This is an amalgamation of the many attitudes people have displayed towards me after hearing that I have chosen not to go to school anymore. Most people just give me a cocked eyebrow look, but some people are shitty as hell about it, but maybe not this much. But yeah, on with the show:
A: Young man, are you going to school?
B: No.
A: WHAT?! Well, then allow me to list my terrible assumptions about you in an attempt to make you feel as though you’re wasting your life by not going to school, and also to convince you that school is an absolute good that no one should ever question. Of course, education is an adequate enough lens with which to judge people, so I have no qualms about doing just that. But let me ask you a question first: are you pursuing a career through alternative means? Because after all, picking out a single job that will consume at least a third of your day 5 days a week and that you will do for the rest of your life is a natural extension of the kinds of critical thinking skills one would develop in college, and it might make not going to school a more forgivable decision. So are you pursuing a career through alternative means?
B: No.
A: WHAT?! Well, before I was a little unsure about judging you so harshly, but now I am without doubt as to the accuracy of my judgments. As an educated member of society I am of course qualified to judge all non-educated clods like you whenever I feel like it, and guess what? I do feel like it right now! First of all, you lack ambition, because beyond pursuing a career there really is nothing else worth being ambitious about.
B: But…
A: Don’t you dare interrupt me you heathen. Now, where was I? Of course, you are full of potential. The potential to go to school, where you will learn all sorts of useful things like how to follow orders. The potential to pick a career which will get you a lot of money. When you’ve got a lot of money, your potential is near limitless! You can buy all sorts of material things to act as surrogates for genuine happiness and health. Like cars! Cars which can zoom you from place to place in no time at all, pollute the planet, kill pedestrians and drivers, separate families, and replace thriving communities with isolating suburbs. Oh, and of course health insurance, which will cure all your ails! Nevermind that most of the ails you are likely to experience are symptoms of industrialization, or that many insurers follow corrupt practices that cut coverage for the people who need it most so that they can increase their profit margine, and that our health system in general is based on a broken paradigm that does not take into account any methods of prevention beyond the use of vaccines (which in and of themselves might be a cause of autism in many children). That’s just two things money can buy you! All of this potential… wasted! Don’t you want any of these nice things?
B: Um…
A: How can you not be sure? What is it that you want?
B: I want… a new world.
A: Oh, so you’re one of those idealist types, eh? I’m a realist, which means I am so devoid of hope that I can’t imagine things being any different than exactly how they are right now. I was an idealist when I was young, but take it from me, it’s not worth tricking yourself into believing that the world could be a better place. It’s best to just play along with the spectacle of electoral politics, the only real avenue for social change. History is just an abstract concept after all, not something we participate in.
B: So…
A: Shush! People talk about how hard young people have it nowadays, but the choices are clear. Either you inherit the same terrible decisions I’ve made for you, and end up making an even more fucked up world for your children by robbing them of any possibility for a livable world by cementing your own financial security like a good little american, or you can go starve in the fucking street for all I care. Goodbye and good luck! You’re going to need it!
B: Yup.
