A retired Full Professor from the University of Minho has penned a compelling piece titled "Predicting the Future," reflecting on the critical role of chaos in the success of organizations. In it, he explores how unpredictability and disorder can act as catalysts for growth and innovation https://pacheco-torgal.blogspot.com/2021/11/academia-portuguesa-necessita-de.html
But this raises a fundamental question: what kind of chaos does academia truly need? Should it cultivate slack chaos, a state of looseness and flexibility that allows for serendipitous discoveries, fostering “an increase in creative projects, particularly relatively complex, high-quality ones”? Or should it embrace Schumpeterian creative destruction, tearing down outdated structures to make way for radical reinvention? Alternatively, is the most potent form of chaos the kind evoked by Milton in Paradise Lost—the utterly disruptive, all-consuming upheaval embodied in the defiant words, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven"?
PS - The image above captures a defining moment: Satan in the Council, summoning the rebel angels. His famous speech, imbued with defiance and ambition, echoes—at least to my ears—the rhetoric of Niall Ferguson, who appears determined to carve out his own dominion in the form of a new, and perhaps infernal, academic institution. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/15/not-so-hidden-purpose-university-austin/
