Re: access to news

Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Tue, 14 Oct 1997 17:56:55 -0700 

I started off as a journalism major and then switched to English after two
years and was quite frankly surprised at just how much of the world's events
I was unaware of when I made the switch because of, yes, time you can devote
to catching up on the outside world. Now that I'm in my thirties I think
back on my time as an undergrad and can't help but wonder how many people
actually know why they're at college if they aren't even aware of world
events. Sounds like prison with books, doesn't it? The subject of this
thread being a good case in point. I mean, if one is simply there to absorb
as much knowledge as one can so that they'll make incrementally more money
at a job once they leave college, and have to sacrifice their knowledge of
the tectonic shifts in the zeitgeist of culture for 4, 5, 8, ten years until
they're out of college and "have the time"...you'll be in for a helluva
shock.
And you find that the longer someone stays in college the less likely they
are to want to finish college just because they've been away from the
outside world for so long that they've lost all their bearings with the
natural progression of eras, let alone their survival tactics for the rat
race.

This attitude can't help but precipiate not only estrangement from the
outside world, but a very insular attitude as far as what is condoned and
how democratically fair it is. Case in point being the whole PC movement. It
wasn't until I left university (86) that the whole politically correct
movement started to take hold, and I've always believed that that whole
movement not only exemplifies just how estranged the leaders of said
movement are from the "outside world" but also, that only on hermetically
sealed college campuses where any idiot can cry "discrimination" or
"harrassment" and have whole departments trashed and reputations and careers
ruined could something so behaviourally fascistic germanate and foster.

I still believe that Twain said it best: "I have never let my schooling
interfere with my education."

Malcolm


Matthew_Stevenson@baylor.edu wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Oct 1997 17:02:29 -0600 (MDT) lukeseem@stardot.com (Luke
> Seemann) wrote:
>
> >> (here in college=no access to news; has anyone else
> >> experienced this phenomenon?)                               Emily
> >
> >Guh? That makes as much sense as being in a zoo and having no access to
> >the smell of manure.
> >
> >But I'm a journalism major.
> >
>
> a dissenting opinion:  college=no time to read papers (or money with
> which to purchase them) and no time to watch tv.  but then i'm an
> english major (whatever relevance that has).
>
> matt
>
> ps. luke, the above sounds rather peevish of me, don't take offense
> please.