Blog or Not? |
|
|
A statistically improbable polymath's views on politics and culture.
Stuff to Read Alice Hutton Baraita Ask Bilal Chicagoist Crescat Sententia General J.C. Christian Class Maledictorian Crooked Timber Daniel Drezner Deleuzean Potato (aka Colin McFaul) Eschaton Feministe Gawker Half the Sins of Mankind (PG) Hugo Schwyzer Matthew Yglesias Maurinski Mouse Words Pandagon What Would Phoebe Do? TAPped The Volokh Conspiracy Lord Whimsy (unrelated to Lord Peter Wimsey) Wonkette Site Feed Archives 01/01/2003 - 02/01/2003 02/01/2003 - 03/01/2003 03/01/2003 - 04/01/2003 04/01/2003 - 05/01/2003 05/01/2003 - 06/01/2003 06/01/2003 - 07/01/2003 07/01/2003 - 08/01/2003 08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003 09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003 10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003 12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 Current
« ? chicago blogs # » << chicago blogs >> 
|
Friday, April 16, 2004
Down on the fief
A while back some Michigan law students were discussing how feudalism could work in a modern-day setting, prompting one to ponder becoming feudal lord (is the word "lord" gender-neutral? can the word "lady" denote the ruler of a fief?) of Michigan Law School. Since then I've developed the conviction that Hyde Park is, in the most important aspects, pretty much operating under a feudal system: 1. One owner of property--in medieval feudalism, the state/church, in the case of Hyde Park, the University of Chicago. While the University doesn't own all of the land in Hyde Park, it owns at least 50% of it--much of it it rents out to tenants, a la... 2. The fief system--Much of the real estate the University owns isn't part of the University--instead, it's residential (apartment buildings) and commercial (the Hyde Park Shopping Center, the Harper Court Shopping Center). 3. The buildings that aren't owned by the University are often either owned by or rented by professors--the knights of this fair kingdom, I suppose. 4. Which I guess makes the undergraduate students pages, and the graduate students squires. I mean, look at the deference we pay to professors--our tone of supplicance in the word "Professor" is almost identical to a page's "My lord". The administrative staff are stewards, which means they can boss around the "pages" and "squires". 5. But the University still isn't an independent state. No, it's under the dominion of King Richard the Second of the House of Daley, himself under the dominion of Emperor George the Second of the House of Bush. His Imperial Highness was elected, in the style of the Holy Roman Emperors of old, by a small, odd number of electors (in the HRE, 7; the Supreme Court has 9). Two of these electors, Chancellor Scalia and Chancellor Stevens, have sworn fealty to the University of Chicago. I haven't even covered the architecture (Gothic) yet, the massive private police force (the palace guards?), and the contentious relations with the bergers and peasants of Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Woodlawn. Or the tournaments (Scav Hunt for the pages, Nobel nominating committees, debates, and peer reviews for the knights). All that's really needed is a moat. Wait, weren't they once thinking of making the Midway into a canal?
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
