i know i shouldn't jump into this, b/c this never interests me enough to finish it, but... pot...kettle...black... you never got over that pompous ass thing, did ya? i don't know what to say about your educational experience. that's a shame. i went to one of those supposed 'elite' schools and met a lot of people that i would describe the way you described your former self. believe it or not, though, a hell of a lot can be gained from that education. a liberal arts education does teach one to think logically. it does help you develop your...umm...strategory skills. but, if you're weak-minded enough to take every word a prof gives you as the gospel, that's a failing of the student, not the university. don't indict the school and the educational system because of the student. Sure the issue needs to be focused upon, but you're freaking obsessed. And frankly your views are sometimes so extreme they are ridiculous. You try to boil everthing down to a universal truth. Guess what? There is no such thing. We live in a big, fat gray world. Everything has a million sides. If you can wade through all the various issues and POVs to arrive at one answer, you're either the smartest person to walk the face of the earth or you are delusional. You're right. The Israeli regime is a bunch of scumbags. So "sue me" if I don't believe that they don't intentionally kill civilians. By no stretch of the imagination am I saying that the Palestinians are right, but I sure as hell don't want to support one evil side against another. in some areas the "hawkish" side is right. in some it is not. simple as that. as for national opinion, who gives a rat's ass? america has more than it's share of numb nuts. i can round up the majority of the state of alabama and get them to agree that anybody darker than a paper bag should be lynched, but that doesn't make it right. just b/c they agree with you doesn't add any validity to an opinion. i'm done. hopefully i'll be able to find this thread when i next look for it on monday...
rimbaud: Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have had my college experience than not have had it. I'll take a college grad over a non-grad any day. It's not so much that I had a bad college experience, either... I actually did learn alot there (I think), just not too much that is of real value in the real world. Maybe I should have majored in Architecture instead of Psychology? In reality (as you hinted on) all a 4-year degree really means is that you're not a complete idiot, and that you are trainable for the real world. Many (not all) profs have political agendas. I don't mean that they have political aspirations, just that they tend to be politically oriented (usually fairly adamantly) one way or another, and they tend to impart their opinions just as often as they do facts. That is the part that I had to "unlearn" when I got out. It took me a while to even realize that I had adopted their views in the first place, and to recognize that it's hard not to do so considering the circumstances... 18-22 year old minds are easily molded. I don't think there's any denying that as a whole, academia tends to be liberal in its leaning. That in itself is not a bad thing IMO either (I do actually have many liberal tendencies/opinions); I just don't think that it's a good idea to have academics using their considerable positions of intellectual authority in order to spread their own specific political or philosophical agendas, that's all. And that certainly does happen - it is widespread to say the least, especially in any liberal arts curricula. I just think that the education should be neutral, that's all... And yes, I know that's probably unrealistic (not to mention unnatural). On my ME 'obsession' - yes, I am quite aware of that situation. And there's no denying that it has been ignored - still is by many. That's my whole point. x34: Fort Sill, Oklahoma for both Basic and AIT (continuous - no break). Then if things progress as I think they will, some really advanced 'training' in Iraq... I'm signed up for a CENTCOM unit.
