Education! Education! Education!

So number 2 is upon us. Probably something to do with that dodgy curry last night.

But seriously, I thought I'd try to talk about something more important this time, as the title suggests; education.

I'd like you all to read the following paragraph very carefully, don't worry, all will become clear later on.

"With regard to critical political economy, contrast the arguments toward an end of history with those of a cyclical engagement between capital, nation and state. Using the present economic crisis, and its media coverage, as a point of departure, articulate a position and assert how news journalism is complicit in your stance."

Done? I hope you didn't just glance over it. Re-read it if you didn't quite get the gist.

So where did he get that from I hear you ask. Well I hope I hear you asking it and it's not just the voices again, but once more I digress. I do a lot of digression. Try to keep up.

Believe it or not that paragraph was a question from a recent exam. Yes that's right folks someone was paid to write that question and people are expected to answer it in order to get a piece of paper that suggests to others that they are smart.

Perhaps you think that "Yes well if you understand that you are definitely smart, I could never digest something so complex, there's no way I'm that intelligent."

Let me put it to you this way; if you completely understand that question you are a fucking idiot! Sorry to be so blunt but you are. No sane and sensible person ever speaks that way.

If on the other hand you asked the very same thing by saying; "Is everything fucked? Is it just a case of the rich getting richer and do the papers and TV people not give a fuck because all they are interested in is themselves?" then I would suggest you are a genius.

Both are ways of asking the same thing. The first is the way academics speak. It's like another language. A language specially designed to let everyone know they are smarter than you. And if you dare speak in the second language, the normal, everyday language that everyone else uses then you are, in their view, a moron. You can't possibly be smart if you speak in a way that everyone understands.

This is the life of a 3rd level educator. Remember a time when doctors were only worried about the wellbeing of patients, you know before they were more concerned about which sports coupe they would buy. Well there was probably a time when teachers were only worried about getting students to learn. Those times are long gone my friends, now all they worry about is how smart they look. And in academia how smart you look is directly related to the amount of bullshit you can talk. And how you can forcibly you can tell anyone who questions your bullshit that they are a retarded fuckwit.

Just for the record I didn't answer that question. I answered one asking "What do you understand by post-modernity?" by saying that I understood it to be a bullshit expression made up by people who think they are smart but are really so fucking stupid that they have to label others just to make it through the day.

I'm sure I did well.