You make some fine points. How responsible does it leave one within such a system? If you're encouraged to be pragmatic and leverage the hell out of everything, what incentive could there possibly be for a higher good or even ideals to act on? Frankly, such a state of affairs is disheartening to me. Then again, I'm trying to take on a natural long-term development of a great mix of human needs and desires by trying to institute an artificial order over it in the way I most see fit — an image that is most definitely not shared by the majority of the population. Boo hoo for me being disappointed that the world doesn't bow to my will. I know I would feel concerned about the idea that my efforts to bring up a good person are not the focal point of my child's upbringing. While the goals between me and many other parents are not similar (I don't believe many aim at raising a person with an outstanding foundation of axiological perspectives, per se), I do recognize how a parent might feel dismayed at such a notion. Changing parents is, naturally, out of the equation: it's not an option. That being said, parenting classes might create a better perspective by providing important information to act on. (next thing I'm expecting is you telling me this is not how most people operate, either) I'm a person of optimization and problem-solving. I aim at creating all-encompassing collections of data that, when provided in an efficient enough manner, could catalyze a more profound understanding of the subject — or simply collect all the available information that's currently disparate. Creating one for people similar to my own mindset is something I find a worthwhile endeavor, but I keep getting reminded that that is by far not the biggest part of the population. If I want to create something similar to a bigger group than simply those who share most of the personality traits with me, I suspect I would require an outside perspective from someone at whom the work is aimed. Clashes of personalities, then, seem unavoidable.it's a failing of an educational system deeply reliant on clients spending vast sums of money on something abstract that will not recuperate their expenses for a decade or more.
The only way to get there is to start early with the idea that the civil sphere is the source of morality, not the family, and that rarely goes well.
So a point we keep not connecting on is the peculiar environment of the American university. I've repeatedly observed that the collegiate environment within the United States has grown increasingly cloistered and that the social mores within its walled garden reflect that of the world without to a lesser and lesser degree. A corollary to this would be the economic system that led to this walled garden: student loans are outsized compared to incomes, colleges and universities are increasingly dependent on tuition rather than grants and public funding to stay afloat, and the caliber of an undergraduate degree matters less than simply possessing one which means many universities are competing using luxury dorm rooms, health centers, concierge service and other perqs that are completely divorced from the academic environment. So we've got a bunch of kids going deeply into debt that are choosing whether to spend their money at one deeply-pampering environment or another. they're being told that their feelings matter and that equality and equity are the most important thing. Effectively, they're being given knives and being told that they're expected to stab. I just don't see this as a problem with the kids. I see this as a perfectly natural reaction by the kids. More than that, I think most kids understand that they occupy a special environment with weird rules and that they're playing by them. The outrage is real - the butthurt is real - but it doesn't take much for a person to acclimate to a new ruleset. This is why i raise the Google Manifesto - the dominant culture amongst high-achieving college graduates is not one of "i'm special because I'm black" it's one of "I'm special because I'm white and male and everyone else better shut the fuck up." I agree that the environment we're creating at universities is counter-productive. I disagree that the symptoms displayed there are spreading into the greater world. I have no interest in belittling your concerns but I would caution you to focus on the sources and motivations of your information. Vast swaths of the world are in better shape than you've been led to believe.
We're not connecting on that point because we're talking about different things now. You're still on the specific subject while I went on to a more general problem. The point of optimization is not to eliminate the bad. The point of optimization is to improve the object. "Functional" is merely a step on the ladder.