I think, therefore I am an idiot

The most interesting thing I managed to find about Descartes was that he managed to get his name on this exclusive list . It would seem that Catholicism and the People's Republic of China share the idea that reading may indeed fuck with your head.

You've been warned. Anyways, on with the story.

Once upon a time, I participated in a class discussion about a subject I cannot remember. Something about software. In any case, I made a comment about the typical university education compared to that of the typical technical college diploma.

The comment described how the university kids end up not knowing much more than pseudocode and random theory, while the tech diploma people don't know much more than proprietary software packages. I think the exact words I used were "Microsoft Visio".

In any case, the accuracy of these statements is debatable. The effect of the statements is what is interesting.

Half the class were tech school grads (transfer students) and they were pretty pissed that I'd implied that they knew little more than how to fart around in popular software packages.

Nevermind that they should have been pissed because I also implied that university grads knew jack about the practical world.

The interesting thing to think about is that the tech school transfer kids didn't see themselves as being university students, but as tech school kids and were offended by my remarks about tech schools. Once in technical college, always in technical college it seems.

It shows that your reaction to the world depends greatly on how you define yourself. It doesn't matter if you fit in this definition, or if your view of events actually makes any sense at all (I tried my best to critique the hipster university types as much as I criticized the tech schools, yet the university kids didn't seem to notice)

If you were to describe yourself to others as a jilted lover, introvert or the reincarnation of Jesus, in your own little world that is what you will remain. What your role is in your imagined dreamland is what will model your behavior in real life.

If first and foremost you see yourself as a member of an mistreated group, it is this you will remain. "The Man" will always keep you down.

Have fun being perpetually victimized and offended.