It makes me sick when people put down others because of their level of education. I also find it extremely funny when I realize that half of the English majors in the world, from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, English majors with full scholarships and grants, are going to wind up working in fast food joints for the rest of their lives. I once knew a woman who went to Tulane University on full scholarship. Now she's thirty-four, works at a burger place, and frequents S&M bars whenever she's got the time off. I know several people, who have dropped out before even finishing their junior year of high school and make enough money to feed a small country for a year.
Somewhere along the way, society has corrupted us into thinking that schooling equals intelligence. I think that's the biggest heap of bullshit I've ever heard in my life. Some of the most intelligent people I've ever known in my life were high school dropouts or attend third-tier universities. The best writer I know is now newly unemployed and drinking keg beer in his apartment. And, for that matter, some of the biggest idiots, dumbasses, jerks, and bastards are attending the best universities in the country right now. Princeton, Yale, Harvard. The type of people I wouldn't even so much as give the time of day to because they're just too boring to be around. Who cares if they can prove this or that? They've memorized it all from the math books anyway.
I think it's sick when people judge someone over a piece of paper that has had less attention paid to its making than an ordinary bank check.
I don't think that anyone should be forced to go to college. I don't think there's much in college outside of booze and sex. Some people might say: "Oh you learn about organic chemistry" or "Oh you learn how to write." Well Jesus, if you wanted to learn about organic chemistry, then pick up a book at the library. If you wanted to learn how to write, then give it up, because there's no point in even learning if you don't know how at eighteen-years-old already. The more I attend college, the more I've become convinced that it is merely the coming together of many exceptionally mediocre people who try to override the averageness of their lives with diplomas and titles.
It's also interesting to point out that the most memorable people have never entered or finished college. Edgar Allen Poe. William Blake. William Shakespeare. John Milton. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Jack Kerouac. All of The Beatles. George Washington. And yet, look at who we study so vigorously in college. Shakespeare, Milton, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Blake, Poe. One could possibly say that we go to college to worship people who had the sense, the passion, and the talent to forego college. In other words, we go to college to study 'idiots,' people without 'education.'
And people say that dropouts are worthless, shallow, stupid. But what is worthlessness but to be forgotten as soon as the dirt on your grave settles? What is shallowness but to care only for money for as long as your heart beats? And what is stupidity but jealousy towards those who aren't as worthless and stupid as yourself?
by -
swallowedhalo