DukeEthicist: paint brushes vs. test tubes

What does the Trinity-Pratt rivalry look like from an ethical standpoint?

Rivalry. It isn’t always a bad thing; in fact, it’s often quite the opposite. A healthy dose of competitiveness precludes higher levels of engagement and personal investment, and typically promotes better performance. It’s when competitiveness takes on a malicious edge and becomes equally about debasing the adversary as helping oneself that it becomes morally problematic.

Unfortunately, this is the case with the Trinity-Pratt rivalry. Its defining feature is also its ethical downfall: the better-than-you mentality. Fully immersed in Duke’s high achieving environment, and perhaps not achieving quite as highly as would be ideal, many a student has turned to the I’m-in-Pratt-[or-Trinity]-and-so-I’m-better-than-you mentality to justify themselves and their work.

It goes something like this: I am an engineer (or a premed, or a prelaw, or insert any other path of study here) and what I do is more important than what anybody else does. It’s also far more difficult, and takes far more work than anything those slackers in Trinity--or Pratt, if spoken by a Trinity student--could ever deal with. I’m obviously smarter than them, and more dedicated; and I’m going to do far better things with my life. I deserve a pat on the back, a gold star, about five million dollars, and a boatload of respect.

Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration.

Then again, it may not be.

And that’s why the rivalry is a problem. The dual ethical shortcomings of perceived entitlement and lack of regard transform the Trinity-Pratt divide from a benign classificatory difference into a legitimate threat. Not an exaggeration.

To combat it, let’s bring respect back into the picture – respect of the varied abilities and affinities that make us the unique and successful people we are. I sure as hell couldn’t do that math and physics stuff you engineers do, and I’m forever in awe of all the lab time you put in and the exams you sit for. It’s damn impressive, and important, and I’m glad you all exist to take to it. But please don’t knock my essays, novels, or artistic compositions. Or my career path. What I do is just as important, just as vital to a balanced world, and just as deserving of respect.