The Ivy League Cartel

Do you believe the eight Ivy League institutions are a cartel that should be broken up by America’s federal government without further delay? If so, you might wish to check out Sam Haselby and Matt Stoller’s piece for The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “It’s Time to Break Up the Ivy League Cartel” in which the writers essentially argue that the Ivy League institutions are antithetical to our American democracy. Or you can just read the piece if you’re having trouble falling asleep at bedtime as we do believe there’s a high likelihood the article will put you to sleep. Yes, it’s a snoozefest.

As Haselby and Stoller write, “The Civil War and Reconstruction first and the civil-rights movement second constitute the greatest achievements in modern American democracy. Both occurred during high points of public education. In the former, radical Republicans seized control of the government and created America’s land-grant universities, which rank high among the country’s great institutional triumphs in culture and democracy. The civil-rights movement unfolded after substantial Cold War investment in high-quality public university education. But the United States has spent the last 30 years moving away from this kind of democratic education — and toward a gilded meritocracy. America’s elite private schools remain strongholds of the drunken post-Cold War triumphalism that hoards wealth and privilege to private institutions at the expense of public and democratic ones.”

So apparently the Ivy League schools are “strongholds of drunken post-Cold War triumphalism that hoards wealth and privilege.” Interestingly, this sentence is just so fancy that it inspired us to check where the authors who penned the column, Haselby and Stoller, themselves completed their studies. Because surely such opponents of privilege and wealth went to their local public universities rather than elitist Ivy League institutions, right? Well, no. Sam Haselby earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University of the Ivy League. Matt Stoller? Well, he went to Harvard University, also of the Ivy League. Yes, the piece’s snooty writing style made it all too obvious that both writers, true men of the people and antagonists of all things snooty, studied at the very schools they feel the need to attack. We know. Our readers are shocked. Bye, Felicia.