Listening to Robert Shiller's Coursera lectures on Financial Markets. Loved the following in Lecture 2:
Adam Smith wrote 2 books. The first one is called "The Theory of Moral Sentiments". In it, he says most people thrive on praise. That's what they need more than anything. However, the mature ones then graduate to wanting to be praiseworthy rather than just to be praised. It doesn't matter to them whether they are recognized and given praise as long as they feel that their actions are praiseworthy. Society and nations benefit when they seek out such people and give them positions of authority. Most normal mature adults make a transition from the desire of praise to a desire of praiseworthiness. He says its that tendency ultimately which makes an economy work, where people don't care just about praise. The successful society promote people up those who have the praiseworthiness desire, we try to recognize them and we try to put people of character into important positions

I agree on article's premise of amorality of universities and culture being a private occupation.

From:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303650204579374740405172228?mod=djemITP_h

The question, in other words, isn't whether society will benefit from its educated population having a substantive familiarity with Jane Austen's novels or the Peloponnesian War but whether universities in their present state—philosophically amoral, awash with bogus and ever-multiplying subdisciplines—can be trusted to meet that goal....

... Professors of the humanities are so determined to defend their positions as the guardians of their turf (what I'm calling "turf" used to be called a canon) that they forget they are its servants...

...As the possessor of an expensive doctoral degree in English from an ancient university, I admit with regret my suspicion that, even taking into account Ms. Small's analysis, the "humanities" have only a very limited place in a modern higher-education curriculum. For those wishing to "read shrewdly and write well" or to attain "more complexly valuable" experiences, there are museums and opera houses. And of course books.

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

"Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."
-Lincoln

If a business earns 6% on capital over forty years, you’re not going to make much different than 6% return, even if you buy it at a huge discount. Conversely, if a business earns 18% on capital, you’ll end up with one hell of a return long term, even if you pay an expensive looking price."
-- Charlie Munger