An UNMUTED Dialogue - Did the Ivies Fail America?
DOORS OPEN AT 6:30, SHOW STARTS AT 7
Eight schools. A sliver of America's students. And somehow a staggering share of its presidents, judges, CEOs, editors, and Nobel laureates. No institution in American life concentrates prestige like the Ivy League. The only question is whether that's a scandal or an achievement.
So: did the Ivy League fail America, or is it the last thing we're still getting right?
For the prosecution, the answer is damning. The Ivies became gatekeepers twice over. Culturally, they decided which ideas were respectable and which got you exiled, then staffed the institutions that enforce those boundaries. And in research, they hoard the endowments, the grants, and the prestige that determine what gets studied and who gets to study it. A handful of campuses became a chokepoint on American thought, and most of the country never got a say.
For the defense, that's a story the resentful tell themselves. These institutions produce the science that cures disease, the research that wins wars and Nobel Prizes, the talent that builds the companies everyone else relies on. The Ivies aren't gatekeeping American excellence. They're manufacturing it, the way they have for three centuries. Tear them down and you don't democratize genius. You just lose it.
One side says the gate is the problem. The other says the gate is the point.
Mark Carlson is a reformed elitist and high finance professional with scary amount of non-fiction books in his apartment. He claims to have seen the rot from the inside at Columbia University, and has transitioned from liberal to conservative as his time away from the institution increases.
Victor Agbafe is the most Ivy decorated person UNMUTED knows. A graduate of Harvard College, Yale Law and School of Management, and UMichigan MD (yeah yeah, it's a public Ivy), this guy lives and breaths these institution. He's better positioned than anyone to defend the machinations and purpose of the Ivy League.
Two perspectives. One night. A lot of elitists doing elitist things (or-durvs and pinkies up).
Moderated by Maura Cremin, a half-elitist (non-ivy undergrad + Harvard Law). Let's get it on. Drinks provided.
UNMUTED is the place where talking points go to die. Talk politics. Keep your friends. Make new ones.