| Topic Name: |
Tired of all this. |
| Message Name: |
Irritating |
| Date Posted: |
02/14/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
Nineteenth century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once remarked that "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics".
I am reminded of this citation (also attributed to Mark Twain) whenever someone needs to include numbers to prove a point, so much that the debate may turn to a war of numbers.
Affordability, for one, is a relative criterion. For someone coming from a high middle-class family, the example you give me would be affordable. However, if you tell that to someone who earns minimum wage, they'll be infuriated at the thought that it's "easy" to shell out $3,200 a year (or 1,600 with the scholarship), not including other expenses such as textbooks. Also, what is your reaction to all these people who claim that we are losers unless we graduate from an Ivy League university?
I would also like to respond to your comment that I should "stop making excuses for [my] lack of achievement." Two questions naturally arise:
1) What exactly do you call "excuses"? Are you talking about my claim that professional jobs emphasized by this website are beyond most people's reach? Are you talking about my opinion of how hollow the so-called "American Dream" truly is? What I see is a society of vested interests and shallow jingoism.
2) What makes you think that I have achieved nothing in my life? The fact that I complain about the situation? Isn't it all rather selfish to think that the only things worth complaining about are those which affect me personally? I may care about the ban of land mines, the political situation in Argentina, or the fate of Indonesian factory workers, even though these events do not affect me personally.
I am a liberal arts graduate, in case you need to know, but of course you're probably snickering now that I'm just another "loser". There are people in a worse situation than mine, but nobody cares for their well-being or even acknowledge their presence, and that is what irritates me most.
There is, finally, no misunderstanding at all. I have my opinion, you have yours, and of course, because I have a loser degree, I must be the one who's wrong.
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| Message: |
There are other grants and loans to cover the $1600, books, etc. for those with low incomes, as I'm sure you already know. Obviously, someone working for minimum wage faces lots of difficulties -- I never denied that, or claimed that anything was "easy." I'm only disagreeing with your statement on the "high cost of education." And yes, as I've said before, there is too much emphasis on graduating from the "top" schools.
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