Why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?
Helen posted a great comment on one of my recent posts about life.
Ditto with art...I knew my passion and my purpose early in life, when everyone else was taking career tests and all, I knew I wanted to be an artist. So now I am...so what... Some years back when I was bartending (day jobs sometimes moonlight as night jobs), this Cosmopolitan drinking woman said to me: "Why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?"
Why indeed. My first impulse was irritation, but I've thought about the question a lot since then. The best that I can come up with is that those of us with peasant roots have a heightened appreciation for individual joys. We don't need to be entertained. We don't need to be romanced. We can create our own art, our own music, our own history, and find fulfillment. Somewhere in the "education process" we stop appreciating the joy that our art and music once gave us and we buy into the Puritan/Capitalist mentality of seeking ways to whore our art or our music. "If we're not making dough at it, then we're not taking it seriously." The mere fact that we have the opportunity to create art or create music is evidence of the opportunities of our culture. Yes, the day job sucks...sucks hard sometimes, but would you rather exist never knowing the joy that creating art or music can bring?
I think us peasant kids study esoteric topics because we've been indoctrinated with Capitalist tendencies and we eventually reject what we once loved because we no longer recognize it in thigh-high stilettos, bustier, and teased hair.
Rejoice in your day job, play music in your head at all times, and seize & love the opportunities to create music or teach. Reject the idea that you're not serious if you're not profitting. I've always referred to you as my "friend who is a musician," not that we require affirmation from others, but I have full confidence that at your core, you are who you were ten and twenty years ago.
-- Helen
I decided to just make a new post in response, because there's some good stuff in there.
So, "Why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?"
I think that was obvious - because that's what we were supposed to do. Especially my particular age bracket (I'm 30). Those of us from lower-middle-class families (there used to be such a thing) saw the future. And the future was with your degree. Our parents were stuck in jobs that paid the mortgage, but they couldn't move up in life because they lacked that magic degree. It didn't matter what the degree was in, it mattered that they (didn't) have one.
We didn't see the market flooding with other kids with degrees with little practical application. We didn't see the recession. We didn't see that we might actually have to pay our own mortgage someday.
Beyond that, I think there's something ingrained in Americans that makes us all dreamers some level. The most logical, realistic people I know still have dreams of doing exactly what they want in life, even when those things are "be a rock star" or "save the world", and they are 40 years old.
I also think this is why so many people have "mid-life-crisis". They have a hard time accepting that their life is as middle-class and mundane as their parents.
I read a line in a Douglas Coupland novel that talked about how middle-class people are doomed to be forgotten by history. If you're rich and/or famous you get to write history. If you're poor you will at least be discussed in history, and you have the opportunity to do something outrageous to change your situation.
When I talk about a day job (or night job, as the case often is), I'm not necessarily looking at it as "I'd rather make money playing music". I have played music as long as I can remember, and I will always play music. I'm looking at the day job sucking time away that I would rather be doing music. 40-50 hours a week at work I can't be practicing or performing. Plus all of those hours outside of work that still get spent thinking about work, instead of thinking about music. It's unintentional, but sometimes you just think "oh, crap, I forgot I have to do this tomorrow". You can replace "music" with whatever your real passion is in life. For my friend Helen, it's art (and she's damn good). For you it might be photography or cooking or skateboarding. I have the growing desire to spend much more of my time doing music than I am currently able to spend.
Ultimately, I believe that people are essentially the same people all of their lives. They say people don't change - and this is mostly true. Sure, you might have a life changing event, a religious experience, an epiphany, something that makes you look at life differently, or be nicer to people, or change some behaviors. But who you were at 5 years old - that's the real you.
At 5 I was fiddling around on the piano, just starting to get into music, I loved playing with friends, I was adventerous, and I didn't have much use for practical matters. At 30, I'm fiddling around with bodhrán, I'm playing music in a couple groups, I seek out opportunities for adventure, and I still hate dealing with most of the practical aspects of life.
We're all just trying to balance the reality of needing the day job with the drive to do what we love. Lately I've just been having more drive and less acceptance of reality.
Ditto with art...I knew my passion and my purpose early in life, when everyone else was taking career tests and all, I knew I wanted to be an artist. So now I am...so what... Some years back when I was bartending (day jobs sometimes moonlight as night jobs), this Cosmopolitan drinking woman said to me: "Why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?"
Why indeed. My first impulse was irritation, but I've thought about the question a lot since then. The best that I can come up with is that those of us with peasant roots have a heightened appreciation for individual joys. We don't need to be entertained. We don't need to be romanced. We can create our own art, our own music, our own history, and find fulfillment. Somewhere in the "education process" we stop appreciating the joy that our art and music once gave us and we buy into the Puritan/Capitalist mentality of seeking ways to whore our art or our music. "If we're not making dough at it, then we're not taking it seriously." The mere fact that we have the opportunity to create art or create music is evidence of the opportunities of our culture. Yes, the day job sucks...sucks hard sometimes, but would you rather exist never knowing the joy that creating art or music can bring?
I think us peasant kids study esoteric topics because we've been indoctrinated with Capitalist tendencies and we eventually reject what we once loved because we no longer recognize it in thigh-high stilettos, bustier, and teased hair.
Rejoice in your day job, play music in your head at all times, and seize & love the opportunities to create music or teach. Reject the idea that you're not serious if you're not profitting. I've always referred to you as my "friend who is a musician," not that we require affirmation from others, but I have full confidence that at your core, you are who you were ten and twenty years ago.
-- Helen
I decided to just make a new post in response, because there's some good stuff in there.
So, "Why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?"
I think that was obvious - because that's what we were supposed to do. Especially my particular age bracket (I'm 30). Those of us from lower-middle-class families (there used to be such a thing) saw the future. And the future was with your degree. Our parents were stuck in jobs that paid the mortgage, but they couldn't move up in life because they lacked that magic degree. It didn't matter what the degree was in, it mattered that they (didn't) have one.
We didn't see the market flooding with other kids with degrees with little practical application. We didn't see the recession. We didn't see that we might actually have to pay our own mortgage someday.
Beyond that, I think there's something ingrained in Americans that makes us all dreamers some level. The most logical, realistic people I know still have dreams of doing exactly what they want in life, even when those things are "be a rock star" or "save the world", and they are 40 years old.
I also think this is why so many people have "mid-life-crisis". They have a hard time accepting that their life is as middle-class and mundane as their parents.
I read a line in a Douglas Coupland novel that talked about how middle-class people are doomed to be forgotten by history. If you're rich and/or famous you get to write history. If you're poor you will at least be discussed in history, and you have the opportunity to do something outrageous to change your situation.
When I talk about a day job (or night job, as the case often is), I'm not necessarily looking at it as "I'd rather make money playing music". I have played music as long as I can remember, and I will always play music. I'm looking at the day job sucking time away that I would rather be doing music. 40-50 hours a week at work I can't be practicing or performing. Plus all of those hours outside of work that still get spent thinking about work, instead of thinking about music. It's unintentional, but sometimes you just think "oh, crap, I forgot I have to do this tomorrow". You can replace "music" with whatever your real passion is in life. For my friend Helen, it's art (and she's damn good). For you it might be photography or cooking or skateboarding. I have the growing desire to spend much more of my time doing music than I am currently able to spend.
Ultimately, I believe that people are essentially the same people all of their lives. They say people don't change - and this is mostly true. Sure, you might have a life changing event, a religious experience, an epiphany, something that makes you look at life differently, or be nicer to people, or change some behaviors. But who you were at 5 years old - that's the real you.
At 5 I was fiddling around on the piano, just starting to get into music, I loved playing with friends, I was adventerous, and I didn't have much use for practical matters. At 30, I'm fiddling around with bodhrán, I'm playing music in a couple groups, I seek out opportunities for adventure, and I still hate dealing with most of the practical aspects of life.
We're all just trying to balance the reality of needing the day job with the drive to do what we love. Lately I've just been having more drive and less acceptance of reality.