IRREVERENT Magazine - Features

One of the most persuasive beliefs of this so-called "modern age" is that education is supreme: that nothing matters more than an advanced degree from a top drawer school. Like most "enlightened" beliefs that everyone supposedly believes in, it's total hogwash.

Take a look at virtually every successful businessman or entrepreneur, and most successful people in general, and you'll notice an absence of one thing: an advanced (or any) degree from any so-called "top school." They don't have one, they didn't need it, they wouldn't use it. It's a waste of money for millions of people who could much better spend their time and money learning a trade or profession. No, I'm not talking about doctors or other professionals (except trial lawyers, all they need is an ambulance to chase): they obviously need advanced education. But for the vast, vast majority of those who mindlessly attend institutions of so-called "higher learning" the experience is nothing more than an expensive exercise in drunken debauchery, punctuated by bouts of liberal brainwashing, meaningless exercises in "creative thought" (whatever that is supposed to be), and dangerous experimentation with illicit drugs. The only reason most people attend anyway is because they feel they "have to." Well you don't "have to" go to college, and society as a whole would be much better off (and richer economically) if you stopped wasting your time and your parent's money and did something useful.

Stay home, find a job, learn a trade or profession, or get an apprenticeship. Build the skills that will help build a family of your own, without putting yourself under mountains of unnecessary debt. Automation, improvements in technology, and useless job eliminations have made Corporate America accessible to everyone: how much so-called "training" does it take to climb the golden ladder in the modern American corporation anyway? Nothing you'll learn in business school, let me tell you. The jobs have becomes vastly easier and the wages have corrected accordingly, and thanks to improvements in technology and outsourcing, there is virtually no barrier to entry. Trust me, just about ANYONE could do the vast majority of jobs in most companies today. It takes a Yale degree to shuffle papers, do what your boss says, and sit in meetings? This is nothing more than a superstitious holdover from a bygone era, nobody takes it seriously anymore. Why not just climb aboard?

Frankly, I can't think of anything more disruptive to civil life than MORE baseless ridicule of our elected leaders.If you're honest with yourself, you'll realize that the real qualities that employers look for in their employees are never anything you learned from your hemp-soaked, mollycoddling college hippie professors anyway. Sure, he may have taught you how to play the role of "the Marxist artisté," or taught you bong lighting lessons, but how's that supposed to help in the corporate world? Obedience, ambition, loyalty, following orders, self-reliance, personal responsibility: these are the marks of character that will help you get ahead, improve your own condition and that of your family, and ultimately help society and your fellow man the most. That you got advanced training in illegal drug use isn't helping anyone, not even yourself, Mr. Pointless Philosophy Major.

Still, you'll hear the hippies extol the vague "virtues of education" by claiming their committment to teaching so-called "critical thinking skills," which when you boil away all the communist overtones, becomes nothing more than questioning your betters. Just what we need in this country: MORE questioning of our leaders; more useless, pointless distractions from common sense public policy decisions. Frankly, I can't think of anything more disruptive to civil life than MORE baseless ridicule of our elected leaders. There's the real legacy of the 1960s: the wholesale disintegration of civics and civic responsibility foisted on society by reefer-ridden profs and their overtly socialist "critical thinking" courses.

What we need is MORE support of our elected officials, not less, just because some coke-addled professor brainwashes our children into the blind questioning of authority. Yes, sir: if you really want to see the road back to traditional civic values, start by realistically evaluating the value of education in your life and career, and then choose to do something vastly more productive with your intellectual and physical capital. Start a business, raise a family, support your leaders, get a corporate job. It's really not as complicated or hard as you think.


Dan is IRREVERENT's Senior Conservative Commentator. He lives in Northern Wisconsin, near the border with Canada.