Our University-Culture, Chapter 3: Our Postmodern/University Culture (Part 2)
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III. The Flight from Creativity
What I just said about literature could also be said about the other arts. Probably most painters now have MFAs. Again, my brother is one of them. There is nothing inherently wrong with such programs, but my brother faced the same situation in his art classes: he had to conform to do well, only doing his experimental work away from the art classes he was taking. And art is in an equally stagnant state, with artists mostly tinkering around the edges. Perhaps this is little more than the fine-tuning that follows periods of immense creativity. After all, technological innovation seems to be following the same pattern, with practically everything we use having in fact been invented prior to World War II — phones, computers, planes, rockets — and everything since then being mostly fine-tuning of those initial, creative innovations.
But it may also be more than coincidental that this period of high-innovation stagnation has coincided with the push for more people to enter college. This began with the G.I. Bill following World War II, and this push has done anything but slow down. As of 2013, almost 66% of all high school graduates were enrolled…
