All reasoning is based
on assumptions.
So let me begin with
some assumptions about
you, reader: You are a
serious and interested
student, who would
like to know a lot
about psychology, and
desires to specialize
in this science.
You (or your family) are
making significant
economic sacrifices
for this, and you
yourself invest
literally
at least 6 years of your
life to achieve this
goal - that is, to
become a competent,
scientifically capable
psychologist, who is
capable of doing good
scientific research
and of helping people
with psychological
problems. During those six years
of study - that you
could have spent with
a higher income and
without any
obligations on welfare
- you are dependent on
the whims and vagaries
of your teachers, for
whom you are supposed
to work without
payment other than
course points for
passed examinations,
while your academic
teachers, although they pretend to
treat you as their
equals, receive 8 to
10 times as much money
as you receive from
your loan or grant.
None of this would be
bad if two basic
conditions would have
been satisfied: 1.
That you will receive a
sound scientific
education, because 2.
your high-paid teachers
are on average
hard-working,
competent and
enthusiastic
researchers and
teachers of science,
and are otherwise
honest people.
But neither is the case.
What
is the case, and why, is
too complicated to
explain in one text
of a few pages, but what I
will provide here are
some considerations
that may help you to
fairly estimate the
education you receive
[in this university]
in its full
worthlessness:
I think that you and I
are being deliberately
deceived in the
University of
Amsterdam; that the
scientific training
that you receive has
no real scientific
merit; that the
examinations are
usually awfully bad;
that the lectures
are horribly boring
and uninspired, and
are presented in bad
Dutch; that the books
you are obliged to read
are usually bad or are
mediocre at best; that
you are entitled to
good syllabi and
abstracts provided by
your teachersm [which
you get from none];
that the practical
courses are
exceptionally bad,
and are designed without any
inspiration and
implemented awfully;
and that, in brief,
your lecturers and
professors usually are
didactical disasters who - deservedly - have no
scientific reputation
(outside the
Netherlands) and do
not publish anything
of value; and for the
rest are exceptionally
lazy, unmotivated and
boorishly impolite
(the last in case
you have any
criticism).
What I said In the
preceding paragraph I
have been saying [and
writing, in public]
since 11 years; I'm
38, I have studied
philosophy, psychology
and did Scandinavian
Studies at the
University of
Amsterdam, and the
reason
that you may never have
read this
is that I suffer since
10 years from a
rare muscular disease,
while I also have
had to go to court for
about 6 years,
because the
Executive Board of the
University of
Amsterdam refused to
provide me the rights
that I do have in
Dutch law [as the
court eventually
agreed with me].
I also have set up a
student movement that
was represented in the
University Parliament
(Dutrch:
Universiteits-raad =
UR) for some years. In the fal ofl 1982 I wrote
the following address
to the
University Parliament
that I reproduce below
almost literally,
since it is still relevant while it also
clarifies the
background of my
views.
I.
Some reasons of
principle why no (further)
financial cuts
should be made on
science education
and study grants.
1. science as a
cultural foundation:
In at least two
meanings of the word
"scientific" we live
in a scientific
society: Our
prosperity and our
environment are
largely the products
of centuries of
research, while a lot
of what we call "high
civilization" is based
on standards
for reasonable
discussion, empirical
research and rational
behavior that form a
part or are an extension
of scientific methods.
Science is of
fundamental
importance our
society: Apart
from a number of
political factors, our
current level of
prosperity based on an
age of scientific
research been made as
knowledge, culture and
technology and (until
very recently)
existing high
(preparatory)
scientific education to
apply and expand this knowledge and
culture.
Science is
fundamental to our
culture:
Methods of scientific reasoning
are our only
means to adequately
understand and explain
reality, and to
rationally criticize
senseless political
ideologies, derailed
religions and other
forms of
superstition.
And finally science
provides us with the
tools to alleviate
human suffering -
and it is a bitter and
tragic truth about our
time that, while there
exist for the first
time in the history of
human civilization
the knowledge and
methods to alleviate
global hunger,
disease, environmental pollution
and to eliminate these
for the most part,
only a very small part
of these existing
scientific
possibilities are
used.
Therefore there should
be no (further)
cutbacks on science
and education - since
after all:
- The Netherlands live
economically by
science and by
scientific
education.
Only by ensuring that
Dutch society
remains competitive
with other highly
developed countries
in terms of science
and by scientific
education can it be assured that
the Netherlands will
remain
prosperous.
- A large part of our
civilization is
based on science and
good (preparatory)
academic education
(see Section 1).
A society can only
maintain its high
level of
civilization by
providing the
largest possible
proportion of its
population
with the
highest possible
training. Whoever makes
cutbacks on
science
and
scientific education strangles civilization.
- Our society is based on
an ideal that is
also reflected in
the Declaration of
Human Rights (which
is part of the Dutch
law): Whoever has
the abiilities for and
interests in higher
education should
get the chance of
following higher
education
Then, students and
budget cuts: The
Minister of Education
still seems to intend
that the current
system of grants and
study loans will be
abolished and instead
students will be given
fl 3500, - annually
and be forced to live
on loans to get the rest
of the money to be
able to survive.
The result will be that
almost only children
of wealthy parents
will be able to study
in Holland, and the
Netherlands will
act contrary to
Article 26.1 of the Human Rights act ("Higher
education shall be
equally accessible
to all on the basis
of merit.
") Every student should be entitled to
welfare, both in terms
of social justice and
because studying is
socially important,
since presently doing
nothing at all in the
dole is financially
better paid than
studying all day to
pass university exams. (*)
II. Evaluation of the
University of
Amsterdam
The above was quoted
from something I wrote
six years ago, and
presented to the
University Parliament.
All three proposals were
voted upon in November
1982 and received one
vote, viz. that of my
group (the New
Amsterdam Student
Association, defunct
since 1984 defunct due
to the lack of student
interest in a good
scientific education). If that parliament had
been more sensible six
years ago, then maybe
the government's
educational policies
might have been less nonsensical and
damaging than they
were. But the members of the
University Parliament
of the UvA did not
want to react
reasonably, six years
ago. On the contrary: what the
the University
Parliament
wanted was "socially
relevant education",
"gay studies",
"feminism", and
politicized "science" that was
specially tailored to
the Five Year
Developmental Plan of
the UvA that declared that the university existed for the benefit of "the trade
union movement, the
women's movement, the
environmental
movement" and other leftist pressure
groups in the
Netherlands: From 1982
to 1987, during a
whole generation of
students, this was the
Development Plan in
terms of which the
University of
Amsterdam was
governed.
Now [in 1988] the
Executive Board that
the University of
Amsterdam
suddenly wants
"a technological
university", and now
the Executive Board
suddenly claims
that the kind of things
that I proposed six
years ago
to the UR. That turnaround of 180
degrees means that:
Either a whole student
generation at the UvA
has been defrauded
with utterly worthless
and totally mistakenly
oriented ill governned
"education", or else
the next student
generation the UvA,
will be defrauded by
denying them the
blessings of
"socially relevant
education mainly for
the benefit of the
trade union's
movement, the
women's movement and
the environment's
movement"
Or else it means that
the entire Board of the
University of
Amsterdam, its
Executive Board, the
University Parliament,
and the boards and
councils of faculties
of the university
provide
pseudo-government on
the basis of empty and impracticabler
slogans.
Clearly, I hold the
latter is true.
It is a deliberate scam
in exactly the same
sense as the treachery
of the priestly caste,
that has deceived and
parasited upon mankind
for ages: In that
sense, the UvA
intellectuals, in
terms of the Swedish
leftist intellectual
J. Myrdal, predominantly
consisted of "whores
of reason", who
abused their ever so
tiny little bit of
talent that they have
for careerism and
parasiting - except
that at a whore
least
gives that for which
she was paid,
whereas the professors
and lectures of the
UvA
are predominantly
focused on not doing
that for which they
are paid.
To make more clear why I
think so, and why I
think I have been
scammed
at the University of
Amsterdam (wherefore I
remigrated to Holland,
to receive a good
education, rather than
the scam I and my
generation of students
were subjected to), and
why I think
that the entire teaching
staff and the entire
management of the
University of Amsterdam
is responsible for this
utter scam, here follows
an extended quotation
from a letter of mine to
the Executive Board of
the University of
Amsterdam.
Quality of education
Lectures: I have
attended dozens and
dozens of lectures and
workgroups in
different faculties
given by dozens of
lecturers and
professors (usually only in part, given their
quality). With exactly ONE
exception they were
invariably bad: Poorly
presented, poorly
prepared, in bad
Dutch, without any
enthusiasm or apparent competrence or special interest in the
subject, almost never
accompanied by good
lecture notes or
summaries from the
treated books prepared
by the lecturers,
and never inspiring,
whereas the books in
use, with a few
exceptions, were poor or mediocre at best.
Moreover, the average
quality and interest
of the students, whose
own
contributions are
expected in working
groups, was normally
low, usually due
to factors
beyond their control,
such as the poor
pre-university
education that they
had received, which
led to difficulties in
the use of foreign
texts (no French, no
German) or with texts
that included some
mathematics.
Students: The
qualities of the
students were tested
almost exclusively by
almost invariably poor
multiple-choice exams.
Nothing was done in
the UvA about the bad
pre-university
education, although
this was urgently
needed in the areas of
foreign languages,
mathematics and
general knowledge.
Research into the
quality of M.A.-theses
written at the UvA,
that constitutes
excellent material to
base a valid judgement
about the qualities of
training and teaching
and the level of
knowledge and skills
provided by a course
of education in the
UvA, to my knowledge
never happened.
Lecturers and
professors: Your
lecturers and
professors are living
in a parasites
paradise: Nobody
controls them,
supposedly "because
nobody has the
qualities required to
do so"; they do not
have to satisfy any
criterions of quality
of any kind; and their
salaries are extremely
high, as are their
status and privileges.
The result is that the
vast majority of your
lecturers and
professors provide bad
and lazy lectures, and
do virtually no
scientific work of any
significance.
The COWO, the institute
of the University of
Amsterdan that is
supposed to measure
the quality of
education and
research, told me in
1982 that it would do
no research concerning
the qualities of the
lecturers and
professors, "because
this only would give
rise to large
quarrel". The received cant at the
University of
Amsterdam, that has
been publicly
expressed by the
Executive Board many
dozens of times is
that
"scientific qualities
can not be
objectively
determined".
The truth is that this
holds only if these
qualities are not
there.
And yes, there are some
dedicated and
competent lecturers
and professors, but
they constitute a very
small minority,
who fear for
their jobs and
therefore keep their
mouths shut about the
surrounding mess, flee
(Mr Spits,
statistics), or are
bullied away (Prof.
van de Grind,
physiology).
(Compare also the
brave, competent and
gifted UvA-teacher
Rentes de Carvalho, in
a long interview in
the Folia Civitatis
[the weekly of the
UvA] of September 9
last: This man speaks
the truth about the
University of
Amsterdam, and does so
based on 24 years
experience).
Contents of the education: A large
part of the education
you receive in the UvA
has little to do with
science and has
everything to do with
political superstitions: you are
studying in a faculty
that is still
dominated by the
political folklore
from the 1960's.
This leads to
totalitarian
education, in which
university lecturers
try to convince
students of the more
blatant nonsense, such
as "truth does not
exist", which is
highly useful for feminists and the
ASVA, but comes
straight from the pen
of Mao; "science and
rational thought are
morally
irresponsible",
because the mentally
retarded abhor
everything that
conflicts with their
prejudices, and "all
standards are
culturally relative",
which makes it very
easy for one to do as
one damned well
pleases without
listening to
arguments.
Finally: Anyone who
studied in the past 15
years at the UvA in a
softish "science" has
been defrauded and
scammed. As a student, you are
also in a hopeless
position to do
something about it (and
as I said: I have had
to go throught three
years of litigation
against the UvA about
something I was
clearly right about):
Your teachers are in
majority corrupt,
incompetent, and
dishonest - but they
all are entrenched
on the softest cushions
that are on offer in The
Netherlands, and only
governmental measures
can remove them before
their official
retirement [since all
university lecturers
and professors are
civil servants in The
Netherlands, and civil
servants have only
rights and no duties,
no personal
responsiblilty and no
personal
accountability in
Dutch practice since
the 1960's].
My advice to all
scientifically
interested and
talented students is
this: Try to do all
you can to study
abroad (eg USA,
England or
Scandinavia).
Here you are ripped off
by corrupt
incompetents, and
although you can very
easily get a degree,
the content is worth
virtually nothing - by
which both you and
society are seriously
harmed if you do not
do anything about it
yourself.
