more on the previous
I was talking to Nathan, and we decided that the Vietnam War ruined college.
Before Vietnam, everything was about learning. People took academics very seriously, and while there were social gatherings, colleges were not the hotbed for parties like they are now. After Vietnam, college parties are huge. Keggers happen all the time. The reason: college was a reason for people to *not* be drafted during the Vietnam War. If you maintained a 3.0 GPA, you were exempted from the draft. Not too surprisingly, this happened shortly before the huge spike in college attendence in the late 60's/early 70's, and so there were all these people going to college for the sole purpose of dodging the draft. A large number of these people were people who under normal circumstances would not have gone to college because they simply didn't care that much. What happens when you have a large group of apathetic students congregating in an area the size of a small town? They start to get bored... and the older ones among them can legally buy alcohol.
And we're surprised that college is not about academics anymore. Blame LBJ.
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also: Read this to find out how you can voluntarily - and *legally* - avoid being drafted. Very interesting read, and I recommend that all people who can be drafted read it.
Before Vietnam, everything was about learning. People took academics very seriously, and while there were social gatherings, colleges were not the hotbed for parties like they are now. After Vietnam, college parties are huge. Keggers happen all the time. The reason: college was a reason for people to *not* be drafted during the Vietnam War. If you maintained a 3.0 GPA, you were exempted from the draft. Not too surprisingly, this happened shortly before the huge spike in college attendence in the late 60's/early 70's, and so there were all these people going to college for the sole purpose of dodging the draft. A large number of these people were people who under normal circumstances would not have gone to college because they simply didn't care that much. What happens when you have a large group of apathetic students congregating in an area the size of a small town? They start to get bored... and the older ones among them can legally buy alcohol.
And we're surprised that college is not about academics anymore. Blame LBJ.
***
also: Read this to find out how you can voluntarily - and *legally* - avoid being drafted. Very interesting read, and I recommend that all people who can be drafted read it.