Thread

1. wrs · 1790799936 · focus · HN ↗

   I’m a CMU SCS alum (actually I predate SCS being a full school). Please, someone make me feel better about this. They’re renaming the school after this person.

   1. Maken · 1790800880 · focus · HN ↗

      Who cares? The entire university was named after the first guy who handed them money. It's their oldest tradition.

      1. t0mpr1c3 · 1790803383 · focus · HN ↗

         IIRC Carnegie was the original archetype of the rapacious union-busting wage-suppressing monopolistic billionaire robber baron, and Mellon was all that plus a corrupt self-dealing all-but-impeached laissez-faire Treasury-secretary-cum-megabanker whose deflationary and protectionist response to the Wall Street Crash caused unemployment and destitution on a historic scale.

         But yeah this Griffin guy could give the place a bad name. (Full disclosure, I did a postdoc at the SCS.)

         1. mmooss · 1790804082 · focus · HN ↗

            Andrew Carnegie no longer has power or influence, so it doesn't matter. Griffin has both, and the school enhances it and becomes a vehicle for it. Will the Miami campus be free to violate Griffin's beliefs? Are 'woke' educational programs allowed?

            1. AnimalMuppet · 1790867538 · focus · HN ↗

               But Carnegie did, for the rest of his life. Griffin will, for the rest of his life. The distinction you're trying to draw is merely you being a prisoner of the moment.

               1. mmooss · 1790871803 · focus · HN ↗

                  > you being a prisoner of the moment

                  ? You can't go back in time either (though I don't mean to assume!). The moments we're dealing with are now and the future.

                  If your argument is, 'they did it before therefore it's a good idea or ok now', I don't know what to say to you. Perhaps you are a prisoner of the past, which prevents us from moving forward.

         2. MengerSponge · 1790804153 · focus · HN ↗

            At least those guys had the horse sense to understand the importance of giving something back to the public. The Carnegie libraries are a marvel.

            Their contemporary equivalents seem to be interested in speedrunning a revolution that ends badly for everyone.

            1. t0mpr1c3 · 1790808980 · focus · HN ↗

               The Jeff Bezos no-dick yacht club is a competitive space. Who is the most repellent -- Ellison? Zuck?

               Musk's narcissism is unsurpassed in that he forsees a legacy that excludes the entire human race, except for those aboard his space expedition.

               But Bill Gates has something of the Carnegie trajectory about him. I think there is actually a Gates building at CMU.

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