Nothing is quite as important as good friends. And the person you hate most in the world could be the best friend of someone else, that you probably wouldn't care for either. But if they make each other happy, what's the problem? And wouldn't every single person benefit if all the crazy fuck-ups who make each other happy go off in their own corner and stop pissing the rest of us off.
But see, I think I'm one of those people, that pisses people off. Even though I try my damnedest to be nice to everyone, there are still those who think I'm the one who needs to be stuffed in a closet. But I'm in good with people who love me. Who cares what anyone else thinks about them or me? We're all happy together. That's what counts.
There's a theory of political philosophy called Utilitarianism. It relies on maximizing the sum of all people's happiness, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. I feel like there's a small number of changes we could make to the general order that could make more people happy. Even people whom we feel don't deserve to be happy. Each individual is largely determined by the individuals around them, by their environment. Change that environment, you can change a person.
In many ways our society is organized to foster competition, which albeit is our instinctual tendency. But what would be so terrible, about giving city kids the opportunity to experience being farmers? Let them decide if that's the life they want? Teenagers are committing suicide at a disturbingly high rate. Many of them feel trapped, like they're not suited for the life they're told they ought to lead. Well, why not give them more options?
I wanted to go to a school in the country, to be closer to God. I was talked out of it, talked into going to an inner-city school of high caliber so that my post-bachelor opportunities would be higher caliber too. As it turns out I'm happy where I went, but... I feel like I was bullied into abiding by someone else's idea of "best for me". How many other kids are falling into that same trap? And to what consequence? How many kids are told that they're "bad" because they can't do mathematics? You may be talking down to a horse whisperer, the best ranch-hand ever born! Teens with no academic talent whatsoever are told that they need to go to college. Why? College was not originally intended as a destination for the average. It was intended as a place of study for the people whose talent is studying. Why are we sending people with different talents there as well? The one-track mind needs to be derailed. Human capabilities outside of rote memorization and number processing needs to be valued, celebrated, and as well tended to in our school systems. I'm all for public education in concept. But its now being used as a weeding system to find the best candidates for academic work. What is actually learned is not otherwise useful. And that's a problem. We need to reroute our thinking about public school, away from 100% college prep that caters to the academically talented and more towards a well-rounded institution that prepares youngsters of all constellations for independent life. How to make a budget, do your taxes, make a resume, nutrition, first aid, changing a tire, rather than putting the just plain dumb into calculus class. No one needs calculus in daily life. Only engineers need calculus. The fact that almost every high school student is taught it (whether they learn it is a different story) just shows how biased the system is.
I want inner-city kids to have the chance to experience farming. I want farm kids to have the chance to experience business and politics. Student exchanges are the way of the future.
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