To the class of 2012...

pjhawks

here is what i'd say to the class of 2012 (and i'm sure some of you will rip me for this :roll: )

despite what you were told in little league, not everyone gets a trophy just for participating. that's not how it works in adult-land. find yourself a job, any job and don't worry about what you make today, get there early, do what your boss wants you to do no matter how menial, work extra if need be, and learn as much as you can. make yourself invaluable and irreplaceable. sucking it up when you are 22-30 years old will give you more freedom at 35 and 40. oh and this notion that this is the scariest and worst time in history is bullshit. yes jobs are hard to come by, but you haven't been drafted, no one has nuclear weapons aimed at our major cities, and despite the shitty economy you and your famlies aren't in soup lines. there are no signs in store windows saying your ethnic group need not apply. the food shelves in our supermarkets are still refilled every night. really want to know how bad others have had it in their lives, take out your $100 dollar a month phones, google the depression, ellis island, world world II and then shut your mouths. there are millions worse off in the world than you are living with mommy and daddy. and those millions aren't looking for bottle service on friday nights hald-dressed in $200 dollar outfits. the american dream is not kim kardashian and it's not so bad watching tv on 52-inch high definitition tv with 400 channels. step back and gain some perspective and realize you are stil pretty damn lucky. most of you are as healthly and as good looking as you will ever be and you have more freedom and less pressures than you will have later in life. so look around, enjoy the views, smile, and stop the whining and do something about it.

hedonist

pjhawks wrote:

here is what i'd say to the class of 2012 (and i'm sure some of you will rip me for this :roll: )

despite what you were told in little league, not everyone gets a trophy just for participating. that's not how it works in adult-land. find yourself a job, any job and don't worry about what you make today, get there early, do what your boss wants you to do no matter how menial, work extra if need be, and learn as much as you can. make yourself invaluable and irreplaceable. sucking it up when you are 22-30 years old will give you more freedom at 35 and 40. oh and this notion that this is the scariest and worst time in history is bullshit. yes jobs are hard to come by, but you haven't been drafted, no one has nuclear weapons aimed at our major cities, and despite the shitty economy you and your famlies aren't in soup lines. there are no signs in store windows saying your ethnic group need not apply. the food shelves in our supermarkets are still refilled every night. really want to know how bad others have had it in their lives, take out your $100 dollar a month phones, google the depression, ellis island, world world II and then shut your mouths. there are millions worse off in the world than you are living with mommy and daddy. and those millions aren't looking for bottle service on friday nights hald-dressed in $200 dollar outfits. the american dream is not kim kardashian and it's not so bad watching tv on 52-inch high definitition tv with 400 channels. step back and gain some perspective and realize you are stil pretty damn lucky. most of you are as healthly and as good looking as you will ever be and you have more freedom and less pressures than you will have later in life. so look around, enjoy the views, smile, and stop the whining and do something about it.

Rip you for that?

No way, man. :clap:

know1

Jason P wrote:

I agree that liberal arts degrees are not a wise investment these days, especially with the cost of tuition. It's too bad because that is how some people are geared, but spending $20K - $50K ... a year ... for getting a degree in music or history doesn't make sense ... unless your parents are part of the evil 1% and paying for everything.

I'll take it a step further. I'm not sure that college is "worth it" for most degrees these days. There are exceptions, but I couldn't in good faith recommend that people even bother with it nowadays.

And if what I'm saying here isn't yet true, then it will be very soon with tuition costs continually rising at a MUCH, MUCH faster rate than the economy is.

know1

Prince Of Dorkness wrote:

One of the things that really bugs me about this thread is the assumption that all we need is to all be the same.

We're all fans of Pearl Jam who, I should point out, are all artists. While I'm sure that there's certainly some business savy in there somewhere, artists and creative types make the world a better place. It's not just the computer geek who's studied the most in school who helped design the iPhone or wrote the code for Angry Birds. We need creative types to move our culture along.

One of the reasons that I think American culture has become so dull is that we've removed a lot of the "art" from our world. Music is now less about good singers and perfumers and song writers, it's about who can be chosen as the highest-selling act on a TV Karaoke Show.

While on shows like American Idol they do a lot of classic songs by artists like Springsteen and Joni Mitchell and Van Halen... you think that Springsteen, Joni Mitchell or David Lee Roth could win American Idol?

The British jerk on that show even said that Aretha Franklin couldn't win American Idol. I guess he gets points for being honest but it was pretty clear that Americans now want their pop stars to be supermodels... the voices can be dubbed or fixed in the studio, the songs written by committee, the album cover air-brushed and digitally altered to make the boobs bigger and the waists smaller.

America has been bought and paid for by billionaires who care nothing about culture and music and art and writing or stories... just money...

IT's very sad.

I agree with most of this except the insinuation that we've been boughht and paid for by billionaires. It's still the public that has the ability and right to CHOOSE whether to participate in the current forms of entertainment. Most of them choose to participate and that's how we got here.

know1

riotgrl wrote:

First, I have a liberal arts degree as well - the supposedly useless history degree However, I agree with brianlux - I know a little about a lot and alot about a few things which is ok with me. I could be making alot more money, as I left the financial services industr,y but my personality is best suited to teaching rather than sales. So to me there is great value in liberal arts ed.

The world is changing very rapidly. You really can get by without knowing a little about a lot these days. Our access to info is light years ahead of where it was just 10 years ago. Think about it, people just started really using google around 2000.

inlet13

Prince Of Dorkness wrote:

One of the things that really bugs me about this thread is the assumption that all we need is to all be the same.

We're all fans of Pearl Jam who, I should point out, are all artists. While I'm sure that there's certainly some business savy in there somewhere, artists and creative types make the world a better place. It's not just the computer geek who's studied the most in school who helped design the iPhone or wrote the code for Angry Birds. We need creative types to move our culture along.

One of the reasons that I think American culture has become so dull is that we've removed a lot of the "art" from our world. Music is now less about good singers and perfumers and song writers, it's about who can be chosen as the highest-selling act on a TV Karaoke Show.

While on shows like American Idol they do a lot of classic songs by artists like Springsteen and Joni Mitchell and Van Halen... you think that Springsteen, Joni Mitchell or David Lee Roth could win American Idol?

The British jerk on that show even said that Aretha Franklin couldn't win American Idol. I guess he gets points for being honest but it was pretty clear that Americans now want their pop stars to be supermodels... the voices can be dubbed or fixed in the studio, the songs written by committee, the album cover air-brushed and digitally altered to make the boobs bigger and the waists smaller.

America has been bought and paid for by billionaires who care nothing about culture and music and art and writing or stories... just money...

IT's very sad.

Agree with a lot in this post. But, I disagree it's billionaires fault. It's our fault. We (or a lot of us) watch this shit. We don't buy the good shit in mass. That's the problem.

I'll admit, I just watched "The Voice" tonight. Truth is, the artists are so talented, but I found it pretty sad. Some girl on their sang Bon Iver. She did a great job, very good job and I can tell she wants to be that sort of artist. Next thing I know, they go to a commercial break, and do some horrible pop song after with her and three other artists dancing around like it was Disney on Ice. She was obviously forced into that. But, regardless, how am I supposed to "buy" her credibility after seeing that shit? THAT... is what's wrong in my opinion.

These shows are a great concept, but artists can't be artists, they are forced into doing dance routines and other nonsense that has absolutely nothing to do with singing. And the reality is, as much as we want to blame it on TV execs, it's the market that wants it. I know babyboomers and teeny boppers who love that nonsense. That's the problem. The demand is the problem.

It sucks, but it's not billionaires faults... it's the every day citizen who turns it on. I still have no idea how the Nirvana types ever made it so big.

Prince Of Dorkness

inlet13 wrote:

I'll admit, I just watched "The Voice" tonight.

Oh.

Wow.

Funny, I thought you were straight. :fp:

riotgrl

know1 wrote:

riotgrl wrote:

First, I have a liberal arts degree as well - the supposedly useless history degree However, I agree with brianlux - I know a little about a lot and alot about a few things which is ok with me. I could be making alot more money, as I left the financial services industr,y but my personality is best suited to teaching rather than sales. So to me there is great value in liberal arts ed.

The world is changing very rapidly. You really can get by without knowing a little about a lot these days. Our access to info is light years ahead of where it was just 10 years ago. Think about it, people just started really using google around 2000.

I definitely think that as the world continues to change so rapidly that we will be forced to change job paths in our lifetimes, not because we want to but because we have to. The days of working the same job at the same company are over for most Americans. Not that it's a bad thing but it will involve us being far more flexible and be willing and able to get new skills and new education.

keeponrockin

inlet13 wrote:

Yup. The kid just needs to account for jobs and whatnot when thinking about what they want to do. Liberal arts can be great educationally. I mean, liberal arts schools could be arguably better schools, so that would effect it too. If you want a job... it's probably a function of:

-Jobs available in your major
-The school you went to
-Your GPA
-Your contacts
-Your personality

...if a kid thinks the major doesn't matter at all for job prospects... they should go back to school cause they clearly don't know what they are talking about.

It depends on where you are. I'm in Ottawa (Canada's capital) so a Political Science/Public Administration degree is FANTASTIC as a degree. In other cities, not so much.