Thanks, and paleo!

Laurel — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:37:57 +0000

Thank you all for your congratulations on graduating. I have had a lot of fun in college, though my greatest achievements and lessons learned since I started degree work are definitely not academic in flavor. I do not belong in academia, nor is it a grind I can convince myself is important and thus put my nose to the grindstone and Just Do. Academia, perhaps with the exception of some of the research sciences, is nothing but a bunch of self-congratulatory pseudo-elites convincing each other of their own value to the world. They produce nothing, and–worse–empower those who destroy the producers. The law school is the worst about this; say a prayer for patience for our poor Inconvenience. We went to the bar with some law students the other night, who spoke frequently and haughtily of “our profession” and didn’t have the critical reasoning of one of my chickens. One tried to engage me on Heller/McDonald and wanted to argue firearms were expensive and uncommon in 1783. Another said “Wow, I guess I’d never thought of that, you’re right!” when I suggested she push for amending the Constitution instead of just perverting and ignoring it because it’s “like, 200 years old.”

So, yes… I’m a bit jaded about higher education. Next time you meet a young person who, by choice, shirks the societal expectation they attend four years of second adolescence, and instead joins a vocation or pursues entrepreneurship or even enlists, kiss them for me. They, not the academics, will save the world.

On a totally unrelated note, I’m starting another 30+ days of strict clean eating, and decided I’ll blog it here. I think the paleo/primal blogs are often annoying with all the “caveman” talk and imagery, and they also are often so focused as to gloss over how this can work in the real world for real people. I’ll put up my first post about it later. Expect lots of food pictures for a month. I like food. A LOT.

Politics, Guns & Beer » Fitness

Thanks, and paleo!