Ogre-oids, 3 September 2010

Denial about Iraq: Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson wrote yesterday that "only one thing is clear about the outcome (from the Iraq war): we didn't win." Then he goes on to say, "We didn't lose either, in the sense of being defeated." This is classical Orwellian nonsense. If the objective of a war is to win and you don't win--you lost. Get over it. This chronic denial is exactly why nothing good is ever going to happen again. If you can't ever take an honest look at yourself, your country, and your culture and admit to abject failure when it occurs on a horrifyingly gruesome scale, you have no chance of improvement and will continue to fail and to lose.

This obsession with winning drives the relentless jock culture conquest of the American university, as today's NY Times reports that universities all over the country are tripling investments in all sports, even marginal ones that annually lose money, at a time when the crippled economy is forcing universities make severe budget cuts, which means letting go teachers, getting rid of tenure, rising the cost of tuition. In other words, education has become so obsolete to the American university the college professors aren't even as good as sports programs that lose money year after year. The rationale is that by making sports high profile, places like the University of Florida send a message that it is a place for winners and thus keep rich alumni connected to the university community. Listen: any university that puts sports ahead of education is a haven for losers. The goal of a university is to produce enlightened citizens, not "winners," and anyone grown up who goes through life thinking they are a "winner" in this day and age is more delusional than a Tea Party rally on the anniversary of MLK "I have a dream" speech.

It makes sense, then, that a society that pridefully sabotages its educational system into jock hubs will be a place that can't produce its most basic needs without chronic failure and destruction to both its own land and its people. Just this past week reports surfaced that Hillandale Farms and Wright Co. Egg cut so many corners in its industrial egg operations that there were piles of manure four to eight feet high. Gee, if only the eight foot manure piles could master the "Dribble Drive" offense, UK coach John Calipari would have another number one class locked up. The result of this maggot factory was countless salmonella-tainted eggs being transported to 17 states. Omelettes anyone?

Worry not, though, for the youth of tomorrow have the benefit of being on anti-psychotic medication by the time they are six months old! Yes, another breakthrough. Yesterday's NY Times reports that pharmaceuticals have been pumping toddlers with combinations of psychotropic drugs resulting in major weight gain and zombie three year olds more brain dead than today's college students, who, according to a piece from today's NY Times are leaning Republican for November elections! This shift occurs less than two years after the same demographic flocked to Obama like young British females did The Beatles. Where do I begin to explain how absurd and depressing this is? Obama's determination to alienate every demographic that supported him in 2008 by reaching out to right-wing zealots who would still hate his guts if he personally resurrected the Christ-child? Or could it be the miserable digital-age, where the complete obliteration of focus and sustained thought means wild ideological swings among today's young adults who, because they are so well "informed" in this "information age" equate the current economic malaise with Obama and not the traitors who ran the country into the ground the previous decade? How's this for inspiration: Philip Stricker, a biology major at Colorado State University who voted for Obama reportedly explained to the Times, "There's a vibe," he said while lifting weights in the gym, "the Republicans just seem to care a lot more than the Democrats." This take is doubly sad: He's right, and he's stating his political perceptions from the most important facility on today's college campuses: the gym. The Democrats persistently come across like they just don't care once they get elected, no matter how much momentum they seem to have going for them. What's idiotic is that these college students are leaning to the right because they concerned about the lack of career opportunities ahead of them. Yet another vicious spiral at work: the university turns into a jock complex where jock culture overtakes education as the university's primary purpose, thus the only reason for attending class and getting a degree is get a job, but because the country is run by hot-head psychopaths obsessed with "winning" rather than learning, there aren't any fucking jobs out there, so the credentialed college graduate of tomorrow, in between another set of reps, thinks the wise thing to do is either not vote--not live as a citizen--or vote Republican--and either way perpetuate the vicious spiral by reinforcing the power of the very uneducated, anti-intellectual relevant social groups that have brought about the decline of the university and collapse of the economy since the turn of the century. Oh well. I guess it will get worse before it gets worse.

One last thing: since my blogpost from two weeks ago in which I said "Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa is a fucking idiot" St. Louis has fallen eight games behind the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central, turning a neck-and-neck division race into a runaway. The Cardinals' main problem? They can't hit or score runs. Guess that affirms LaRussa's decision to bring close buddy Mark McGwire of steroid 70 home run fame out of the shameful shadows by hiring him as the team's hitting coach. Just a guess here, but if the team can't hit, the hitting coach sucks. Maybe you should hire the best person for the job instead of your best buddy for personal reasons. Then again I'm working with a set of principles whereby performance corresponds to investment, and as today's university jock culture shows, the more a sports program loses money, the more money it gets. I guess nothing makes you a winner like being a complete fucking loser.