Is it any surprise that a night like that gave birth to a day like today, where suddenly I had no greater desire then to accomplish my insignificant projects that I still hope will build into something greater?
Even recovering as I was, it seemed so worth while to stand in the heat of the blazing sun to hear the thoughts of a few people who I deeply respect, not because of what anyone says about them, but because of what no one can say about them. It is strange to find that I miss hearing the thoughts of people who aren't afraid -- like I wish I wasn't afraid -- of what people think of them. In their jokes and suggestions they seemed to justify all that I am aiming for right now. They are not great people by most measures of greatness, but their lack of pretensions is refreshing.
One more thing occurred to me last night. A parallel between a speech made in Atlas Shrugged and a debate on tv about how the proposed health care plan would affect small businesses:
"This is the age of the common man, they tell us -- a title which any man may claim to the extent of such distinction as he has managed not to achieve. He will rise to a rank of nobility by means of the effort he has failed to make, he well be honored for such virtue as he has not displayed, and he will be paid for the goods which he did not produce. But we -- we who who must atone for the guilt of ability -- we will work to support him as he orders, with his pleasure as our only reward. Since we have more to contribute, we will have the least to say."
Even as I reconsider the passage, I recall hearing a man who owned a company of no more then a hundred employees saying that businesses like his were not considered because he didn't have a lobbyist working for him. These small businesses don't have men in Washington. Just the representatives who they hoped would remember that these small employers "pay 44% of total U.S. private payroll" and "have generated 64% of net new jobs over the past 15 years." I remember also how my dad sat and ranted yesterday about how Obama is doing this as someone with no understanding of the great crime he is attempting to commit because the man has never held a non-government job with the exception of a single professor's position in which he used to mangle the constitution in front of classrooms full of students.
Is this the future that we were told to look forward to? I cannot believe that this mockery he is making of the democratic process in a capitalist country will be allowed to go on. I cannot believe that this is, and should be, the end result of years of "higher learning." Such a thought seems inconceivable, yet here we are with our paper degrees proud of what we know, while the philosophers sit on street corners and engineering minds flip burgers because they could not put up with the most terrible lie of all. The lie that only those who never participate in any truly hard work within the material realm can believe with full conviction. The lie that school, as it is now, is made to educate.
Those columns that were once made of marble are plaster now, my friends. The ivory halls are a facade, and unless you missed it, the gate of opportunity closed before we even arrived. All these institutions seem capable of doing now is indoctrinating young people with flawed ideals and handing out those pieces of paper that undeniably prove that they can put up with whatever B.S. is thrown at them for at least 4 years.
Sorry for the tangent to education again though. I guess it still irks me that I've learned more about business, health, finance, philosophy and psychology in my stolen moments away from "education" then I ever did in class. (And to head of any comments on this last sentence, I read books like a fish drinks water when I'm not in school.) I dunno... I guess it works for some people... somehow... We'll blame my A.D.D. that I don't understand how, at least for now.
2 comments:
I get what you're saying. I guess the reason I personally put up with the BS is because, at least right now, I can't do anything about it. So I bide my time, listen to the professors who have valuable things to teach me and try to block out--or not take classes with--the ones that don't, and just get the piece of paper knowing that it means I learned SOMETHING, at least.
The piece of paper is just a ticket to a place where I hope I can change the way things are run, I guess.
I think I get what you're talking about. It makes sense actually. As far as education goes I've learned a lot in class but that's also because I've got some wacky professors. And still sometimes I think the profs teach too much BS.
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