How The Market Is Shaping Us
Posted: May 16, 2013 Filed under: InspirationStuff | Tags: Blog, business, Culture, education, Inspiration, Life, News, Writing Leave a comment »
Happy to be in the VIP section of the FC Basel football stadium.
A few days ago, I went to a European job fair in Basel, Switzerland. It was hosted in the VIP section of the Basel football stadium, St. Jakob-Park. There were many different booths covering the gamut of job fields from aviation to zoology. Most of the men there wore suits and the women wore formal attire. I was surrounded by Rolex watches and Gucci heels and I wore a casual H&M outfit. Blended right in.
Many of the booths had bowls of candy, brochures, and small, stuffed mascots to lure people in. There was one booth that had sunglasses lying on the table. Or so I thought. I noticed a big screen right in front of me and the picture was a little out of focus. So I put on the glasses and enjoyed the full high definition 3D experience.
I noticed that most of the attendees were walking around with their résumés in their hands, trying to sell themselves to at least one of the many companies represented by stuffed mascots. I overheard a conversation in French between a company representative and an attendee. The representative said something along the lines of, “You’ll max out your potential with us.” Like it’s a human’s purpose to work for another human. I like to think of jobs not in terms of “work” but in terms of “service.” Share, exchange, help. Not buy and sell; where’s the humanity in that? We’d be like the stock market with limbs.
The whole sharing thing sounds nice and sweet, but it has no place in today’s society. We’re finance-oriented. Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we be in times of a global financial crisis? You could write a book about how to implement an alternative economic system, make it available to the public for free, create a foundation, ask people to donate, and 0.01% of all people would give money to the foundation.
The market doesn’t benefit you. You benefit the market. That’s why we have job fairs: “What can you do for our company?” Of course nobody says that. In fact, companies say it the other way around: “What can our company do for you?” But in the end, you’re working for them, and they give you a paycheck with which you can buy yourself another pair of Gucci heels.
We only care about our own wellbeing. We want to make as much money as possible with as little work as possible. We’re becoming lazy, and because of that, we’re losing track of what’s moral. Which is why we praise people like Charles Ramsey and label him “a national hero” whereas all he did was the right thing. The market has become so corrupt and it’s affecting the way we live. But we’re so blinded by our own needs and our own selfish desires that we don’t even see how blind we are. We think it’s normal to work at a company and earn money for the family instead of spending time raising the children. Sadly we can’t do one without the other, unless we change our mentality about the market. Community-based life, where the rich and the poor share with each other, so everyone has what they need and the surplus is given to those who don’t have enough. I’ve found that atheists understand this much better than Christians. Why? Because atheists don’t have finance-oriented churches.
Seth Godin put it this way:
Some people spend a huge amount of time on applications, on pushing the envelope and gaming the system to get picked… and some people spend that time building a following, learning skills, posting their work online and most of all, being generous in what they know and share and the tracks they leave in the world.
I can’t imagine doing anything but the latter.
How Crazy Are You?
Posted: May 9, 2013 Filed under: InspirationStuff | Tags: Blog, education, Inspiration, Ivy League, Jeff Bliss, Life, News, YouTube 2 Comments »So there’s this video on YouTube that’s been getting a lot of attention about a high school student, Jeff Bliss, who stands up to his world history teacher. It’s quite crazy. Click this link to watch the 1:45 minute long video.
It’s not news to anybody that the American education system in particular is not functioning well. Mr. Bliss makes it abundantly clear that he’s one of the many who are dissatisfied with the inefficiency of the American education system. Wait, actually, that’s not true. The education system isn’t inefficient at all. It’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing: preparing cogs for the machine. But obviously students aren’t cogs. Many organizations such as TeachBeyond have figured that out, and they’re focusing their funds and attention on “equipping students to reach their full potential as human beings.” But how true is that statement?
When I was in high school, my teachers cared about me. Well, they kinda had to. They needed their students to go on and do great things, otherwise the school’s mission statement would not match up with the deeds of the school’s graduates. If the graduates ended up on Egypt’s blacklist or, even worse, not going to college, it would take away a little bit of the school’s academic credibility.
So what is the noble thing to do as a high schooler? Answer: do your homework and go to a good college. People applaud that. Standing ovations at graduation for the NHS student who got accepted to attend Yale this fall, right? Come on, you’d clap for that. It’s impressive!
Yeah, but this is 2013, not 1837.
Alright, that’s also not news to anyone. So what’s the alternative route?
There are individuals and organizations like the Thiel Fellowship who offer students money to work on groundbreaking projects instead of going to college. But then they finish their projects and are endorsed by colleges and universities. Why? That’s the only platform we have! Millions of smart, young people are enrolled in colleges, so you’ve already got yourself a huge audience. I mean, what would you do if you sat on an amazing invention and you wanted to get some publicity for it? You’d probably go to some innovation fare hosted and endorsed by your local university. Ironic, isn’t it? You’re looking for an alternative to universities and you find yourself giving a speech about alternative education at Harvard. It’s like Jesus preaching in synagogues.
Here’s the deal: Jeff Bliss understands that a teacher who does their job well positively influences the growth of their students’ potential. But this potential is thwarted from the beginning, because as a student (and a teacher) you are serving a system – the system isn’t serving you. Otherwise students would be getting free meals at cafeterias and teachers would show their students how the market truly works. I have only met one person in my whole life who was able to explain to me in detail how the market functions. I didn’t learn that in high school, yet it’s vitally important nowadays. You don’t think so? Check your debt again, then. I also didn’t get free meals at the cafeteria.
Here’s a question for you: who is going to step up and create something that blows the existing system’s socks clean off? Who will it be? It’s not going to be an Ivy League school professor, I’ll tell you that. Why implode something you feel comfortable in? Why would anybody in their right mind implode a system that has provided them with a degree, a job, and, thank the Lord, a relatively small mortgage? As an experienced educator, you’d have to sacrifice your life’s work in order to build an alternative platform that is impossibly superior to our current global university network. You’d feel like a traitor. However, as a youngster, as someone who hasn’t been bought by the traditional education system, you’ve got yourself some freedom if you’ve cut your umbilical cord from Alma Mater.
Are you crazy enough?
Alcohol in Germany
Posted: May 1, 2013 Filed under: JanStuff | Tags: Beer, Blog, Culture, Drink, food, Football, Germany, Health, Humor, Inspiration, Life, News, why are you reading the tags Leave a comment »So it’s the first of May, which means that everybody in Germany is partying right now because it’s a holiday. In fact, there’s a massive parade going through my little town of 370 people right now, and it’s not even 4 PM yet. There’s a saying in Germany that goes as follows: “Kein Bier vor Vier!” which translates into, “No beer before four o’clock.” So someone made this:
Moving on, I’m turning 21 in a few days. That means I’m legally allowed to consume alcohol in the United States of America, something I’ve been doing in Germany for the past five years already. Well, it looks like I’ll be flying to the States this summer to attend an education conference as well as hang out with some friends, so I’ll be sure to hit up some bars in my free time. I’ll actually be in Los Angeles amongst other places, so if you know of a super awesome pub, let me know in the comment section. And if perchance you’re in the area, we could even meet up and chat about, I don’t know, philosophy…
For Germans, beer isn’t a beverage. It’s sustenance. Germans always find a reason to drink beer. For example, when you wake up in the morning and you want to celebrate that you’re alive to live another day, you open a Hefeweizen. As simple as that. And even if there isn’t any reason at all to drink a beer, the fact that there is no reason IS a reason to drink a beer.
Personally, I’m more of a wine kind of guy. I recently bought a bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. It has a rich, smooth flavor. I’m not the type of person to attend crazy German beer parties and throw alcohol in other people’s faces. I’d rather sit back at the fireplace with a good book and a bottle of wine. I think it’s something humans are supposed to do: drink wine. Responsibly, of course. Jesus turned water into what? Wine. I wonder how wine was invented. Did someone squeeze out some grape juice into a jar and then forget about it? A few months later, they then returned and saw the jar with fermented grape juice and thought, “Hm, this liquid belongs in my mouth.”
I’ve never been drunk before, and I don’t plan on ever getting drunk. It’s selfish, really. You don’t exactly know what you’re doing, so you can’t exactly control what you do to other people. Which is why I think drunk driving is one of the most selfish, stupid things anybody could do. A while ago, I did an experiment at my local supermarket. You can read about that here.
Tonight, Bayern München plays FC Barcelona in the return leg of the Champions League semi final match. I’m sure that about 87.6 percent of Germans will be glued to their television screens holding at least one bottle of bear in each hand. It’s not cool to drink anything other than beer while watching a football match in Germany. In fact, drinking anything but beer during such an event is frowned upon.
So there you have it. Some German culture in a nutshell. If you’re a tourist in German, there are two words you need to know: Fussball (pronounced: foosball) and Bier (pronounced: beer). Cheers.
Me, my beer, and my good friend Regina, the church tower, in the background.
Your Opinion Is Not Invited
Posted: April 25, 2013 Filed under: InspirationStuff | Tags: Atheism, Blog, christianity, education, God, Inspiration, Life, Opinion, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Society, truth, why are you reading the tags, Writing 2 Comments »
Having an education, knowing about what’s going on in the world, and having an opinion about it are attractive features. Makes you seem informed and intelligent, you know? By seeking knowledge you expand your worldview. Nowadays, however, we’re drowning in information as well as people’s opinions about information. Along with ignorant folks and politicians, we’re also producing pseudo-philosophers who question scientific facts. The Flat Earth Society, for example, argues that the earth is, you guessed it, flat. Some people argue that you can’t know anything because “knowledge is merely opinion.”
With so many opinions floating around the globe, we’re starting to lose track of what’s the truth and what’s not. For example, the truth about traditional education is that the system is inefficient in regards to releasing full human potential. But people will always find a way to argue against that and put their opinion in the room saying, “Well, it got my my PhD and I earn 100 grand a year, so I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
Opinions are subjective – truth isn’t. But we’re making it subjective because we want to seem intelligent by mouthing our opinions about it. Or maybe we’re just blinded by relativism. Or maybe we don’t want to hear the truth because it harms us. Example:
I had a conversation with a Christian educator a few days ago. We talked about revolutionizing education and what that entails. In essence, he told me that what we need is a Christian form of the secular school system. I told him, “That’s the opposite of what we need.” But my statement challenged his lifelong career as a Christian educator who thinks that the answer to the global education crisis is a really good Christian school. He can’t afford to have invested all of his time, energy, and money into something that isn’t the solution! Therefore, my opinion is wrong and I am wrong and my life is wrong.
Why was he so afraid that I might be right? Was he too proud and ignorant to consider an honest statement from a twenty-year-old?
The truth is that nowadays the truth doesn’t matter anymore. Now it’s just your opinion and my opinion and our collective opinion about that other guy’s opinion, regardless of what the truth is. So why do we still say, “The truth shall set you free” when we don’t even acknowledge the value of truth? Why do we say, “Seek wisdom and truth” when all we’re doing is educating our generation to have an opinion about everything? The truth doesn’t require your opinion. In fact, your opinion is not invited!
In the West, we’ve become such an individualistic, bordering on narcissistic, culture where we standardize and generalize everything. Controversiality is frowned upon because the need to fit in is overpowering it. We want to be cool, and in order to be cool, we need to conform to the pattern of the world, because seeking the truth isn’t cool anymore. Having an opinion, however, is totally sexy.
But hey. That’s just my opinion.
Why I Hate Sunday Mornings
Posted: April 15, 2013 Filed under: InspirationStuff | Tags: Atheism, Blog, christianity, church, Humor, Instagram, Life, News, Politics, Religion, Technology, why are you reading the tags 3 Comments »
This is my brother on the beach in Portugal, far away from any bells of any sort.
As most of you probably already know, there are a lot of things about religion that rub me the wrong way. What I find in the Bible hardly corresponds to what I find in churches. But I guess that’s what sparks my interest for Christianity in particular. I want to find out why Christians do what they do. Religion has attributed to some of the world’s weirdest inventions such as self-flagellation amongst other stuff, which brings us to the rather serious topic of this post; something that I think affects us all in some way or another: church bells.
There are millions of churches, chapels, and buildings dedicated to gods of all sorts of religions scattered across the entire globe. Is there an underwater church dedicated to Poseidon? Do you know? I tried searching for it on the Internet but to no avail. Anyway, most of these religious buildings are equipped with bells in order to remind people to attend church service and pray. A relatively contemporary use for church bells is to inform people of weddings and funerals.
For the sake of sounding educated and credible, allow me to provide you with some detailed history about this delicate topic. A saint by the name of Paulinus of Nola came up with the idea of church bells around the year 400. At least that’s the consensus. A few centuries later, the trend picked up and more churches installed bells. Nowadays there are church bells everywhere. In fact, the study of bells is called campanology, which sounds like the study of camping, but it isn’t. I wonder how much campanologists make?
“Here, sir, listen to this bell.”
DONNNG
“Yeah, sounds about right.”
“Thank you, sir. Here’s a live goat and some frankincense.”
Over the years, technology advanced, Nikola Tesla was born, Steve Jobs died, and apps became popular amongst cellphone users. I get about 30 notifications on my iPhone every day from apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and my mobile’s calendar. My laptop constantly tells me about software updates for iTunes, GarageBand, and other programs. But you know what, as pesky as these notifications and updates are, they don’t violently rip me out of my peaceful slumber on a beautiful Sunday morning. Church bells, however, do. They’re almost useless. Almost, because they serve to instill annoyance into those of us who cherish sleep and quiet time.
I mean, how would you like it if I came up to your house at 9:00 AM on a Sunday morning, rang your door bell, and said:
“Hey! I’m Jan, nice to meet you. Sorry, did I wake you? You look kinda… ah, never mind. I just wanted to let you know that I exist on this planet and intend to continue to do so for at least another couple decades. Well, I have to get going and greet more folks, but I’ll be back next week. See you then!”
Our local church is just across the street from where I live, and I have the pleasure of dancing to Regina’s (I call the bell Regina) happy ding-dongs about five times a week because of special church services, weddings, funerals, and holy people’s birthdays. Regina also sings every fifteen minutes, reminding the unfortunate watch-less souls of the current time with pinpoint accuracy. The volume of electronically-controlled Regina is turned down after 10:00 PM because it’s rude to sing at full throttle after that time. Regina then resorts to a silent hum for about nine hours and then, at 7:00 AM, begins to amplify her volume generated by her campanological vocal cords once again.
Well, here’s the thing, guys: thanks to the birth of mobile applications, social networks, and emails, the age of the church bell is over. However, because most of the older generation don’t have Facebook and email accounts or a mobile phone, most church bells serve to lure the elderly into the churches’ luxuriously decorated interiors. Many seniors are hard of hearing, which I guess is why church bells are so ridiculously loud. But I’m not hard of hearing. Or old, or religious, or interested in campanology for that matter. I just want to sleep in on a Sunday morning without being reminded of the fact that an evangelical priest is about to make three points regarding the notion of tithing followed by a religious hymn accompanied by the monotonous melody of an ancient pipe organ. Honestly, the organ sounds better than Regina’s voice.
If it were up to me, I’d say this: churches can have bells as long as they’re silent. I’m not opposed to having church bells as a decorative bonus to an already overpriced building for which the money could’ve been used to finance world-changing inventions such as Brown’s Gas or the cure for malaria, but if the bells could zip it from now on, that’d be the bee’s knees. If you can’t live without hearing a church bell ring at least once a day, download this app right here and quench your thirst for the happy ding-dongs.
Here’s a picture of Regina:
She’s in that tower somewhere.
The Education Trap
Posted: April 2, 2013 Filed under: InspirationStuff | Tags: Blog, business, education, Inspiration, learning, Life, money, News, Politics, Portugal, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Student, Teacher 12 Comments »
I just got back from touristing in Portimao, Portugal. The weather was relatively alright; there was quite a bit of rain, but when the sky did open up, I had to be sure to find some shade. If you haven’t been to Portugal yet, you should consider doing the trip at some point in your life.
Anyway, as I was drinking my coffee one morning, I learned that about 38.6 percent of Portugal’s under-25s are unemployed. Um monte de gente. This got me thinking, “Is this a question of laziness on behalf of the youngsters, the government’s inability to create more jobs, or is it the inefficiency of Portugal’s education system?” In any case, it is a problem that needs to be addressed, and I have the feeling that more traditional schools won’t do the trick, given the fact that even though university attendance has increased, the unemployment statistics have risen with it.
Either new jobs need to be created or education needs to change from a job-oriented system to a life-oriented system. What if we equipped students with what they need to live a significant life instead of getting a well-paying job? There is a huge difference between the two, but the current state of the traditional education stronghold focuses most of its attention on job-acquisition. I think it’s because in today’s world, materialism is extremely popular. Especially amongst the insecure fellows who haven’t found their identity quite yet.
This unemployment disaster doesn’t just apply to Portugal; it is a global problem. My generation’s youth is full of undiscovered and untrained potential. Instead of extracting the best of them, however, we tend to put them in schools where they learn to become mere employees in the world market. Cogs in a machine.
I think that one of the key solutions that could be applied anywhere on the planet is to help young people discover their talents and interests and help them put those talents to use, very practically with just a tiny little bit of theory. We shouldn’t waste our time bombarding students with theory and rather focus on creating opportunities where they can apply the theoretical aspects of practical actions.
In the year 2000, for example, economics got turned upside down. From that year on, more money has been made with money (stocks, futures, derivatives, gambling, etc.) than with goods and services. Can anyone please tell me why on earth are we still training our youth to become salespeople of goods and services instead of teaching them how to invest? Why aren’t there more investing classes? More youngsters are going to college in order to be part of a shrinking financial world. What a trap!
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why I Love Rebels
Posted: March 11, 2013 Filed under: InspirationStuff | Tags: Atheism, Blog, christianity, education, Ethics, God, Humor, Inspiration, Life, Politics, Religion, Revolution, why are you reading the tags, Writing 16 Comments »
I was chatting with an outspoken atheist on omegle.com the other day. It was a lot of fun. One of his main problems with Christianity is that Christians seem like they’re trying to sell you salvation, like it’s some kind of product: “You look like you need Jesus. Come to my awesome church; we even have free coffee!” This atheist would probably just go for the coffee and then walk right out of the building again. But there was something else he said that stood out to me.
During our conversation, he mentioned that he was a rebel, you know, a disrupter of the status quo, someone who does the opposite of what’s expected or demanded, a person who resists authority or convention. Rebelling is something many humans do when they’re not happy with a certain concept or system or an authority. For example, if you have kids and say, “Eat your veggies!” and they frown and cross their arms and mutter something along the lines of “No!”, then they’re rebelling against you because they don’t like veggies and you’re trying to make them eat veggies. Or another example: Many female punks dress the way they do (combining feminine and masculine clothing styles) because of their rebellion against the stereotypical image of a woman.
Conversing with rebels is usually always interesting, because they see through the flaws of something, and they don’t want to be a part of something that is flawed. It does makes sense. They’re those who question a lot of things, who love to live in the grey areas of life, and test the socially accepted boundaries of ethics. But not many of them are able to create a better alternative to a flawed system. Mainly because they’re blinded by anger and frustration, and they use their waking hours to criticize, say, the financial structure of the Western economy, justifiably so.
However, there’s a fine line that separates the rebels from the revolutionaries. That line consists of the ability to create a working alternative to a flawed system. But when I look at the current socioeconomic status of the Western culture, it doesn’t look like we’re fond of revolution at all, because we’re comfortable with our flawed systems. “Life’s tough, yeah, but it’s life and it’s supposed to be tough, right? The world isn’t perfect, so why try to make it perfect? You just gotta learn how to deal with it, man. Wake up to real life, kiddo, and get yourself a college education.” My God, are we purposefully trying to kill the potential of revolutionary creativity?
Well, if that’s the kind of life you want to settle for, then go ahead. I bet we could have a great conversation about how much traffic sucks and tell stories about how obnoxious and noisy our neighbors are. Yeah, good times, bro.
The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.
Hugh MacLeod
