To be completely honest I should have minored in English instead of double majoring (History was the other). I was never really that good at English. I thought since I liked to read then an English major would be right up my alley. Unfortunately college English is less about the story and more about whatever disenfranchised group can read into the story. Questions like How does the Marxist/Feminist tradition add to the tableau of criticism as it pertains to Old Yeller abound. If asked this I always wanted to say, "I just like readin'." I have always thought a story was first and foremost about what the storyteller was trying to say and not about what I wanted it to say.Montevallo is where I first heard some cotton headed ninnymuggins say, "Just because it is true for you does not mean that it is true for me." Really Jack Kerouac? Let me set your goofy little hemp hat on fire and try to tell you that just because it hurts you doesn't really mean that it hurts. If all truth is subjective then put you self out with water that may or may not really be water if you don't believe in water. I heard this gem once. "There is no absolute truth." And she delivered this wisdom absolutely. Unintentional irony is the best.
I have been fascinated with Agnosticism lately. Here it is defined:
1. The doctrine that certainty about first principles or absolute truth is
unattainable and that only perceptual phenomena are objects of exact knowledge.
2. The belief that there can be no proof either that God exists or that God
does not exist. From the Internets.
Stephen Colbert said that Agnosticism is Atheism without...er...manparts. It is easier than Atheism. You can still believe in God you just don't really care to go beyond that. It might be handy the next time a Calvinist is trying to convert me to just say that I am Agnostic and don't really believe that I can prove any of this so I am not going to argue and continue to believe nothing. It seems to me as this is the laziest named philosophy I know of.
Did college challenge any of your preconceived notions of the world? Or was it simply an expensive trade school?
1 comment:
My college was the opposite of an expensive trade school, but only in the sense of trade. I spent four years and $400,000 learning to think and read and question. I also learned to make incredible baked potatoes.
College challenged everything for me and some truths remained intact at the end of the struggle.
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