheartening (to say the least) to learn of these dangerous movements! While students struggle to meet their financial obligations in a bloated academic economy- they are confronted with phony 'challenges' that do nothing less than create DISunity, DISharmony, DISturbance.
In such an atmosphere- where exactly is the 'education'? I have many friends who attended RISD- an art school! Next to Pratt, the premiere art and design school in the US...until this. As a Boomer, I am offended by the utterly intentional driving of racial, gender, socio-economic wedges in the cleavages of once truly open academia- for all. Funny, the inverted discrimination. DIEvy League, indeed!
Not "suicide," Gary. It is akin to parasitical infection, one that ultimately destroys the host. I think it's some kind of human curse, visible everywhere, throughout history.
Sometimes the person we curse is ourselves. Sometimes the person we curse is another and we don't realize we're doing it. When you DO realize, and don't change, I don't know if cognitive dissonance is sufficient explanation--maybe it's just evil.
I am hoping that the Trump team jumps in on this. The school and the administration should be deeply investigated. Charged and imprisoned. Start doing the time and a lot of this will end. They do it because they get away with it. Spoiled children that were not raised right.
This is a good thought, but it's not as effective as letting the demoralized continue to out themselves so they're easier to fire as a group all at once rather than individuals. MSNBC and CNN can only hire so many of these professionally useless people.
It's funny--that's where a lot of the ideas come from, or, rather, the thin veneer of false intellectual rigor built on a flimsy foundation of invalid assumptions and lies.
The question arises, over and over: Who ARE these assholes? And how are they always, but ALWAYS, able to gain control of formerly successful organizations? They show up everywhere, operating like termites, illustrating a kind of human curse: the destruction of empires and civilizations, writ small.
"And how are they always, but ALWAYS, able to gain control of formerly successful organizations?"
I apologize for getting all Nietzschean here, but everything works off morality and is downstream from morality, and America closed its eyes and slept for 2 generations as a new potent morality (Social Justice) was gradually conquering every educational and cultural institution. In Social Justice, the stigma of past oppression becomes the most important value and credential and "rectifying historical injustice" becomes the new first purpose of every endeavor—and only evil bigots oppose or dissent. (James Lindsay calls this "Race Marxism", which I think comes close to nailing it.)
Liberals ignored it because they have no enemies to the Left, and conservatives ignored it because they didn't believe anything that couldn't be monetized could have lasting power and influence. Now it's simply too late and the rot will have to eat its way through everything until these things collapse, sort of like a termite infestation.
Moral to the story: don't let people who hate you educate your children!
I don't want to be a doomsayer, but I think we've reached the point where our society is no longer viable. Not to say that there are a majority of us who aren't trying, but the rot has gone too deep into too many institutions. The steps required to fix these issues is too painful for the average non-property owning urban dweller to complete. Rural citizens who have a connection to the land are besieged by the rot and can't enact the steps to fix the problem. Soon the only solutions won't be peaceful or within the constraints of the current structures. I pray that I'm wrong, but essays like today's leave me pessimistic for our prospects.
I think if you look back to the last elections, I think you will find the proof in that pudding. Next steps are important, and if they're not right, yeah, I'm right there with you.
RISD = Retard Island School of Design. The whole state is like this. When Alberta looks to join the U.S. RI can be subsumed into Karenchusettes so there are still 50 states.
As an aside David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads all met at and graduated from RISD. All this DEI nonsense is enough to get one humming Psycho Killer.
The postmodern studio art pedagogy is probably the least resistant frame of mind to deal with DEI stuff. It's all feels, all vibes, prioritizing social acceptance relegating substance (hence why they are all bad artists), all deconstruction without any of the actual-critical analysis (they'd rather hear themselves talk about about art than make art that is never seen). I've worked with a few RISD grads while living in Boston and they were woefully unprepared for the woke tsunami, totally got swept up. Everyone I know from RISD/Brown has max-TDS, it's really too bad. I remember visiting a friend who was in James Franco's printmaking class (this was probably back in 2011) and although that bygone pal has long since blocked me for supporting MAGA, even he said after graduating, "I think I got worse at art these past four years."
I always found RISD pretty strange and offputting but they did seem to genuinely cultivate creativity and they hired a brilliant misfit friend of mine who's one of the most brilliant people I know. But this is heartbreaking to read, and it seems like there's no possibility of saving the institution because there's nothing left to save. RIP RISD, let's hope you get replaced with some lofts and coffee shops after you get sued into much-deserved oblivion.
This may sound like a Klavanon-esque conspiracy theory, but there are alternative institutions that can be rapidly bootstrapped. Just have to get the right balance of "learn to do actual stuff" and "use the modern tools in such a way as to do actual stuff without melting your brain." If a schmuck like me can do it--use all the AIs--anybody can do it.
Oh, RISD. Many, many years ago I applied to its MFA program, along with four or five others, and was rejected by them all. Two years in a row. One of my college art profs called this 100% failure rate a "dubious honor". At the time I was devastated. Now? I can only thank God that He knew better than I did.
As someone born and raised in RI (got the hell out in 1997!), RISD has always been a liberal cesspool. And don't forget - it's right down the street from Brown. If you walk down the streets of Providence around the college campus areas, every single store has a rainbow flag and a blm flag in their windows. RI is lost. The whole state. My entire family is there and they don't see it. They're completely blind to it all because they've never lived anywhere else to see what normalcy looks like.
I'm not from RI but I graduated from URI back in the 90s, just as NAFTA kicked in and Clinton gave China Most Favored Nation trade status. All the textile mills that sustained the RI economy were either gone or on their way out by the time I graduated. It's now a depressed, high unemployment dump. It's a shame because the southern RI and Narragansett Bay/Newport area are beautiful. SAD.
When I was working for a major manufacturer in RI in the late 80's/early 90's, I had to pick up a client at the airport for my boss. He was shocked to see how wooded parts of the state were from the air. He had no idea that we had forests and beautiful coastlines. I can't imagine what he'd think of it today. It's not the same at all.
Well, it's a small state ...
Wasn't RI already some kind of socialist commune in colonial days?
The gloss is that some folks who thought the Boston puritans were "a bit much" founded RI as a sort of multiculti alternative.
Interesting that they bought land from the Narragansetts. The badass 'Gansetts were so fiercely kicking the asses of the Wampanoags that, ironically, Wamp sachem Massasoit decided to ally with the Plymouth settlers in 1620. It worked for a few generations, but then the tribes together recognized they were being overrun by palefaces. They tried to exterminate the English in King Phillips War, per capita about the worst bloodletting in US history.
Lesson learned? I dunno. As Vonnegut said, history-- read it and weep.
I mean we weren't taught it like that in school (one year of high school history was all RI history) but yeah, you could say it was.
Very well-researched and depressing as all hell. Revolutions are about the self-perceived "outs" wanting to replace the perceived "ins." That's exactly what's going on here.
It is truly disheartening (to say the least) to learn of these dangerous movements! While students struggle to meet their financial obligations in a bloated academic economy- they are confronted with phony 'challenges' that do nothing less than create DISunity, DISharmony, DISturbance.
In such an atmosphere- where exactly is the 'education'? I have many friends who attended RISD- an art school! Next to Pratt, the premiere art and design school in the US...until this. As a Boomer, I am offended by the utterly intentional driving of racial, gender, socio-economic wedges in the cleavages of once truly open academia- for all. Funny, the inverted discrimination. DIEvy League, indeed!
Organizational Suicide
Not "suicide," Gary. It is akin to parasitical infection, one that ultimately destroys the host. I think it's some kind of human curse, visible everywhere, throughout history.
I dunno Jim, it is a voluntary act.
Sometimes the person we curse is ourselves. Sometimes the person we curse is another and we don't realize we're doing it. When you DO realize, and don't change, I don't know if cognitive dissonance is sufficient explanation--maybe it's just evil.
I am hoping that the Trump team jumps in on this. The school and the administration should be deeply investigated. Charged and imprisoned. Start doing the time and a lot of this will end. They do it because they get away with it. Spoiled children that were not raised right.
This is a good thought, but it's not as effective as letting the demoralized continue to out themselves so they're easier to fire as a group all at once rather than individuals. MSNBC and CNN can only hire so many of these professionally useless people.
Yowza! I haven't seen that much brown decor since the late 70s.
It's funny--that's where a lot of the ideas come from, or, rather, the thin veneer of false intellectual rigor built on a flimsy foundation of invalid assumptions and lies.
The question arises, over and over: Who ARE these assholes? And how are they always, but ALWAYS, able to gain control of formerly successful organizations? They show up everywhere, operating like termites, illustrating a kind of human curse: the destruction of empires and civilizations, writ small.
"And how are they always, but ALWAYS, able to gain control of formerly successful organizations?"
I apologize for getting all Nietzschean here, but everything works off morality and is downstream from morality, and America closed its eyes and slept for 2 generations as a new potent morality (Social Justice) was gradually conquering every educational and cultural institution. In Social Justice, the stigma of past oppression becomes the most important value and credential and "rectifying historical injustice" becomes the new first purpose of every endeavor—and only evil bigots oppose or dissent. (James Lindsay calls this "Race Marxism", which I think comes close to nailing it.)
Liberals ignored it because they have no enemies to the Left, and conservatives ignored it because they didn't believe anything that couldn't be monetized could have lasting power and influence. Now it's simply too late and the rot will have to eat its way through everything until these things collapse, sort of like a termite infestation.
Moral to the story: don't let people who hate you educate your children!
"Moral to the story: don't let people who hate you educate your children!" Name checks. Quality reply. Thanks.
introducing ….the rhode island school of decline.
...currently rearranging deck chairs on their own Titanic, and throwing the gold bars off as fast as they can next. Lawbreakers should go to prison.
Isn't it interesting that the least diverse person in any organization is always the Diversity administrator?
Obvious, right?!
I don't want to be a doomsayer, but I think we've reached the point where our society is no longer viable. Not to say that there are a majority of us who aren't trying, but the rot has gone too deep into too many institutions. The steps required to fix these issues is too painful for the average non-property owning urban dweller to complete. Rural citizens who have a connection to the land are besieged by the rot and can't enact the steps to fix the problem. Soon the only solutions won't be peaceful or within the constraints of the current structures. I pray that I'm wrong, but essays like today's leave me pessimistic for our prospects.
I think if you look back to the last elections, I think you will find the proof in that pudding. Next steps are important, and if they're not right, yeah, I'm right there with you.
Exposing lies, DOGEING IT!
RISD = Retard Island School of Design. The whole state is like this. When Alberta looks to join the U.S. RI can be subsumed into Karenchusettes so there are still 50 states.
As an aside David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads all met at and graduated from RISD. All this DEI nonsense is enough to get one humming Psycho Killer.
I was wondering how far down I’d have to scroll for a Talking Heads reference. Thank you for remembering.
Is this a requirement I wasn't read in on? Genuinely asking. Must have been some water flowing underground rather than in the comments section here.
One on the best concerts I’ve ever been to was them at Forest Hills in ‘84 on the Stop Making Sense tour.
The postmodern studio art pedagogy is probably the least resistant frame of mind to deal with DEI stuff. It's all feels, all vibes, prioritizing social acceptance relegating substance (hence why they are all bad artists), all deconstruction without any of the actual-critical analysis (they'd rather hear themselves talk about about art than make art that is never seen). I've worked with a few RISD grads while living in Boston and they were woefully unprepared for the woke tsunami, totally got swept up. Everyone I know from RISD/Brown has max-TDS, it's really too bad. I remember visiting a friend who was in James Franco's printmaking class (this was probably back in 2011) and although that bygone pal has long since blocked me for supporting MAGA, even he said after graduating, "I think I got worse at art these past four years."
I always found RISD pretty strange and offputting but they did seem to genuinely cultivate creativity and they hired a brilliant misfit friend of mine who's one of the most brilliant people I know. But this is heartbreaking to read, and it seems like there's no possibility of saving the institution because there's nothing left to save. RIP RISD, let's hope you get replaced with some lofts and coffee shops after you get sued into much-deserved oblivion.
This may sound like a Klavanon-esque conspiracy theory, but there are alternative institutions that can be rapidly bootstrapped. Just have to get the right balance of "learn to do actual stuff" and "use the modern tools in such a way as to do actual stuff without melting your brain." If a schmuck like me can do it--use all the AIs--anybody can do it.
RISD has nothing on OCADU (my alma mater). The latter was full-on in the early aughts (I was there in 2005), just not in name.
I heard it got a lot worse in the last 20 years.