Anti-Education by Nietzsche, and why mainstream culture does our best thinking
If I am reading this right, the argument goes something like this: (1) Nietzsche was anti-academic and did his best work independently. (2) He was against academia being used as a means to nation-state ends, and he disliked how that undermined independent, critical thought. (3) There are similar problems today in academia where it goes against independent thinking. (4) The best independent thinking comes through not in high culture, but mainstream culture and it better explores issues than academia.<p>IMO, the problem is communication. If you read academic writing (especially in the humanities) it can seem like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo and the person writing it is not really trying to communicate anything intelligent, but is just trying to sound impressive. I believe this is mostly not true. Rather, the problem is the same with technical documentation that is high in rigor and detail, but low in learnability; the problem is that it is difficult to communicate. The person writing will usually (IMO) have something in them they are sincerely trying to express.<p>The goal of entertainment is to entertain, but it also has to appeal at least somewhat to the passions of the creators and the intellects of the viewers. So thinking finds its way through that medium and can reach a mass audience. It is not that academia has no potential to do the same, it is just that there is not a dynamic set up which brings it out very well.