Does The Atlantic’s website (1.4 digital subscriptions, which is in the Top 10 for “news” sites) have any clue about its audience—are demographics too pedestrian for study—and what it wants to read, or better yet, seeks articles that will challenge their preconceived ideas about politics and culture? Could be that’s a naïve, or stupid, question, but I’m curious. The Atlantic, as so many “elite” journalists and commentators know, is very well-funded by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs and you’ll never receive an email requesting donations or the chance to buying raffle tickets for a case of rare French wine (if the rabble in that country hasn’t yet torched the wine cellars).
Why, for example, would The Atlantic publish a years-out-date (though studded with links from “experts”) article—“Time to Consider Becoming a Bricklayer”—on the decimation of traditional ideas about the importance for young men and women to attend college. Staff writer Annie Lowrey (a graduate of Harvard who’s married to New York Times self-proclaimed Big Thinker Ezra Klein, a mere millionaire) offers no conclusions that haven’t been bandied about, obviously “more in sorrow than anger,” dozens of times just since last June.
She writes: “Imagine that you’re one of the 3.8 million American teenagers on track to graduate from high school next spring. You’ve been told your whole life that knowledge work is the future and that a college degree is high-speed ticket to the middle class.” (This article has a time stamp of October 2nd, 2026, not October 2nd, 2014). She continues: “In many regions, early-career blue-collar workers are making six figures a year. For the first time in recent history, high-school graduates are experiencing shorter jobless spells than their peers with a college degree.”
This warmed-over, if factual, nugget reminds me of the late-1990s when “dotcom” magazines like The Industry Standard were so deluged with advertisements that editors were frantic to find articles to fill the space of 480-page issues just to meet the USPS requirement that a periodical must include at least 25 percent editorial content. This lasted maybe 18 months before that sector’s crash, and most of those publications folded; The Industry Standard filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The Atlantic, as a digital forum, has no such restrictions, but take a look at its roster of essays on any given day, and you’d swear their well-remunerated college graduates have quotas to fill.
How else to explain Lowrey’s useless report? As noted above, her story begins by referring to high school students graduating next spring, as in 2027. Surely, these teenagers, and their parents, have wised up to the fact that college isn’t an automatic “high-speed ticket to the middle class,” but is an opportunity to spend a fortune (or worse, student-loan debt that may or may not be paid) on what’s often a useless degree.
My wife and I found this out in 2011, when our oldest son, at our insistence, applied to, and was accepted at, a film school in New York City, and, after two days there, was turned off not only by pretentious academics but also the students. He “dropped out” (I was lucky to get a full refund for that first semester), figuring he could learn more by himself. We were horrified—both of us had degrees and, like people in the last half of the 20th century, it’s just what you did. But ultimately, it was his decision, we abided by it, and now see that he was correct. Our younger son did attend a D.C college, but disliked stilted “campus life” (although his literature courses were worthwhile) and, wanting to move on to “real life” graduated in three years.
More currently, Louise Perry, writing for The Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” section, muses on the weird-and-getting-weirder Cornell sexual assault case, and, somewhat prudishly, I think, blames the “sexual revolution” in the late-1960s for the controversy. She writes: “The arrival of reliable contraception and legal abortion in the modern era has allowed those in positions of parental authority to ignore the sexual behavior of the young people in their care. In most cases, both sides are amenable to this arrangement, since young people generally don’t want to be subjected to restrictions on their sex lives, and those in loco parentis generally don’t want to suffer the hassle and embarrassment of trying to interfere.”
The “arrival” of “reliable contraception and legal abortion” is hardly of the “modern era,” unless you believe 1973 is “modern.” When my two oldest brothers were in college, the parietal system was still in place, and likely did more harm than good. My friends and I went to college in the mid-1970s, and campus culture was socially relaxed. The classes were rigorous—I’d guess unlike today—but it was a valuable part of my life, and led to a fulfilling career.
The picture above is from a spring afternoon on the Johns Hopkins campus, and was typical of a less restrictive and paranoid lifestyle. I’m certain that untoward, putting it mildly, sexual behavior occurred, but it wasn’t the norm. Over four years, I heard of two frat house “gang-bangs,” which might’ve been locker-room talk, and was appalled, as were my friends. I believe that most young adults—including the frisky and introverted—are essentially decent people, and that hasn’t changed over the years.
Take a look at the clues to figure out the year: John Braine’s The Pious Agent, Georgette Heyer’s My Lord John, Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and Philip Agee’s Inside the Company are published; Michael Shaara wins the Fiction Pulitzer Prize; King Crimson’s USA is released; the Yankees’ Catfish Hunter led the Majors with 328 innings pitched; the Dodgers’ Davey Lopes had the most stolen bases (77); Karen Ann Quinlen becomes comatose; the Golden State Warriors win the NBA Championship; Bradley Cooper is born and Susan Hayward dies; and Linda McCartney is arrested in Los Angeles for cannabis possession.
—Follow Russ Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER2023