English

Write a 500-750 word response (excluding any headers) to “The Next Decade Could be Even Worse” by Graeme Wood.
Note: You should read the boldfaced section of Wood’s article at the very least, but you are obviously more than welcome to read the entire piece.
Consider chapter material from The Death of Expertise as a potential way to support your claims. 
 

Specifics:

Responses should present an identifiable thesis, and be argumentative in tone.
Responses should cite material from the work of Wood and/or Nichols only.
Please be judicious in the amount of outside scholarship you present. I would like you to use the work of Wood and/or Nichols as a springboard for your own analysis.
Please format papers in correct MLA style. A Works Cited page is not required.
 

Preface:

In the DOE chapter on higher education, author Tom Nichols suggests current and emerging problems with a heavily-degreed society. Nichols takes no prisoners on this front; he critiques the student side, the teacher side, and the administrative side. He claims that college degrees have become devalued over time, and that the number of people with advanced degrees has created an oversaturated job market.

I can attest to the second point. The very first teaching job I ever applied for had over 400 applicants. This trend is especially prevalent in the the liberal and fine arts. A friend and colleague of mine made an excellent point: When you have folks with PhD’s from Yale applying for teaching positions at small, mid-level state universities, what does it mean for everyone else? In other words, how is a newly-minted PhD from, say, NIU going to compete? I’m not saying NIU is a bad school; quite the contrary. But… a qualified job candidate with an Ivy League background carries real academic clout. The brand name recognition alone will be a major selling point to the mid-level college or university in question.

Graeme Wood, in “The Next Decade Could be Even Worse,” points out that this phenomenon is contributing to what Professor Peter Turchin calls a “bloated elite class.” In other words, too many entitled know-it-all’s (would be “experts,” to quote Nichols), and not enough jobs. Turchin argues that when a highly-educated “ruling” class cannot find legitimate power, they turn on their own establishment. Turchin later mentions political anecdotes as they relate to current events (this piece was written in November–around the time of the election). I don’t think the examples cited are meant to stoke partisan rhetoric, but may explain a somewhat cynical view of U.S. populism.

Politics aside, think about the larger issues at stake: What does this mean in terms of the overall value of your position as a college student in 2020? How about your specific degree program? Presuming we make some real vaccine progress and the pandemic subsides, how will your status as a future degree holder change the way the world perceives you? 

The Essay:       

Write a 500-750 word essay that considers Wood’s article and Turchin’s central argument. I am leaving this fairly open-ended because I am genuinely curious to hear your point-of view. Please keep your essay narrowly focused, with logical paragraph breaks.

Some potential questions to consider as a “springboard” for analysis:

Do you hold any strong positions about what it means to be an “elite” member of society?
Is being “elite” a bad thing? If so, why is it perceived that way?
Who do you personally consider to be the elite in this country? Someone with political power? A successful entrepreneur? Someone who went to Harvard or Yale? Anyone with a college degree? Explain.  
In a post-pandemic world, when things get “back to normal,” what do you think things will be like in terms of the job market? Will the prevailing white collar/”elite”/educated class continue to secure lucrative corporate jobs? Will there be a renewed rise in the blue collar workforce, perhaps with the suggested integration of a New Deal-style public works program? Will entry level service industry jobs return, and will they ever be able to provide an improved/sustainable/living wage? If so, what will this take?
Beyond the analysis provided by Turchin and Wood, what do you think has accounted for the rise in populism around the world (especially in the United States?)
What does it mean to be middle class in 2020? Is being middle class a bad thing? Can we ever get back to a scenario that features societal groups (“tribes”) that get along with each other and function in harmony? At the risk of sounding elitist, can we ever get back to a socio-economic scenario where people “know their place” (or are at least comfortable with their place?) What circumstances will this depend on?