An Argument
Posted by Mathew on January 21st, 2007
First of all I'd like to start by apologizing to those involved. To blame my tenacity in pursuing God knows what on alcohol would be irresponsible to say the least.
That being said I'd like to explain my side things in a little more detail. I think success, as a person, is based on how one can provide for both themselves and their family. Such provisions need not be strictly concerned with finances, but more than that. Emotional, educational, and perhaps spiritual support for yourself and the immediate family around you would factor in heavily on your success as a person. If you are able to do something that makes you happy, provide for your wife and children, and teach both yourself and your family how to be better people, then you are a success. This is obviously a male point of view, but my view of success is ultimately tinted by my status as a male, and I cannot help that due to genetics or faults of my own.
I respect those who fight/fought for my rights, but there are reasons I didn't join the army after high school. It's not because I believe them to be shitty people. But I don't personally believe it to be a successful path. Perhaps two to three hundred years ago fighting in an army could've prepared you to successfully exist as a person, but I no longer believe this to be the case. I think too many of our veterans are stuck with debilitating psychological and educational handicaps. They simply can't be as successful because they are unable to function as well outside of a military setting. Now this isn't the case 100% of the time, but in general I believe it to be true.
Concerning the work force, or more specifically non-collegiate educated personal working in non-professional fields, I believe them to be less successful than the average college graduate for several reasons. I believe the strive to learn more, and therefore make more of yourself, says something about your traits as a human. I would believe that person to be more supportive intellectually and emotionally. Again, not the case 100% of the time, but still (in my estimation) a majority of the time. The average person will make more money with a college degree, and this will allow them the position in the work force, and in life in general, to provide a happy, safe, and healthy environment for themselves and their immediate family (wife/kids). The average collegiate educated person would also be more likely to succeed in a greater variety of situations and changing economies than the non-educated person would be.
I'd like to also point out that my arguments were meant (perhaps I did not make this clear) to be taken in the general case. Specifically perhaps some people believe that their parents, or other persons they have met, to be more successful than they will be based solely on their status as a soon to be collegiate educated person. This could very well be the case, but is a specific case, and therefore not truly in the realm of my general argument.
To sum up my feelings, if you take a person, a very general person, that person will be more successful, as a human being, and therefore better, if they are collegiate educated. I still believe this to be the case, even if my argument was put forward in a convoluted state due to my own lack of composure. I did the best I could at the time, but being both under the influence of alcohol, and under "attack" from two sides did not seem to help my ability to reason. I apologize if my opinion differs from your own, and I honestly mean no disrespect in any of the above, but it doesn't change the fact that I believe it all to be true based on logical reasoning and assumptions. Going on that point, I am in fact operating on assumptions, as I have no empirical evidence to support my statements. This could be the Achilles heel of everything I have to say on the subject, and I would accept defeat based on such. I hope that this isn't taken as the sole basis on which I will be judged, but if it is than I will have to live with it, as it is what I actually believe, and as such I am unwilling to change myself for any reason less than a wholehearted change in said beliefs.
In the end people will be successful with or without my approval, and thus my argument ultimately does not matter. It was not, after everything, worth the breath I used to utter it in the first place. The full absurdity of the tonight's events escapes me, quite honestly, and I feel I have no one but myself to blame. I apologize once again to all involved, and wish a happier environment than this in times to come.
