I’m sorry, I know everybody is tired of my university drama but I have to share the argument in favor of eliminating physics and Chinese that is advanced by our Chancellor:
Somehow, we are able to comprehend the elimination of jobs occupied by milk delivery men, typewriter repair technicians or elevator operators. It is far more difficult to embrace the contemporary analog. Yet, in our daily living, it is increasingly difficult to avoid self-checkout, and half of people shopping in the grocery store aisles are fulfilling online orders. The elimination of some positions, the creation of new ones, restructuring or making organizational changes should not, by default, be understood as a sign of financial trouble.
Yes, physics is totally the equivalent of home milk delivery. And speaking Chinese has been phased out by the disappearance of Chinese speakers from the planet. They must have left it for another galaxy together with milkmen.
Speaking of which, I believe that home deliveries of fresh milk straight from a cow were a wonderful thing. So there’s nothing much to celebrate in the loss of that custom.
The funny thing, though, is that I’ve heard these arguments from my Dean delivered verbatim. This is cultish behavior at its scariest. One intellectually impoverished dude comes up with an analogy between physics and typewriter repair and then a bunch of people with PhDs eagerly repeat this extraordinary piece of silliness. Honestly, what grade would you give to a freshman student who’d come up with such an analogy? It’s embarrassing.
Clarissa's Blog 
per my 13yo, reading over my shoulder: that looks like it was written by an AI, but he thinks it isn’t because it sort of makes sense. But it’s phrased like an AI.
Agreed that life didn’t get better for eliminating milkmen, travel agents, and cashiers.
But the idea that a physics department can be replaced by the academic equivalent of a self-check-out… is alarming.
Also alarming:
“should not, by default, be understood as a sign of financial trouble”
That he even used the phrase “financial trouble” in there says… your institution is already bankrupt.
I hope you have another job lined up.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The 13yo has a great feel for the language. I can also bet anything that AI was used in the writing of this screed.
And yes, this dude repeats the phrase “we are not in a budget crisis” so often and with so little provocation that it becomes clear we are in a raging budget crisis. Nobody comes up to you and says, “Look, don’t worry, everything is completely fine, you are perfectly safe, stay calm, it’s going to be OK” if everything is really fine.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I stay away from all that AI stuff. Even when I run across it by accident it gives me the creeps. 13yo tinkers around with building them, thinks they are dumb but funny.
LikeLike
My grandparents used to have their groceries delivered and pay at the end of the month. Some people are saying that this new tech has simply reinvented the old delivery boy.
LikeLike
I happen to love self-checkout, since it means I don’t have to interact with anyone and also guarantees that my groceries will be bagged correctly. But I would love to see the return of milk delivered to my house in glass bottles.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I hate the self-check-out because I have had to memorize the surprisingly long list of things you can’t purchase in self-check-out without getting some kind of special authorization from the one actual employee (if you’re lucky) in charge of the 15 self-check-out units: alcohol, cough medicine, spray paint, glue, diabetic testing supplies, vacuum cleaners… every time I think I’ve discovered all of them, I get another fun onscreen message informing me of some new wrinkle.
In a checkout: a cashier with a functioning brain can look at me, see I’m middle-aged, and never even ask for ID. A cashier with even half a functioning brain can look at my ID *right then* and move on. In the self-check-out lane, I get the flashy red light, and then the human employee will get to me as soon as she’s done cashiering for the 2-3 people in the corral who really don’t understand (and never will) how to use a self-check-out (or how to keep track of the balance on their SNAP cards). If I’m in any kind of hurry, I have to just leave stuff behind and check out without the offending item/s. There’s always at least one lane with a regular cashier. It takes half an hour to get through there, because it’s the cigarette lane and everybody in line has to show ID, and then takes five minutes figuring out what brand of cigarillos to buy.
SCO probably works great in upscale markets. Total nightmare here.
LikeLike
The self-checkouts where I shop all work fine, thank goodness.
LikeLike
The checkouts themselves work.
But they can’t check your ID when it is legally required, can’t answer questions about possible insurance coverage, can’t deal with anything that might be covered by a warranty…
LikeLike
I see what you mean. I get off easy because I never buy anything that requires ID, insurance coverage is never an issue, and neither are warranties. If I ever run into any of those situations I’ll definitely avoid the self checkout.
LikeLike
I never even use insurance or buy warranties: it’s just that if the option is attached to those items in the system, you need a cashier to get past that step in the checkout process. May vary with the store, but things that require ID will get you everywhere: alcohol, glue, spraypaint, and combustibles (and who knows what’ll surprise me next!).
LikeLike
Wow, that’s weird. I don’t recall that ever happening to me, and I’ve used SCO for years.
LikeLike
State laws on ID-things may vary.
LikeLike
bluebird of bitterness
Yes, and with the inch and a half of cream on the top, My grandfather put half of it in my grandmother’s tea and the rest in my oatmeal, yeah, that rough and tough old patriarch spoiled us both ;-D
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Some people are saying that this new tech has simply reinvented the old delivery boy.”
Only it hasn’t. A high-trust society (paying at the end of the month, which was when salaried people received their salaries) has been replaced by a (zero-trust) service society, and all thanks to highly invasive digital technology, whereby actual, real money has been replaced by bytes, in the same way as real, actual relationships have been replaced by virtual fantasies and many people seem unable to realise that they are being duped.
But then, who cares, it’s all about “comfort” and “convenience”. Whose comfort, whose convenience they never ask.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I am quite certain that if our Chancellor read your comment,he would not have the intellect to understand what you are saying. His thinking, if one can call it that, happens on a level where the concepts you use are as befuddling to him as they would be to a 4-year-old child.
And this is the entire problem. Vacuous, superficial people like this Chancellor are empowered to impose their twaddle on everybody like it’s perfectly normal.
LikeLike
Traditionally, real money means gold, which SA has historically dominated. Unfortunately, the current government has undermined the mining economy, which should be benefitting from the current situation.
https://www.bwm.co.za/2024/01/12/magnus-heystek-the-jses-slow-demise-as-ramaphoria-turns-to-dysphoria/
LikeLike