I do not think higher education is a dystopian system. I would like to add that my definition of a dystopia is is a society marked by immoral, unethical, and unfavorable treatment of its citizens. To claim that higher education is a dystopian society is to claim it is oppressive and unethical. From my experience, I have not had any of these issues. The only major problem it has caused me was debt. Maybe this can be considered a modern form of oppression and unfavorable treatment. If so, this is the only thing I can think of.
From my experience, higher education has not had repressive tendencies. However, I am aware that historically, the actions of some universities have been unethical and can be considered a dystopia. The Tuskegee Study is known for its research on untreated syphilis in the Negro male. It was a 40-year experiment conducted by the Public Health Service. Researchers followed 600 rural black men with syphilis throughout their lives. A total of 600 African American men — 399 who had syphilis and 201 who did not — in Macon County, Alabama, were involved in the initiative. Researchers did not obtain the informed consent of the participants. The men were told they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local euphemism for various ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. Men received free medical tests, meals, and funeral insurance from participating in the study. Health personnel kept watch on the men, but they were given only placebos like aspirin and mineral supplements. Officials refused to tell them their diagnoses and actively denied them treatment. Researchers gave no effective care as the men died, became blind, or insane, or experienced other serious health problems due to their untreated syphilis in order to trace the disease’s whole evolution. In 1943 penicillin was offered as a treatment for syphilis and became widely available. However, researchers did not provide participants in the Tuskegee study with the treatment. By the time the study ended, 28 people had died of syphilis, another 100 had died of related complications, and at least 40 spouses had been diagnosed with the disease. Due to the Tuskegee experiment, many African Americans developed a great distrust of public health professionals and vaccines. This has had a long-lasting effect as many African Americans still do not trust some health professionals or vaccines.
I am a sophomore psychology pre-med major. I am also from Houston Tx
