An Academic Giant
May 22, 2019
THE heavy metal rock musician Jon Bon Jovi is now an academic star of the Ivy League. On Monday he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by the University of Pennsylvania, joining other famous scholars, such as Dolly Parton, Oprah Winfrey and Kanye West, who have all in recent years won advanced degrees from American universities or colleges. The university explains:
Since forming in 1983, Bon Jovi has sold more than 130 million albums, earning status as one of the world’s best-selling musical groups, and has performed in more than 50 countries for over 37 million fans.
Oh my! He has millions of fan. Give that man a doctorate. He deserves it.
Bon Jovi once expressed his credo:
“I wanted to rebel against anything and everything, and it happened that I was able to do it by playing rock and roll in a band.” (Metal Edge, Aug. 1987, p. 12).
What a heady message for students who have just stepped off (perhaps) the treadmill of competitive education, where for more than 15 years they have toiled and finally won the privilege of saying, “I’m a graduate of Penn” (without ever finding out what life means.) And in all those years, they never could rebel against the demanding prerogatives of relentlessly competitive education, which strangely and consistently avoids answering the interesting question of what life means aside from “working hard and playing hard.” Thanks, Bon Jovi, for rebelling for us and making us feel like rebels when we’re not. Give that man a doctorate.
The more demanding, expensive and unforgiving Higher Ed becomes the more it celebrates empty gestures of rebellion and idols of nihilism like Bon Jovi. Interesting how Penn graduates tolerate this insult to intellectual accomplishment — don’t celebrities have enough awards of their own? But then they don’t teach too much strenuous thinking at Penn. Increasingly, to be a scholar is to be a propaganda artist, a political agitator or an entertainer.
Awarding a heavy metal musician an honorary doctorate in music is like awarding Satan an honorary doctorate in theology. Here is Bon Jovi engaged in heavy scholarship. But you have probably heard his achievements playing loudly on the speakers at your local pharmacy, supermarket, mall, gym or gas station. Corporate America loves to inject this rebel’s music into your veins! Perhaps you are even one of his 37 million rebels.
“I ain’t gonna do what I don’t want to,” says Bon Jovi in his song “Have a Nice Day.” Slaves like to think that too.
— Comments —
NP writes:
If I were dictator, the first thing I’d do (other than establish world peace and all that) is to abolish all doctoral degrees that are not equivalent to an M.D., Ph.D. or a near equivalent. As I mentioned before, “Dr. Jill Biden” has an Ed.D with the pathbreaking thesis of how to keep students in community college. I’m an attorney and I’d never dream of calling myself “doctor” because I have a juris doctorate degree. Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife Lynne has a Ph.D. that concerned Matthew Arnold and Kant. She’s never insisted on being called “doctor.” Wanna bet if Dr. Jill has heard of Arnold or Kant? Well, I’m being sarcastic but one wonders.
