I haven't been part of academia for decades now, but it was where I spent close to half my life. I liked to brag (more like "humble-brag") that I entered university in 1971 but they didn't let me out until 1998. That's because, shortly after graduating with two degrees from McGill, I was hired by a conservatory and later another university to teach.
Since I left academia in 1998 I have heard more and more about "woke" academia and the Congressional Hearings with the presidents of MIT, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard were a pretty good indicator of what has been going on. "Woke" academia, at least from my perspective, has been infected with all sorts of ideological strains such as "settler-colonialism," "systematic racism," and just plain old antisemitism. I'm not going to bother dissecting any of these as it has been done elsewhere, plus I haven't heard any arguments that are worth responding to.
Recently I have heard a new phrase, "dark academia" which is, as far as I can tell, just the old academia before it got drive-byed by the woke. Here is a little clip about which fountain pen inks are suitable for dark academia pursuits:
Mind you, I'm not sure he entirely understands what is going on with dark academia, but hey, let a hundred flowers bloom, I say. We also seem to have something called "Dark Classical Music"
Of course they are going to start with the Moonlight Sonata. Oh god, there is even a fashion aesthetic:
But things are really going off the deep end:
Re the music, Erik Satie and Beethoven are NOT 18th century! But the mere fact that something called, however loosely, "Dark Academia" is trending seems, uh, interesting at least. So let me hasten to provide some real 18th century music to do whatever it is you are doing to:
UPDATE: From the other side of the room: British countryside can evoke ‘dark nationalist’ feelings in paintings, warns museum.
A sign for the Nature gallery states: “Landscape paintings were also always entangled with national identity.
“The countryside was seen as a direct link to the past, and therefore a true reflection of the essence of a nation.
“Paintings showing rolling English hills or lush French fields reinforced loyalty and pride towards a homeland.
“The darker side of evoking this nationalist feeling is the implication that only those with a historical tie to the land have a right to belong.”
That a country even has a history and traditions seems deeply threatening to the progressive intelligentsia.
