02.11.2026
Is it surprising that in a research or education context, like a university, a museum or an art gallery, that everything is more important than the knowledge or the research? The education, the research, the collection, all of these are less important than making money. Than treating the place like a business. Each of these institutions betrays its primary purpose to treat the place like a cash cow. The museums and art galleries keep on thinking up ways to make money through new events and temporary exhibitions rather than keeping the focus on the stories that they are custodians of. As though the place is not enough in itself to draw people. The universities? Instead of nurturing talent and a research contribution, they make themselves as toxic a place as possible because they want to make money. It’s evident in the ever rising fees that they charge. At the same time, they make it impossible for any of the academics to work in them and actually produce the research. And yet, these places call themselves charities because of their educational mission.
In these places, it is not love of the subject matter or expertise in it that matters. Not the qualifications of the staff in relevant areas. These are ranked as the lowest priority. They are not even really considered. Because the focus is not on education, research or the collection.
In a philistine culture like that of the United Kingdom, knowledge is not valued in an educational context. Education is not valued in an educational context. Enthusiasm and passion for a subject are not valued in an educational context. Yes, even the places which are supposedly about knowledge and education do not value these things themselves.
Who do you blame it on? One could blame it on the managers. They do not care about knowledge and education. They care about making money. About treating these places as cash cows, aiming to rinse every single penny from the customers.
One could blame it on the public. The public do not care about knowledge, education and culture. The public do not value knowledge, education and culture. They want these things for free. Free entry to museums and art galleries. Free books and knowledge. They don’t care that people have to work to create these spaces, invest in these spaces. That people have to somehow support themselves to bring knowledge into the world. To write books and journal articles, to research.
One could blame the government. By giving free schooling to the philistines, they have created an expectation that education is worthless. By paying teachers and university professors a low wage, they have valued education, research and knowledge as less than other occupations. And the signal has been sent out to society.
So, the educational institutions keep on prioritising money and not research and education. In these contexts, it is true what Jesus Christ said:
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money [mammon]” (Matthew 6:19–24).
When your priority is money, then you cannot serve knowledge and the treasures of the spirit. And we are seeing that with our places of education. We are watching money destroy these spaces and yet, no one will do anything to stop it. Because this is the reign of an entire system that only worships money, not knowledge.
