The New Religion This may be hard for some of you to swallow, it might challenge your views, or even offend you, but that is not my intention. This topic has caused my wife and I quite a bit of personal grief and even self-doubt for me over the past few years. I’ve noticed some interesting behaviors and ideas start to emerge in our general society and specifically within my generation. It is not my intention to place blame or even to complain about how we have been treated by a number of people regarding this topic -especially since I believe that they were truly trying to give advice out of genuine concern for our future, however misguided I feel they were- my purpose is only to show a different perspective on what I see as a growing problem. To give you an idea of my motivations for writing this article I need to tell you a story; My wife and I attended a congregation for a period of time that was made primarily of newly married couples who were either both attending college or were supporting a spouse in finishing college; my wife and I however were not, I was working in manufacturing at the time. I had intended for a number of years to obtain a degree in manufacturing engineering, but because of circumstances beyond my control during the time that it would have been easiest for me to attend college I was unable to because of family needs and personal finances. I could do what everyone else is doing, take advantage of Government grants, or go into large amounts of debt to “get an education” but first of all I have no debt and my wife and I have no desire to put ourselves under financial servitude, plus I’m one of those “extremists” who thinks taking money that I didn’t earn from a Government who used the force of law to take it from other people who worked hard for it, is not only adding to our nations numerous problems but is far too close to stealing for me. Even though I was unable to attend a college and obtain an official degree I was blessed with the opportunity of spending time in a machine shop with some people who have become close friends of mine, they let me use their equipment in my free time, and taught me a number of skills that have since given me the resources to expand my ability, independently study a number of topics that I would have spent thousands to learn from a college or technical school, and get a better paying job to support myself and my wife as we start out. My view of education started to change as I worked and learned; I realized I didn’t need a college to teach me what I wanted to know, but rather I could learn from those already in the field through working with them, I could read, and gain first-hand experience within my area of interest, and continue to learn throughout the rest of my life. So anyway I have no degree, neither does my wife, and we were attending a congregation full of our peers whose lives revolved around a college education. We were fine at first and loved how welcoming everyone was, until we started to realize that conversations ended very quickly when it was discovered we hadn’t attended a college and weren’t planning to any time soon. We decided that it was probably just because our lives were different and they couldn’t really relate. This continued, they were courteous to us, but the topic of education always brought awkwardness to the conversation, we could tell they didn’t approve. My wife started to tell me how hard of a time she was having at church, most of the other women wouldn’t really talk to her; she felt looked down on because even though she had taken a few college courses in photography and ran her own photography business it seemed everyone thought she couldn’t be a serious photographer without a degree. We tried to stay and work through things until the head of our congregation called us into his office one day and started asking us what our plans for education were. I told him of my experiences in the field and how I had learned so much, that I continued to learn enthusiastically, and that someday I hoped to run my own business based around what I was learning. I could tell however he was not impressed, and as the meeting went on I could see he was quite irritated with my point of view, informing me that “people do not learn on the job”, that basically members of our faith were required to gain an official education, and I needed to get with the program. He then informed me that I was to put together a plan for my education, and present it to him in a few weeks. It was shortly after this that we left the congregation and started attending one with older families who had moved on to a different stage in life, which made ours much easier. So why is it that there is such an emphasis on a degree or certification? I can see the benefits; a degree shows a level of accomplishment, sacrifice, and dedication for a person to pass through a curriculum meant to ensure that they receive the knowledge to safely operate in whatever field they intend to enter. A degree also shows that through testing an individual has proven their knowledge of an area of expertise, and has been approved by an organization with an established history and credentials that should ensure people aren’t able to do harm to others by preforming a service they aren’t trained to perform. A college degree also provides an opportunity for individuals to receive further education in other areas through general courses that help them become a more rounded individual and should therefore have a more complete view and understanding of the world around them. In short colleges can be tool to cure the general populace of the disease of ignorance, in fact in my opinion that is exactly what they should be. Now we come to where I think things begin to get a little skewed, the idea that everyone should go to college, and that those who don’t are failures. There’s a long list of statistics that show how those who go to college are more likely to get a higher paying job, stay married, manage their finances better, and basically be happier in life, but people always seem to think that those statistics are a product of their education, where in reality I think it’s the other way around. College will not ensure a happy marriage, a wonderful job, financial success, and overall happiness, in fact having a degree doesn’t even make you intelligent or wise, it simply means that on average a person who makes good choices, is willing to work hard, and understands how to be happy in life is more likely to attend a college because of the advantages it can give you; an education, no matter what source it comes from enhances your abilities to seek after the things that can truly make you financially successful, but an official education isn’t always required. Let me break this down for you on a financial level; if everyone has a degree then what is special about it? More people are attending college than ever yet tuition continues to rise, so this means that college is becoming more expensive because degrees are in demand while the degree is becoming worth less and less to employers. A degree isn’t going to help someone when everybody and their dog has one too, and in fact it means that in order to get ahead you have to get even more specialized education to compete for a job that 20 years ago didn’t require a degree but now requires a Associates or a Bachelors. Businesses love to have highly trained employees; the problem is they have to pay them more for that degree, and very often the person with less formal education can get the job done and get paid a lot less because they aren’t loaded down with student debt and a superiority complex. It’s a simple case of supply and demand, just as food prices increase when there is less food available, and food prices drop when there is a surplus, so too do wages when we have a surplus of people with college degrees and not enough positions that require them. Whether you use debt, public funds, or a person works their way through college, school is expensive, training costs money, and if we pay $50,000 on average for everybody to get a higher education it will be a financial burden, which means everybody has to start life $50,000 behind, whether it’s out of your own wallet or the Government takes it out of somebody else’s wallet, that still means collectively we get stuck with a tab of $15,000,000,000,000 (that’s 15 trillion) with an estimated population of 300,000,000 in the United States and I know it’s a little higher than that. Even if the estimated average cost of an education is high, that still puts us into trillions of dollars just for giving the entire population higher education. That’s almost as high as our national debt at 17 trillion which we haven’t a hope of paying off in our grandchildren’s lifetime especially with how we continue to spend; can our economy handle that? It is financially insane to expect an entire population to obtain higher education especially on the public dime. Just as it was financially insane to give home loans to people who couldn’t afford them, and we see the consequences of the housing bubble, so too will we see consequences for the education bubble. So again I ask the question, why are we pushing so hard for everyone to obtain higher education? Who benefits? It certainly isn’t the people obtaining the degree, it isn’t even businesses; some of the worst employees come fresh out of college, because in their minds they have a degree, they know everything, and are often un-teachable when employers try show them how things work in their business. So if it’s not individuals or businesses, maybe it’s the colleges, they make bank; the entire population flowing trillions of dollars into their system over one lifetime, but they aren’t the only ones pushing for all to enter into the secular seminaries of higher education; our government loves the idea of the masses obtaining regulated training and education. How could you ask for a better way to push forward the politically correct way of thinking than to have a nationally regulated system of education, filled with professors who teach an approved curriculum for a progressive society; the divisiveness of religion and nationality, the inevitability of global warming, the prejudice and primeval ideas of traditional marriage and the sanctity of life? All of those outdated, individualistic, superstitious, and independent people, sending their children off to have their ideas of God and principles replaced with the structure of secularism and collective ethics. I feel the pressure constantly to move in a very specific direction, and that is towards academic achievement, debt, political correctness, and our society’s version of financial success. You can’t tell me there isn’t a push to become the type of individual who goes into debt, or take advantage of redistribution of wealth to improve their situation, but it seems that so many people have forgotten the dangers of the “something for nothing” or “buy now and pay later” lure which are more realistically the “something if you jump through the rights hoops and loop-holes to take money with strings attached” or “buy now pay a lot more later” lure. There is no such thing as a free lunch; when did we forget that? And when did we forget that debt is voluntary slavery; the bank, or credit card company, or car dealership, all own your labor until you have paid in full what you borrowed, plus interest. We find ourselves no longer free to live life the way we may want, we are tied to a long list of monthly payments, deadlines, class schedules, work schedules, legal forms, codes, taxes, regulations, licenses, terms and conditions, fees, and don’t forget to check facebook. We work our buts off to have nice things, to obtain a the status symbols of a nice house, a new car, a boat, toys, and we indenture ourselves for a good portion of our lives to have those things now, because without them you can’t be happy, but don’t we ever find that we don’t really own our things; they own us? We sacrifice our freedom for luxury and security, and it seems to me that we’re completely missing the point, my life has taken a different purpose than running the rat race, my goal is to get away from all of that, to live simpler, closer to the world we have forgotten about, the real one where we used to live, not this artificial monstrosity we have created. Didn’t the savior say it all “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal” Matt 6:19. I mean really the day that you know your time is up, you’re going to die soon, is your huge house, new car, full bank account, degree, and amazing career, going to run through your mind as your great achievement in life? I know that won’t be the case for me, the things I’m going to care most about are the people I will leave behind, who’s lives did I touch, did I stand up for what I believed, did I make the world a better place, what will I be remembered for when I’m gone, and most of all, what will God think of what I did with my life? My worldly wealth and luxury which I worked so hard for will do little to open up the gates of Heaven, and if you don’t believe in an afterlife, well then just think of how your stuff will bring all of your spoiled, well-educated, and entitled children together as they divide your estate amongst themselves. Isn’t it time we got back in touch with what is real and lasting? Maybe we should spend a little more time finding out who we are, why we are here, and less time focusing on what we have, because what we have can be taken away in an instant, especially when it is built on the already shaking foundation of our society. Wealth, power, status, immediate gratification, and ease, those are the Gods of the new religion, and those are the idols we worship. Maybe they aren’t that new, maybe were just foolish enough to fall for the same old tricks, from the same old twisted soul, trying to get us to break the first commandment; “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me”.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 03:17:37 +0000
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