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What Hitch Taught Me
posted on 12/16/2011

Disturbing Things That I Don't Want to Acknowledge
posted on 11/14/2011

Minivans, News and More Proof That I Am a Jackass
posted on 10/28/2011

The Danger in Thinking that Everything Happens for a Reason
posted on 10/04/2011

Reactions to News of Twin Sightings
posted on 09/23/2011

The Intersection of Joy and Fear
posted on 09/15/2011

Thoughts on One Year of Fatherhood
posted on 08/30/2011

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Nostalgia Kegerator
02/01/2012 by .

Nostalgia Kegerator
01/31/2012 by JimC

The Intersection of Joy and Fear
09/20/2011 by Long Lost Aunt Sandy

The Intersection of Joy and Fear
09/16/2011 by muchgooder

The Intersection of Joy and Fear
09/15/2011 by Bob

Religulous
09/14/2011 by muchgooder

Religulous
09/08/2011 by Bob

Public Schools Suck the Life Out of Us

Created on Thursday, June 10, 2010

Home -> Blog -> 2010 -> June

As the years go by I start to see how many seemingly-unrelated things are actually very much related.

I took the day off yesterday in the hopes that I would treat myself to a day by the lake. One of my favorite things to do is to take a book up to the shores of Lake Ontario and just spend the day reading and thinking and enjoying (and eating lots of blueberries from the local farmer's stand). As luck would have it, it was rainy and 60 degrees so I spent much of the day in the hammock and on the couch.

My absolutely favorite author of all time is Christopher Hitchens. I know what some of your are thinking - it is because I happen to agree with him on so many thing. Actually, that isn't true. If you've heard him speak or read one of his books you would know that he is a thoughtful and charismatic person. I strongly urge you to give him a listen if you've never heard him (try this audio book). So anyway, my man Hitch decided to sit down and pen his memoirs in Hitch-22 (a glowing New York times review here). It turns out that Hitch was a radical leftist in his early days (in some ways he still is) and he was in the middle of many revolutions over the last three decades. Not only that, his upbringing and his views on his childhood and the world are absolutely fascinating.

I've read several books of his and the one thing I've noticed is that he knows a lot about things like poetry and philosophy. I must admit that at times I feel rather dumb when he pulls out a latin phrase or drops in a stanza from one of his favorite poets. I think it is times like these where we just feel like posers. As I read into his book he talked extensively about his affection for his mother and how she recognized the need to get him proper schooling. Thus, she sent him off to boarding school at the tender age of eight (as an aside, one fascinating thing that he said was that he could handle it because he was loved but not spoiled). I was absolutely amazed when I heard him describe his school. According to Hitch, the best thing about was the library full of classic books. And not the classics that you and I were raised on, like Call of the Wild and stuff like that. I'm talking anyone from the ancient Greeks to Nietsche. It was a treat when the master let you go into the faculty area to get an advanced book.

One thing I have grown to rue is my own upbringing. It isn't that we necessarily lacked in the necessities (we didn't), it was that... well... I feel like I really could have been more than what I am. I was a voracious reader as a child and I loved reading the classics. In fourth grade I was reading at a twelfth grade reading level. And please understand that I say this not to brag. So how was this treated? "You'll go to a local college and get a decent job". I think on some level my parents wanted me to have more than they had, but on another level they didn't want me to be too much better. And that's probably where I ended up.

So I trudged through the school system and got my degree and went out and got a good job. And don't take this the wrong way - I'm proud of what I've done. But what exactly have I done? I went out and did what was expected of me and I became another drone in society.

And that's the crux of my blog today. I think in the last couple of years I've had a bit of an awakening as to who I am and what I've missed out on. I'm not at all complaining... maybe more just looking around and seeing things differently than I used to. And I think in many ways it stinks. When I look at the world around us (and I'm speaking of Americans), you see a bunch of droids. We were all products of a system that wanted us to go through a system that was built on retaining as much knowledge of what they wanted us to know. Creativity and thought are nowhere to be found in that curriculum.

And you see evidence of that all around us. Take a minute and try to make a list of all of the interesting people that you know. I'm not talking about people that are fun to be around. I mean people that are interesting. And don't get me wrong - some of my favorite people are fun to be around but couldn't carry a converation if it had a handle on it. And that is fine. But we are for the most part not a well-rounded society. We generally do not have opinions or positions. And when we do, they are because we decided to blindly follow some group to which we arbitrarily attached ourselves. We don't think and we generally do not have interests beyond some lousy tv show. When was the last time you overheard someone have a conversation about a classic book? Better yet, a philosophical discussion? But you can't walk through the office and not hear something about a celebrity or reality show. You can go through and look at all of the facebook statuses for further examples - it seems that everyone thinks that they are a genius and that someone else is always the dummy.

Once again, let me state that I am not putting myself above any of this. As I stated earlier, I was also put into a disadvantageous position becuase of my upbringing and schooling. But I'd like to think that recognizing that I'm a dullard in in this sense is half the battle (isn't it?). I also want to state that I do not see this as a way to impress people at cocktail parties (I'll still be the same ass in those situations. While being interesting may be nice, my desire to amuse myself still trumps all else). I think it is more of a journey of self-exploration. While reading about Hitch's life I saw so much about my own life that I did not realize even though he was not asking me to think of myself. I've noticed similar qualities in books written by intelligent authors.

So what does all of this mean? I'm not exactly sure. I have a list of books that I want to read. I've always had a tough time getting through poetry (especially the poems not written in modern English - those apostrophes kill me) but I think I want to give it another try. There are philosophies that I want to know more about. After that... who knows. I guess that is what a journey is supposed to be.

My Accidental (Almost) Half Marathon

muchgooder.com

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Public Schools Suck the Life Out of Us

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