The Spot-On Quote Of The Day… [Updated Below]
…is awarded to Senor Paco for his insight into that alien life form known as the Intelligentsia:
There is virtually no concept, ideology or historical incident that is so insane, asinine and bloodthirsty that you can’t find a well-placed intellectual who is willing to defend it. I sometimes feel as though our society would be far better off if we closed half of the colleges and universities and replaced them with plumbing and carpentry schools.
Spot-on.
SIDENOTE: certainly one of our biggest problems today is that we encourage too many people to go to college. This form of higher education is not suited for everyone, nor was the university system intended to be so. By making a college diploma such a pervasive standard, some of the most essential occupations necessary to a well-functioning society are debased, such as the trades. We have become so obsessed with seeing the possession of a sheepskin as the pinnacle of achievement that we have stigmatized good, honest handiwork. Any nation that is going to thrive needs various groups skilled in certain areas to complement each other — such a society is too complex to encourage otherwise. The emphasis on higher education above all other forms of education is robbing us of the a special kind of wisdom that every culture needs to stay alive. Perhaps the rabid over-emphasis on degrees is what has caused such a loss of Common Sense among the populace in general?
UPDATE at 1709…
In the Comments Section, the Libertarian Advocate makes a damn good conjecture:
Today, too many U.S. colleges seem to exist principally to employ the otherwise unemployable Intelligensia.
Comments are closed.
The Camp Of The Saints 
Well said my friend. eschewed the collegiate degree for a trade myself although I hold no animosity towards them that have one. I work with engineers all day long and spend most of my time making pipe dreams a reality.
I mostly despise those who would practice what another good friend calls intellectual snobbery, as if to say, if you don’t have that piece of paper, you don’t possess intellect. I will challenge any of those document holders to a chess match any day of the week and win 90% of the time, I wager.
Trade school and/or hands on experience trumps book smarts without experience most any day. Unfortunately, that is what we have in the halls of snobbery at the moment.
oops, I eschewed to include the I before eschew…. 🙂
[waiting for it…]
Well…..if you had a college degree, you wouldn’t have made that mistake…..but, then again, you wouldn’t have any Common Sense like you do.
heh, I was waiting for “gesundheit”
God ain’t gonna help you now.
Yes He is. As He always does.
And you too, my patriot brother.
For the most part I agree with your premise that there is wild over-emphasis in the value of a college education. Specifically, the B.A. degree. Indeed, I’d say that a B.A. is today so common that it is basically not of much greater real value than a High School diploma was 50 years ago when secondary schools actually demanded some measurable academic competence before a diploma was awarded.
Many European secondary school systems (England’s A & S – Level Exams come immediately to mind. France’s Baccalaureate was excellent as well) produce higher grade intellects than do far too many of our colleges, including so-called Tier – 1 institutions.
Today, too many U.S. colleges seem to exist principally to employ the otherwise unemployable Intelligensia.
1) I agree: a four-year degree is nothing but a glorified HS Diploma.
2) I’ll be putting your last point in an Update to the posting.
I just discovered I have been remiss is adding you to my version of the blogroll: Congratulations, you are an official Fellow DHS-Certified Right Wing Extremist.
Bob: I am honored and humbled. Thank you.
Great quote. 🙂 I love it. 🙂
As for college: if you are going to spend four years of your life and $150,000 of your money doing something, then you better be doing it with a purpose. That purpose isn’t to “get a degree”; it’s to get a degree, in a certain subject area, for the purpose of advancing your career.
Believe it or not, when I was an undergrad, some of my liberal arts friends were scornful of my major because it is in a “trade” and is not purely academic. Some people viewed law school as a purely academic experience; obviously, it can be made into a wonderful one, but that’s a side effect of the education, the aims of which should be to prepare one to practise in a profession.
What amazes me is not only that these people think that you should spend a lot of money on an education without necessarily being prepared for a professional career afterward, but that college (and graduate school) should not so prepare you. It’s madness.
1) Paco is one of the Rightosphere’s most eloquent writers.
2) All around us, these days, is madness.
Spot On!
http://washingtonrebel.typepad.com/washington_rebel/2010/05/hot.html