Word: harvard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...invited to Sweden for a hefty award down the line. Many of you may be recoiling in disgust, but if a good philosophical conversation interests you and you can't find the right conversation partner, then you know what sort of intellectual I mean is missing from Harvard...
...some ways, it's the entire Harvard attitude. For example, on other campuses current events matter. People begin statements "when I was watching the news..." or "as I just read in the Globe...." Dinner conversations can be about reports on the increase in dual AIDS-hepatitis C cases or the assassination attempt on a member of the Palestinian National Council, to quote some of last week's news that has gone unnoticed and unmentioned. On other campuses, people leave plays, concerts and especially speeches charged up, ready to fight out their beliefs and talk about how they felt challenged...
...Harvard seems populated with people I would fit into two large groups, which have some overlap: the leaders and the hard workers...
...leaders are often Harvard's pride and those students most easily confused with intellectuals. They found groups, they take on massive projects, they organize and coordinate large student activities from the Hasty Pudding to Project HEALTH to the IOP. They work long hours, put in incredible amounts of effort and make important changes in the quality of life for Harvard students and the surrounding communities, but leadership alone does not make an intellectual. These leaders could enthusiastically talk you under the table with plans for new improvements and new programs but are just as unlikely to know why it matters...
Which brings us to the next category: the hard workers, probably the most deeply anti-intellectual group at Harvard. Some work hard in their classes and can be found at all hours at computer terminals or in the bio labs, and some work hard at not working: scheduling the perfect weekend, planning the cheapest way to hit Paris and Acapulco during reading period or beating the next level on the newest Nintendo game. These people are focused and do the work that gets the grade--or at least gets them by--but ask for their thoughts and their eyes glaze...