Academia is a cult?
Something that David Graeber said that opened my eyes.<p>Until the 1970s or so, Universities were actually a guild for academics geared towards the production of knowledge. They had self rules, titles, apprenticeship systems, and to some degree the backing and protection of the state. Plus like a true medieval guild, they were run by the masters of the guild itself. Sure, they did not call themselves guilds, but in form and function they behaved like one.<p>The reason why this arrangement was allowed to stay from ancient days is that the universities performed a useful function for local and federal governments, unlike craft guilds. Governments need a <i>lot</i> of trained clerks, always have. Universities however only need professors to replace the dying batch, as the production of knowledge really wasn&#x27;t tied to markets or social whims per-se. So a large part of the educated students were turned towards government jobs, a useful arrangement for both parties.<p>This setup appears to have broken down pretty recently, although exactly why is left as an exercise for the reader.