D., I think you're the bees knees, a superior man of generous heart, contemplative mind, and noble action. And I say this to you with great admiration and affection for you, and deep concern: in this moment, you sound really awful.
It is not that I don't think your listed desiderata are undesirable. But your specifying of them for all human kind in this way, in a world in which many people have trouble reading -- and by "world" I mean "greater Boston area" -- and balancing a check book, and acquiring sufficient job skills to do other than unskilled labor, in which 99% of the people have lower IQs than yours through no fault of their own... this sounds like the worst sort of ivory-tower Marie Antoinettism.
You live and function in a world which seems enormous and varied to you, but, please believe me when I testify, is in the greater social context a very small and homogeneous social bubble, one enormously blessed with all sorts of good fortune which has not come to others. Indeed, entrance into that bubble is substantially regulated by gatekeeper institutions such as colleges and employers, specifically to exclude those who do not have those excellent qualities fortune bestows and they desire of their membership.
Some sizeable part of the populace will never, no matter how wonderful their education, learn the things you list. They may (and often do) have other gifts -- gifts of character, gifts of ability -- besides those of intellectual comprehension. I think to tell them that this is what they should do with themselves is somewhat insulting to them and the talents they do have to contribute.
I do not think you meant to insult them. I think it never occurred to you that they were there, as part of "all adults", to be insulted. You swung your hand in gesture, unaware someone was standing next to you to be struck.
And I appreciate your frustration. I have my own list (essay in process!) of things that I think that other people learning would make my life more pleasant. I know what it is to be exasperated that someone hasn't learned something one feels is reasonably expects of a person of that station.
So can I propose a compromise? "All college-educated people should know"?
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-28 05:55 pm (UTC)It is not that I don't think your listed desiderata are undesirable. But your specifying of them for all human kind in this way, in a world in which many people have trouble reading -- and by "world" I mean "greater Boston area" -- and balancing a check book, and acquiring sufficient job skills to do other than unskilled labor, in which 99% of the people have lower IQs than yours through no fault of their own... this sounds like the worst sort of ivory-tower Marie Antoinettism.
You live and function in a world which seems enormous and varied to you, but, please believe me when I testify, is in the greater social context a very small and homogeneous social bubble, one enormously blessed with all sorts of good fortune which has not come to others. Indeed, entrance into that bubble is substantially regulated by gatekeeper institutions such as colleges and employers, specifically to exclude those who do not have those excellent qualities fortune bestows and they desire of their membership.
Some sizeable part of the populace will never, no matter how wonderful their education, learn the things you list. They may (and often do) have other gifts -- gifts of character, gifts of ability -- besides those of intellectual comprehension. I think to tell them that this is what they should do with themselves is somewhat insulting to them and the talents they do have to contribute.
I do not think you meant to insult them. I think it never occurred to you that they were there, as part of "all adults", to be insulted. You swung your hand in gesture, unaware someone was standing next to you to be struck.
And I appreciate your frustration. I have my own list (essay in process!) of things that I think that other people learning would make my life more pleasant. I know what it is to be exasperated that someone hasn't learned something one feels is reasonably expects of a person of that station.
So can I propose a compromise? "All college-educated people should know"?