How many centuries has man wondered about just that? It’s a question I won’t be able to answer in this simple post, but that won’t stop me from pondering about it. Why do YOU think we are here? Are we here to aspire to great things, to reach our full potential or are we here simply to enjoy sex, drugs and rock ’n roll? Maybe the sole purpose of our being is to see how long it takes before we fuck mother nature up beyond all recognition? Who knows. Maybe we’ll never get an answer, but history shows that we do make lousy decisions. We don’t even learn from our mistakes. I believe I once read that the only thing we can learn from history is that we can’t learn anything from history. How true.
Are we good or bad when we are born? Are some people destined to become what society likes to refer to as losers (unemployed people or people with low status jobs) and are some more prone to become serial killers and drug abusers? Do we make our own destiny or is it made for us? This is turning into a very philosophical thing, isn’t it? And I’m using way too many question marks. Have to stop using those. It’s not like anyone bothers to comment on any of my posts.
Education. That’s a powerful word. School and universities – the cores of knowledge. Big, scary, mighty and intimitating power banks. School is without a doubt one of the most important institutions in our society today. It’s also the work place for millions of kids for many, many years. With knowledge comes power. What comes with power then? Money and status? Probably. At least in part. Are schools neccessary or are they just places to put troublesome, annoying, snot-digging and crying kids to keep them off the streets and to stop parents from whacking them with a baseball bat? We certainly like to think that education is important. Education – gotta have it to be something. Right? I can only state my subjective opinion, naturally. You should know this. I’m friggin’ blogging here. I think education is important and a great way for us to develop ourselves. It’s not only the theoretical book knowledge. There’s always the social aspect. We mingle with people. We learn how to act in the presence of others. We learn how to be members of a group, or a society if you will. How messed up wouldn’t things be if we didn’t know how to interact with others? Or maybe things would be better? Perhaps bad things happen when people started interacting? Perhaps that’s when the shit started to hit the fan.
Why do we bother to go to school for so many years? Do we really want to do it? It’s not just a joy ride. It’s hard work. We have to read, write, keep presentations, show up at lessons at ridiculous hours and we often have to sit passive and listen to what that old, greyhaired chimpanzee with glasses is saying. The question I ask is – can that goddamn chimpanzee be trusted? It’s easy to manipulate us. Especially when we are young. We are fragile, accepting and quite frankly stupid people. But we have potential, don’t we? We can be something! People have showed that it’s possible. We read about great people, we watch movies about great people, we read books about all these great people. The legends. With the right tools, we might even become great some day. Maybe we can live to our full potential.
I wonder if we would even go to school if it wasn’t compulsory. Now we sort of have to do it. It’s in the law. No fighting it. For approximately 9 years we have to drag our sorry, lazy asses out of bed in the morning and show up at school to learn something. To read about wars and great philosophers, to learn algebra and to play out our wildest scientist dreams in the chemistry lab. One good thing has happened. No need to hand over a fuckin’ green apple to the teacher to assure a good grade in the future. I call that evolution! Who in their right mind would do this voluntarily for so many years, without getting a dime for it? The truth of the matter is – without an education we are hard pressed to find a job. At least that’s what we are told. It’s not entirely true. Thousands of people have managed to get jobs without an education. Most go through with the compulsory education though, because it’s just that – compulsory. Compulsory as in you don’t have a fucking choice so don’t you start any rebelling! Some quit after elementary school, others continue to high school or vocational school, others go further and get themselves bachelor and master degrees. The latter ones are the ones that we particulary look up to.
Education is not a bad thing. In fact it’s, in my opinion, a neccessary thing. At least the compulsory nine years. After that it’s more up to oneself and one’s goals. Who am I to pass judgement on someone who are happy and satisfied with a ”low status job”? Not everyone is made for high school, college or university. Not everybody wants to. They don’t have to either, that’s the beauty of it. The thing is, however, that society more or less provokes us and forces us to do more than those nine years. When I say society I don’t only mean the media and the politicans, but also friends, family and whatnot. That’s when it becomes wrong. When you do it because someone forces you to do it. It’s a choice you have to make on your own. And it’s a tough call. High school can feel frustrating after spending so many years in school already. Maybe it’s a good thing that friends and family pushes us to our limits. Maybe. College and university though – well, that’s another matter. I think people who go there should be motivated and enjoy their studies. It’s not easy to decide what to study at first, but it’s okay to try. You don’t have to get it right the first time. Maybe you realise that you want a bachelor in English at age 40. That’s fine too. No one should tell you when and what you should do. Ever. At least when it comes to education. Try to follow your heart.
Wow, this is some heavy stuff. I could go on for pages and pages, but I’m going to try to wrap it up now. I think we are born as good people. We have good in us. Our environment plays a huge role in our upbringing though. If we live in a bad environment with bad people, well, we learn bad habits. We learn a certain way of living. Maybe we continue to make bad choices. Choices we do create our character. A good environment is crucial for us to stay good. We need good people around us. Parents that lie to us and treat us bad will have a negative effect on us and our future life. That’s common sense. We know that. People can change though. Oh, that was useless. I feel I just mentioned a lot of things people already know! Oh well, moving on...I think a lot of us try to get an education or/and a job just in order to survive. Think about it – without an income it’s hard to survive. Unless you are filthy rich. However, I also like to believe that we have potential. We are not just lazy. Many of us want to develop ourselves. We want to leave a print. Most likely most of us will go by unnoticed, we won’t leave prints in future history books, but we can try to fullfill our dreams. We can reach our goals. If someone wants to become an engineer, they can do it. A 15 year old girl who loves languages and wants to become a teacher – she can do it! Education helps us. It’s a tool for us to develop ourselves. It’s not something we should be too cocky about, we can be proud of the hard work and effort we have put into reaching our goals though. We shouldn’t use it to separate ourselves from those who haven’t spent 15 years in school. Education doesn’t mean we become better people than the rest. It’s just a way for many to reach their goals. It’s their ticket to a better and more fullfilling life. I truly believe knowledge is power. Not power over other people, but power as a source of happiness and maybe a sense of purpose.The more knowledge we have, the better we understand ourselves and the world around us.
Hope you enjoyed reading this post. It became a bit messier than originally planned, but that’s how it goes when I try to be philosophical. I certainly could have written a lot more and made this whole post more structured, but I hand it to you like this. Raw and pure.
