johnm wrote:There will always be countries, groups, mindsets working to their own ends at the expense of all others.
There's no reason why that should always be true, always is a very long time and we should be working towards a better world by encouraging co-operation and collaboration, which doesn't need common culture and religion etc. just tolerance and understanding and a few common standards and aims.
Cambridge and other major universities have been international for a very long time and with good reason. The same is true of major universities in other countries.
my original response was to your post...
johnm wrote:Cambridge connections were truly global and in particular there was a lot of tooing and froing between the two Cambridges (MIT and Harvard at the other one) .
It's not the practicalities of Brexit that are of concern but the perception and attitudes it has brought. Previous partners in EU collaborations are no longer including the UK in future project plans as they did, fewer EU students are coming & they're going to the USA and Far East instead. That wouldn't be a huge problem (though it has an immediate financial impact in loss of funding) except that connections forged during student days often continue into careers and that can be a significant loss of influence.
Cambridge and the arrival of less students from the EU.
My response was to offer those few places not taken by EU students, to UK students, not make Cambridge UK only. It would still be very much international, and do remember, the international status of these Universities was built off the back of them being the cream of Great Britains Universities, no the EU's. International students including European students were coming to Cambridge long before the EU existed.
I hate to burst your bubble, but the global equality you dream of will only happen as a result of a global disaster or at the hands of some one like Hugo Drax (film, not book) . To voluntarily equalise all people would mean an awful lot of people, like everybody on this forum, giving up an awful lot.
To even consider a long term project such as that, you would need to initially stop the global population growth. In what are currently third world countries, you would need to enforce a mass sterilization program. Lets face it, if the starving of Africa can't realise that having more children is only going to make their plight worse, you are going to do need to do a hell of a lot to achieve Utopia.
The quickest way to fall out with people is, discuss politics.