Aristotle studied for at least 20 years under Plato( he was already in his late teens when he came over) and they want us to be working by the time we are eighteen.Yes, that's right.They don't care whether one can comprehend what is binomial theorem is ,all they want is that one should be able to say-
"Do you want fries with that?"
It is diabolical how all that is promoted is production, with no authentic respect for understanding.
Holden, Nietzsche witnessed the mockery of Philosophy, and we witness the utter mockery of mathematical knowledge. They will wish to make fools of the mathematically inclined or mathematically mature adults who have no earning power or are disabled by depression and anxiety. It allows the fascists in charge, the Little Big Shots with Some Power, the Power to call the Police, which is Mr. and Mrs. Everyone, to get off on having the unconventionally intelligent at their mercy.
I am witnessing this in our era, Holden. They will turn Knowledge of Pure Mathematics into the equivalent of PhD in Philosophy ...
Our species is far too vulnerable and weak - as you say, filled with fear, terror, horror, and even psychological shame and sense of humiliation and disgrace; malice, rancor, envy, acrimony, ressentiment (resentment?) ...
We are manipulated by those who control the masses by the fear of Public Opinion.
Maybe poems I wrote while drunk in 2003 (and posted on the InterWebs) might have ensured I would never be gainfully employed in New Jersey. Who knows?