It's Humpty Dumpty's World

"‘When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.'"

Today the young man described in the previous post "graduated" from "college."

Yikes.

The same issue can be found in ladies' clothing. When she fits a Size Eight in one store and Size Twelve elsewhere, she buys more at the first.

Everybody gets a trophy, diploma, whatever.

The problem appears, then, when someone like Victoria Soto comes along. She's a hero, not because her only chance for finding gainful employment was joining the lowered-standards military, but because she gave her life heroically. Nevertheless, people in US armed forces uniforms tend to be indiscriminately labeled heroes, regardless their actions or character.

So, another group of ignorant and obese Size Eight college graduates are loosed on the world today.

In some ways it's a pity the Mayans were wrong about yesterday.

American Clutch

We all like to believe we're exceptional, that we stand out, that we have something the rest don't have.


Then there are the realities.


Both my parents and my wife's parents went to college. Their parents did not. They and their siblings did, and did what it took to get through and work to have a better life. Then something began to slip. Maybe the American clutch began to slip, because even though many of my cousins and siblings-in-law have degrees, there isn't a lot of promise for the future. AND IT JUST OCCURRED TO ME THAT THIS IS NOT ALL THAT UNUSUAL!


So we have a niece and a young cousin who both seemed to have opted out of the American Dream by (first) becoming pregnant at inopportune times with obviously no serious intention to avoid such a situation and (second) not exercising their Constitutional rights by pressing the "reset" button or even considering relinquishing the babies for adoption. One of them was mid-high school and the other in her first year after college WHILE SHE WAS TEACHING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.


So the older one was, in fact, the first of that generation to receive a college degree (though, as with all her cousins so far, she did not complete sleep-away college). Nevertheless, she chose to couple with a heavily tattooed veteran with limited prospects. (A business owner friend has an entire riff on the fact that the more tattoos one has, and their locations, the more limited one's economic opportunities become.)


The other one continues a pattern set by her parents, being the fourth daughter to become pregnant out of wedlock. At least her sisters married the fathers. Mostly. She does hold the distinction of being the only one who was a high school student at the time of her impregnation. 


Neither has a statistical chance of achieving Middle Class.


Then there's the line that is directly descended from an American President.  Here's a series of Facebook posts (verbatim) from the scion:

Allmost whent two colege wid mi pj'z on lol im soooo tierd

[x] finals done

[x] celebrate because ik there all A's :) 

[ ] plans for my 2 week vaca

This is what happens when 1 bro is on fb, when ur sis is on the wii, when another bro is youtubing funjumps while his nurse is surfing the web and mom is playing with her new tablet. Ugh! lol

From the description page of this student's instituion of higher learning:

It may be impossible to transfer from ITT to a traditional university; per the ITT website, "it is unlikely that any credits earned at an ITT Technical Institute will be transferable to or accepted by any institution other than an ITT Technical Institute."

There is so much more to this story, and it may get filled in with later edits. The point is that I don't believe this is all that unusual in the United States of America in the early 21st Century. 


The logical conclusion is frightening. Maybe we need a meteor.