For every year we sit in a classroom, the instruction we receive will “beef up” the left side of our brain (the analytical side) and totally ignore the right side of our mental steak (the creative side). Every urge in you will attack your consciousness and you’ll hear voices in your head asking these questions…
*Can I really achieve my dreams doing this?
*Is school necessary to do what I want?
*Will graduating be all I need to have everything I want?
*Is a job the only way to get the things I want from this life?
*Will success duck-and-dodge me if I don’t go to school?
…And the system will emphatically enounce, “YES!” to all your questions.
The System
The formal education system is our secondary form of incarceration outside of prison. Think heavily on this: We are placed into the school system (kindergarten) at 5 years old, where the training starts.
Initially, this is when we are introduced to structure, unless our parents were structure Nazis. Our first “schoolers” instruct us when to nap, when to play, how to act, how to play, when to sleep, even when to go to the restroom. At 4 years of age, I thought I was in the military! Raising my hand made me feel like I was in The Third Reich. (See pic below…LOL)
Grade school, middle school, and high school all play out in a similar way, adding more and more rules as you progress through the system. We’re given gold stars to pacify us for going along with the controlling rules. Given certificates to approve of our attitude and grades. Sometimes, we are also bestowed with “honors” to show how much better we’ve conformed than the other prisoners (I don’t place quotes around prisoners because I mean it to be literal).
Now that we are lock-in-step with the system’s requirements, we are now ready for the big test…COLLEGE. It’s when the cohort of authority analyzes us to see if our years of previous brainwashing actually “took”. The gauntlet of education has been thrown down. The classes are extremely structured, the tests are harder than ever, BUT the rules are taken away. Like the story about the dog and the electric fence, our government and state are testing us to see if we will leave the yard once our collar is removed.
We don’t have to go to class but if you don’t, there still seems to be a penalty (even if you breeze through the material). Our parents are back in our home state, there isn’t anyone to keep us in check. This is the BIG EXAM…the life exam. How well can you perform as a trained follower?
If we pass, we are rewarded. We get a diploma, a chance at a job, and the promise of a bright future from here on out. In addition to those parting gifts, we also leave with a fried brain, atrophied development of our creative skills, and a mountain of life-destroying debt.
Didn’t you ever wonder why the system is so rigid? It’s big, slow, and unaccommodating. The rules are the rules, and that’s final! An agent of the system will tell you, “Who are we without rules?” or maybe, “Society would break down if there weren’t any rules.” Let me understand this: Everything will crumble to dust and all my loving family will become murderers and thieves if there are no rules? F*** no! Things might me tense for a while, but like always, they adjust.
LET’S RECAP
We are brought into this system under control. Our parents don’t know not to do this to us because they have been run through the same system we are now a part of. At some point, the agents of the system were thinking, creative, and questioning people. We all are and will never loose that ability, but we suppress it heavily in the name of a paycheck. You see, we’ll destroy someone else’s spark if it puts food on the table. We’ll decimate someone’s life to pay our bills. We may even lock up innocent children to make ends meet.
Really, the people in everyday life that carry out these rouge functions are people with the same thoughts, hopes, and beliefs as us. We all whore ourselves for money. Oh no? If you didn’t have to go to work but I still supplied you with your full salary, would you continue to go? I didn’t think so.
Our system rewards us for taking action against citizens who can’t pay, don’t have a sticker, or those who are using too many resources. For me, life is not a bunch of rules and enforcements. It’s about making someone else’s life more enjoyable. It’s about caring when no one else gives a f*ck. It’s about being human. I don’t want to make this too long, so take a look at my previous post to get ideas on how to get rich.
In parting, do for others what you can without trying to gain from their unfortunate situation. Trust me, life will happen to YOU one day and you’ll prey someone offers you a warm hand…not a cold boot!
Professor X