On liberal arts

The UC system has always been able to boast about the well-rounded education that it affords its students - nerds can feel free to shove electrodes up their dick while free-thinkers and pretentious hipsters like myself can read too much into things and still earn a diploma. When you pay upwards of 30 grand for a four-year experience, you better damn well be getting the most out of it. It’s important that everyone get some degree of education, whether it be going to clown college or dropping out of high school, having an educated populace is the last line of defense between the civilized and the Bible Belt.

When the budget is strained, most of the time universities scramble to cut the fat from their programs - getting rid of non-essential employees, slashing funding for programs to ribbons, and my favorite, downsizing liberal arts education while keeping everything else the way it is. Studies in the humanities during economic downturn face a significant wane in interest, as students turn to the practical majors that ensure job security after graduation. It makes sense, certainly, to want to be able to pay back the loans you take out for a pricey education, and the college degree is no longer the surefire ticket it was to a cushy lifestyle of champagne and hookers.

Even though my major is looked down upon as “worthless” in most circles compared to say, a biology major, liberal arts is still absolutely essential to having a well-rounded education. You can learn about the exact sexual organs of pigs all you want, but that information is purely technical. It doesn’t engage critical thinking. It doesn’t force reasonable discourse. These are crucial skills that take time to hone and perfect. If you’re dedicated enough, you can memorize a physics textbook, but that does nothing to further your ability to hold an intelligent conversation. Even if you can suck off a pig with the ferocity of a vacuum cleaner, if you don’t know how to think, your boss at Hog Suckers Inc will find you to be a faceless drone. So yes, liberal arts are mostly worthless except for the crucial skills that nobody thinks about. There certainly should be some reconciliation between the practicality of the sciences and the skills of the liberal arts, and steps have been taken at campuses elsewhere to bridge this gap. Tiny steps off of an impending precipice, but steps nonetheless.

Liberal arts education is slowly becoming a luxury. I’m no prophet, but I can see a day where universities become tailored towards the job market, creating a student body designed specifically to work, while the pockets of indulgence at Reed or Swarthmore graduate with their noses in the air, yet still unable to make anything of their 200,000 dollar diploma. But hey, at least they understand what Joyce was trying to do with Ulysses!

On environmentalism

Ever since Al Gore started ranting about climate change, stressing the need for green and alternative energies, the world over has been lit aflame by controversy as to whether or not the human species needs to change its fossil-fuel consuming ways or simply disregard the liberal media’s agenda for world domination. As the overwhelming amount of evidence has demonstrated, the centuries-long usage of fossil fuels by humans has resulted in rapid climate change - an increase in CO2 gasses that will lead to a rise in global temperature, something that would have catastrophic effects on ecosystems everywhere. At this point, the only people who contend the cause of global warming are fringe lunatics and the politicians that need their votes. Those morons are too easy of a target, so the purpose of this entry will instead target the people who’ve turned environmental awareness into another idiotic, hipster trend that undermines the credibility of people actually trying to reverse the damage of global warming.

What I find especially annoying about these new-age self-righteous hippies is the incredible guilt trip that they utilize like some sort of eco-weapon. If you don’t compost, you must not care about the earth. If you don’t drive a Prius, a vehicle ostensibly more durable than a piece of bread, you must hate the squirrels. If you don’t chain yourself to a tree in the Amazon forest, staring down the wrath of a thousand bulldozers, you’re some kind of Hummer-driving asshole. It seems with any worthy cause, you will always have some bandwagon group of suburban moms with too much money guilting you out of driving to the store, instead biking the ten mile distance. And I find that absurd.

Don’t get me wrong - being environmentally cautious and trying to be as green as possible is quite admirable, and I applaud anyone who does it because God knows I don’t. The problem is that it engenders a sense of self-righteousness and holier-than-thou attitudes that frankly do nothing to progress the cause, compelling only contempt and disgust from the people who actually want to make a difference. I’m sure Al Gore can utilize the legions of his rabid followers to march on Washington, but for now, they’ll only serve to annoy me with their elitist talk of farmers markets and sustainable dildo designs. Just like the protest generation of the 60s, the only thing that ruins a worthy cause is the people that follow the beliefs.

On introductions

While past attempts at making my previous blogs interesting have been as successful as winter invasions of Russia, I think the main problem was mostly because I was spewing vitriol about my own life, an existence more mundane and uninteresting than a Christian high school dance. My life, while certainly filled with funtastic adventures and exciting orgies, can mostly be explained down to a few choice words, possibly involving some saucy expletives. The core of my writing ability is mostly directed towards abstract thinking, analysis of concepts, and the ability to form ridiculous analogies, so rather than provide a running commentary on my life, I figure this blog would be better suited to contemplate life, society, and my favorite subject, stupid people. My comments can probably be misconstrued as racist, sexist, or misogynist, but my philosophy is that everyone should be involved in discourse, and the idea of “respecting one’s opinions” and “tolerance” weighs down the discussion with pointless niceties. Confronting the issue is the only way to resolve it, not that my bitter ranting is going to do a damn thing in resolving society’s ills.