Was life always this hard?

It seems that every decade, society accelerates even faster ... forcing "changes" upon society. This is largely the result of the free market mentality which has become too efficient at allocating capital. We only saw beginning in the '80s the displacement of the blue-collar class in America as jobs were shipped overseas. Now there is a huge uproar as the white-collar class (largely code monkeys and support technicians) is being outsourced to other nations. When is it going to end? When can people finally feel secure about their jobs so they don't have to keep searching for the "next new thing?" Perhaps slow progress is a good thing.

As society becomes increasingly complex, we take on more jobs with higher and higher levels of specialization. But these increasingly complex roles are not being supplemented with better education. Education is horrible in the US. Education in the US teaches you how to do a specific task; it's akin to simply teaching someone how to use a tractor without explaining how it works. I've written about this before, but I've found my educational experiences largely unsatisfying; I didn't learn a thing in school that could not of been read in books.

As society grows more complex and education becomes marginalized to the lowest common denominator, people coming out of college seem to be increasingly confused as to what to do. Most people are starting to adopt their parents suggestions: "Just go to grad school." For what purpose? What is your end goal? To get a better job that pays more? I think this whole issue with Generation Twixsters is the manifestation of a poor education system which doesn't education people on what they really want to do ... while the expectations of the free markets is that of high specialization.

I wonder with more and more people coming out without a clue of what to do is going to lead to a greater rift between the elite classes and the middle class. Change for human society has almost never come from the middle class, but the lower classes. Lower classes always try to tear down the whole of society, while the middle class always try to tweak society to give them a boost into the elite ruling class... while the elite ruling class always attemps to free the status quo.

I wonder if the combination of poor education and the increasingly complex rules governing society will help freeze the status quo ... and forever freeze the rich into being the cream of society. The growing economic rift between the upper and lower classes (this is evident in not only US society, but among nations as well...) seems to be indicative of this. But perhaps I'm just confusing cause and effect.

What makes things worse is the fact that society is forcing us to join families at a later and later date. It used to be people got married in their early to mid-twenties and had kids in their late twenties. Who does this now? Not many people. The increasing specialization serves as a double-sucker punch ... we grow increasingly isolated as individuals doing specialized tasks ... while we're expected to not create families.

Perhaps the pangs of emptiness I feel are vestiges of human nature ... the urge to create a family. To join and create life. It seems that even as I strive to work on projects that I enjoy working on ... my life is essentially purposeless.

Perhaps part of growing up is acccepting the fact that we live, we do something that we justify to ourselves as important, we create life, and then we die. Maybe I just have trouble accepting that fact - maybe I just want to do something more.

I guess it doesn't really help that I've largely abandoned religion and thus have foresaken any thought of an 'afterlife.'

Or maybe I just need to quit listening to this goddamn Moby song.

One of these mornings / won't be very long / you will look for me / but i'll be gone

Posted by roy on January 24, 2005 at 09:03 PM in Ramblings | 12 Comments

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Comment posted on January 25th, 2005 at 10:56 AM
i wouldn't generalize the effectiveness of a u.s. college education as being completely horrible. my college education has helped me to grow in so many ways. maybe it made a difference to have attended a small liberal arts college instead of a huge state school. the whole goal behind all the classes was to teach you how to teach yourself once out of school. but whatever the reason, i also think what you put in is what you will get out. if you didn't go to any of your classes, how can you be so sure that it was all worthless? ;)
Comment posted on January 25th, 2005 at 11:53 AM
Perhaps the experience is a bit different at a small liberal arts school - I'm speaking from my own personal experience, so it may very well be just here. But I'm not completely degrading US education - there are plenty of positive benefits to the whole system ... but I just worry that with going to college becoming a "default" option for many people, colleges are not adequately preparing people for post-college life.

It seems almost everyone I talk to learned everything they needed from their jobs not from college, but from their jobs themselves ... it makes me question what value college had for us.
Comment posted on January 25th, 2005 at 06:56 PM
Tells you something about the people you talk to. :)

'College' [sic] is proof of intelligence and sufficient determination in a certain area. Essentially it (a tertiary qualification) should exist to tell an employer/investor/etc that you are pretty dedicated to whatever subject(s) you got it in. Because, can you really trust someone just claiming that without proof? :)
Comment posted on January 26th, 2005 at 07:30 AM
exactly. there is no way i could have learned what i'm doing at work in a college class. not even close. many engineer/programming jobs are so specialized it's nearly impossible to teach all of them in college. that's what co-ops and internships are for. (or in Roy's case, tabulas!) ;)

PM5K (guest)

Comment posted on January 24th, 2005 at 11:11 PM
You say the education system is horrible but you seem to be a fairly inteligent person, does that say something about the education system or are you just an idiot?
Comment posted on January 24th, 2005 at 11:19 PM
Given the fact that I left high school early, and never attended any college classes, I think it's a safe bet to say that the education system had a minimal impact on my intellectual development.
Comment posted on January 24th, 2005 at 11:31 PM
oh really? you left highschool early and never attended college? wow roy, i'm impressed! :)surely the education system had minimal impact on you. coolness!

p.s. How can I get my current usericon to show where it should show? i mean in all the past comments and entries.
Comment posted on January 25th, 2005 at 12:00 AM
nono, i attended college. i just never went to class ;)

i don't understand your usericon question.
Comment posted on January 25th, 2005 at 02:36 AM
oh well, when you look here, my usericon (the red one with the girl) doesn't show below my name. well, there's this home image below my username. How can i get my usericon to show instead of the home image?
Comment posted on January 25th, 2005 at 02:37 AM
By selecting a usericon when you post a comment?
Comment posted on January 25th, 2005 at 02:40 AM
well, yeah. but how bout the previous comments i've made. won't my newly uploaded usericon show there? oh well, if it can't be done, i guess it's ok. ;)
Comment posted on January 24th, 2005 at 09:09 PM
don't worry sir, people like you are destined for something great. Just give it some time. We've still that island to buy. It shall be glorious.