I got up early this morning to deal with the little boy, and one of the first things I saw was Ferdinand’s post this morning on Generation Zero. Where to start? It’s a bit wandering, almost stream of consciousness, but for all that, it’s a powerful piece. At least it was for me, but maybe that’s because I really feel like I’m in the same place right now. I could get a dozen posts, easily, off of the points he touches on – it hits me that deep. Every section hits me hard, beginning with the quote from Fight Club – one of my favorite movies because of how deeply it spoke to me. Yes, I’m well aware that that statement just might be an indication that I’m clinically disturbed.
Two sentences in particular really struck home today, though, because it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.
America is no different than European countries where success is determined by your last name and your class. Except that while Europeans acknowledge their reality, Americans cover theirs in a blanket of pious Puritan lies.
Welcome to the 21st century, land of the Internet, electric cars, and the great American Feudalism.
You see, there’s truth still to the idea that a college education is essential to succeed in today’s society. Just not the kind of truth the peddlers of higher education claim. A college degree is the modern equivalent of a medieval knighthood. Without it, you’re nobody – just a peasant, doomed to work the fields forever. With it, you reach the very bottom rungs of the modern feudal system. Like the knights of the Middle Ages, you have a foot in the door toward something better. You have more rights than your degreeless peers, de facto if not de jur. A whole class of better jobs, and a whole better life, is walled off from you if you don’t have one.
But like a knighthood, the degree is not enough. Yes, you’re technically one level above “commoner” now. But just like that knight, if you don’t have the connections and the network to land you employment in the service of a Lord a “good job,” you’re out of luck. You’ll spend your life wandering, selling your fighting services burgers wherever you can.
Take away all the creature comforts and our modern world is little different than the Feudal societies we’re taught in grade school that we’re so much better than. We just disguise it better.
