An idea exists that in order for me to be deemed “successful” within my society is that I must obtain a degree that I can show off and sell myself with.
It’s not that writing assignments particularly bothers me. I actually desire intellectual challenge and stimulation. What irritates me is the value placed upon a person for their educational achievement. It’s not the education I’m knocking. It’s not the idea that gaining insight and learning is bad. On the contrary, I strongly believe in education. I believe that ignorance is the base for most of people’s problems and that educating ourselves provides unity in an interesting and fascinating way.
The issue I am addressing is how society has de-humanized itself through the value of “gaining more.” Over the past hundreds of years, human civilization has rapidly increased in population and resource consumption. With the evolution of agriculture and industrialization humans have extended their capabilities into nearly endless possibilities.
However, the reality of the situation is that contradictory to human desire it is not possible to expand our civilization endlessly. As we have grown quickly into a technological and globalized community we have fed into human selfishness and led ourselves to our own destruction.
It was inevitable for us to end up here though. The very ideology that our culture has strived to pass onto the world is one that is hugely defaulted and catastrophic. Capitalism, by definition is “an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.” (dictionary.com)
The concept of capitalism is for individuals (or small groups of individuals) to advance their interests for the exchange of wealth. In order to participate in a capitalistic society one must mold themselves with the tools and concepts of the culture. Otherwise those who have greater ambition will come and crush you down. (Perhaps some of you have made some connections to
The problem I have with these ideologies (capitalism, globalism) is that they are destructive to the human. The ideologies that our society has built itself upon and around have created significant issues and problems to our world. The endless advancement to feed into the desire for more has created values that I often find hard to agree with. However it seems that one has little choice but to participate in the norms of the culture in order to survive.
At last, my issue arises for those who are unable, or choose not, to attain the success levels of society’s expectations. It seems that through the advancement of our civilization we have left many of them behind. I doubt that our existence is based on who has the most toys at the end. I strongly hold that our values have divided people and are superficial. Placing dollar amounts over someone because of their educational achievement concerns me because it doesn’t really say much. A degree is a simplified method of determining class, success, and stature. True education and experience comes through many outlets of life, not just one.
