When you are young, the world presents itself as torrent of new ideas. On a simple thought level, what’s not attractive about socialism or any number of other utopian schemes? But as you get older you have to deal with the process and consequences of real world implementation. At that point you become like the child confronted with the fact that his favorite square peg does not fit neatly into the round hole. You either grab the round peg, or you grab for an even larger hammer.

“The senior on his graduation day is not an educated man; he is an ignoramus. However, if he has learned enough to know that he is an ignoramus, some day he will probably attain something like culture, have enough knowledge to be called educated–as education in this world goes.”

Unfortunately, these days the university goes out of its way to not teach the senior enough to realize he’s an ignoramus. So much of what passes for a college education, especially outside of STEM, these days seem designed to ensure the student doesn’t “learn to order his thoughts-such as they are.”