There haven't been large-scale campus uprising for literally *decades*. Why are we starting to see them now? Why didn't we see them before?
Well... basically, kids are graduating from college with unpayable debt, can't find jobs, and their little brothers and sisters now in college are seeing what happened to their older brothers and sisters and saying "This isn't right" -- and also seeing that they have nothing to lose . So they get expelled for taking part in a student uprising. So what. A college degree did how much good for their older brothers and sisters? None. What do they have to lose, other than a worthless piece of paper and a bunch of debt?
The *only* time you see large-scale uprising and disturbances is when there is a large number of people who have nothing to lose. I study history so I remember past uprisings and disturbances and recall the two ways of ending them -- imposing totalitarian dictatorship, or implementing a "Fair Deal" where hard work and study will get you ahead in life and thus people have something to lose if they instead participate in an uprising or disturbance. Well, there's also the third choice -- the uprising accomplishes the toppling of the government, at which point things go to bleep in a handbasket. That's the choices -- Madam Guillotine, Vladimir Putin, or FDR. Which one do our 1% choose? We'll find out, I suppose...
-- Badtux the Vacationing Penguin
You're absolutely correct. We're not a population that takes to the streets easily but this is definitely one of those eras.
ReplyDeleteI thought you were on holiday, eh?
ReplyDeleteI could say the same thing about my daughter, who's in her 5th and final year of college in Florida (final as an undergrad, that it.) With a valuable (not) double major in Anthropology and Religion! And she's not even religious. She used to be more politically minded, especially in 2008 when Hopey was running, which is to be expected, coming from two fire-breathing left-wing parents.
But now? She doesn't bother to watch the news. No interest in OWS or other current events. Her goal is to get into grad school, preferably in some other country, or at least New York City. Why? To delay the day when she'll have to start functioning as an adult, not a student playing on the fringes.
And you know WHY she can do this? Because my ex-wife's family is wealthy. Not 1%ers, but in the 3 or 4%. She's counting on trickle-down from them. (Bukko ain't footin' the bill for no more purposeless larnin'.) As you say, those with nothing to lose, "lose it." Those who still have, "lotus eat."
I may not have been the perffect parent, but the kid does not have student loan debt.
ReplyDeleteI vote for the FDR option which is essentially what I had for a start in life, including Social Security survivor benefits after my father died when I was 15. I got a degree in four years incurring only $1,000 in debt. That's $5 to $10 thousand today depending on the index, well below what today's graduates face. I had no concern that I would not be able to find work to repay the debt. Except for that one year Vietnam thing, my life has been pretty good largely due to the New Deal.
ReplyDeleteFDR is definitely a better deal than Madame Guillotine or Vlad the Putin.