The Empty Campus. Education and Miseducation in the Global New Age.

Even to the most passionate advocate of the contemporary age, it appears relatively clear that our society is facing a number of issues, whether they be of an economical, environmental, or political nature. But what if the solution to those problems could be something that precedes them? A common trait that unifies them all? In this work, the author of The Empty Campus, starting from a documented series of cultural premises, depicts an image of society rooted in the ideas of education, real learning, knowledge, and understanding that could serve as an antidote to many of the wrongdoings of our species. The main goal of this essay is to address some of the worst facets of the current situation of learning and the overall cultural situation of our time, pointing to its human and political implications, while offering an analysis of what the author considers to be the unperceived tragedy of our age. The Empty Campus grows from a profound concern for the deepest roots of what makes us civilized beings and the passion for learning and understanding that defines civilization in its opposition to barbarism. The author points out that the absolute barbarian is the one who lives only for himself in some sort of egotistical infinite present, someone who cannot have any cultural frame of reference from the past or any stake in the future because only real knowledge, the depository of values transcending the vulgar and the immediate, is capable of giving roots to a wider perception of human existence and granting a view that is more than the basic needs required for survival: humans are not meant to survive, they are meant to live, and mere survival is not a real life. Access to real knowledge represents, according to the author, access to real life. 

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