[Affric]

I don't know if you're being flippant but the information at universities is neither secret nor sacred. Sure, there is a stupid price for academic journals but most of it can be found freely on the internet.

Eldership, acceptance into a hierarchy based on deeds and demonstrated virtue within a relatively small social grouping that does not recognize the value of money is, I believe, worthwhile. And the socially formal recognition, not easily won nor necessarily expected from anyone who has not been permitted to give it perhaps recognises that our society has values and that you are still expected to grow, even as an adult.

[rKarpinski]

> I don't know if you're being flippant but the information at universities is neither secret nor sacred. Sure, there is a stupid price for academic journals but most of it can be found freely on the internet.

Those institutions are chalk full of secret & sacred knowledge. Good luck becoming POTUS, a Tech Billionaire or Nobel Prize winner through freely available information on the internet.

> Eldership, acceptance into a hierarchy based on deeds and demonstrated virtue within a relatively small social grouping that does not recognize the value of money is, I believe, worthwhile. And the socially formal recognition, not easily won nor necessarily expected from anyone who has not been permitted to give it perhaps recognises that our society has values and that you are still expected to grow, even as an adult.

The point is we already have an extremely rigid hierarchy that encompasses our entire society (the mandarin system would be envious, it was just for officialdom!) and unfortunately unlike your ideal - it is not independent of money & does not expect growth.

We've had only 1 president and 1 supreme court justice in my lifetime who didn't attend the Ivy league. It's already de facto, why expand it or make it de jure? This sort of credentialism is what brought us the Bay of Pigs & the War in Iraq.