Liberation is getting out of those traps.
We get a sense of security from those traps. It is a false security.
After all, who amongst us is 100% certain of surviving the pandemic?
1/ A different way to think about life.
Our lives are all too often governed by living up to other people's opinion of us. We have this fear of appearing foolish, fear of being seen as unsophisticated, fear of missing out on things, fear of losing face.
Prestige is a trap.
Liberation is getting out of those traps.
We get a sense of security from those traps. It is a false security.
After all, who amongst us is 100% certain of surviving the pandemic?
Deeply understanding that is liberation.
Once we achieve that liberation, we quit seeking that false security that mental traps provide.
Our actions are now untainted by fear or ego.
We don't seek the liberation to be able to achieve wealth or prestige or status. They may come to us and they may not. In a true sense, we are not slaves to those. We become masters of ourselves.
More from Sridhar Vembu
More from Life
"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
As a dean of a major academic institution, I could not have said this. But I will now. Requiring such statements in applications for appointments and promotions is an affront to academic freedom, and diminishes the true value of diversity, equity of inclusion by trivializing it. https://t.co/NfcI5VLODi
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) November 10, 2018
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
