| | Whatever happened to the days of olde, where the educated man ruled, and "being educated" actually meant something? It has been pointed out time and again that "a college education is virtually required, these days", and yes, this is what we've all grown up with. But with everybody "educated", what credibility does "education" have anymore? It's true that innovators like Newton and Einstein will continue to exist. But it appears that they are fewer and farther between. Cheap genius is available, anytime, or is it just that all the "good" discoveries have already been made? It's come to a point where observation hinges on the accuracy of the machine, and "discovery" is a new decimal point of precision. These boundaries are being pushed, not only in terms of science, but in terms of what an education means. I have met many who are smarter, or perhaps just wilier in a sense, than I, who only hold high school educations, and at the same time there are double Ph.D's who are more dull than certain irreputes at my school.
In a sense, Black Box Recorder's "Brutality" is perfectly fitting:
Whatever happened to the fear of god?
Whatever happened to church on sunday?
Whatever happened to the velvet glove?
And the iron fist
Whatever happened to the social season?
Whatever happened to the debutants?
Whatever happened to the South of France?
Good old fashioned brutality
Everything in it's place
Good old fashioned barbarity
Leave the room in disgrace
Whatever happened to drinking and driving
And doing the decent thing?
Hiding out on the continent
Getting over a nervous breakdown
Close the ranks and remove all traces
Say anything to stay out of jail
What it really boils down to:
It always wins, it never fails
Good old fashioned brutality
Everything in it's place
Good old fashioned barbarity
Leave the room in disgrace
Ah-ah-ah,ah-ah...
Driving back from a late night party
Took a corner much too fast
Head-on collision with the 21st century
Whatever happened to brutality?
Which does point out that at the same time, this age had a lot of things going wrong for it, truly is there ever a time that doesn't? It worries me the 'mistakes' doctors made. I mean, hell, history is filled with stories of bad medicine, from feeding poison to bleeding people to cure them, what's to say that "modern medicine" is doing anything right, now!? And while we're on the subject, it would seem that if there ever was a dead one, medicine would be it. Being a doctor used to mean being a healer, and studying medicine meant being a researcher. Now studying medicine means being a doctor, which basically means selling people molecules that are designed to make pharmeceutical companies money. I mean, make you believe there's something wrong with you (how many times have you gone to the doctors and they've said you're fine?). I mean, make you feel like you're better. I mean, cure people. How long has it been since "doctor" meant "one who heals"? And anyway, nowadays, being a researcher means one who makes new products for doctors to convince you you need, to make money for pharmeceutical companies.
It seems to be practically a charade, this making people do research in order to get a Master's or PhD. Seriously, with all the dolts and dullards out there, no *wonder* it's come down to improving decimal point precisions. The next smaller this, the most far-away that. How many original ideas can there be? More finally, what's the *point* anymore? Science has become a fad, a 'let's do research because we might find answers'. When I listen to these people talk about what "I did my master's thesis on" and then "insert esoteric topic here", it really galls me. It goes to show that there's an economy of degrees, where colleges are in the same situation pharmeceutical companies are. They convince people they need degrees, make it sufficiently expensive for them to get them, and then what? What do you have to show for studying the long-term effects of hypoxia in astronomers working on mountains getting x amount of exercise? What does this prove that you *know*?
In the past, a 'respectable man' could easily spend 30 years of his life or more, collecting data, studying a topic, and compiling a work on it. Who does this anymore? While it is true that modes of data collection have improved, where has the appreciation for this type of dedication gone? |
| | Posted 7/11/2004 10:22 PM - 60 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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