Sometimes I lose sight as to why I even came to this University (to be deemed worthy of existence upon having received that sanctified piece of paper, the ever-annointed diploma). I'll be throwing a political bomb or two when I'll realize that I have a history exam in an hour for which I have yet to prepare. It's not that I'm one of these Generation X "slackers" or that I don't have a genuine interest in learning; it's simply that for many politicos, including myself, political activism becomes like a drug.
The fanaticism developed by those of us reactionaries to sensationalize events often becomes uncontrollable. Once you throw that first punch, once you launch a bomb that makes the administration shake in its bureaucratic boots, it's quite difficult to contain one's energy and enthusiasm for making the lives of leftists living hell. You can't sit and study for some trivial exam in some equally trivial class.
Besides, it's not as if I'm going to be seriously enlightened by the majority of classes offered by the University. Whether it's being indoctrinated with socialist propaganda in a sociology class or being pounded on the head with politically correct methods by which to lead a tolerant life free from offending others, self-righteous, self-absorbed professors are making it much harder for me to even care about what they have to say.
Most of these academics can be compared to career politicians. Both career professors and career politicians are alike in that they are groomed to alienate themselves from common America. Out of touch and having escaped from the reality which is life, professors become caught in a perpetual cycle of digging up propaganda and using it to indoctrinate the masses, digging up propaganda and indoctrinating the masses.
The professors are always the enlightened ones (what the heck do we the people know?), and although they claim to be champions of free thought, many a time has occurred when students' so called "freedom of thought" has been violated either through public humiliation in the classroom or through biases shown in evaluating classwork.
Polls taken indicate that the vast majority of professors have never held a job outside of teaching and that a whopping 97% of them lean toward the misguided left of the political spectrum. This fact that these bearers of bias are virtually inexperienced in leading lives intense with traditional work ethic is not the only thing that's disconcerting.
What is absolutely abominable is the philosophy that accompanies this blatant disregard for average America. It is the abhorrent belief that one is worthless without a college degree. That those people who have decided to stay away from academic bastions of liberalism are somehow inferior to those "enlightened ones" who have become entrenched in the system; the system that churns out "professionals" a dime a dozen.
Judging from the pool of applicants that are accepted to universities via the inequity that is affirmative action, even trained monkeys could graduate from college these days! (Not to digress, but the fact that almost a third of my fellow peers are ignoramouses who weren't
Once you throw that first punch, once you launch a bomb that makes the administration shake in its bureaucratic boots, it's quite difficult to contain one's energy and enthusiasm for making the lives of leftists living hell.
accepted to this school based on merit alone only subjects me to mentally-tortuous and unstimulating remedial teaching). The arrogance that professors display toward the working class and non-academics in general is downright revolting.
There is a more specific, a more descriptive way to characterize this attitude. It's called elitism. Yes, that distasteful display of snobbery is so very prevalent among the academic crowd. Why could that be? Is it that these so-called intellectuals are truly more illuminated than the rest of the world?
Surely not! Could it be that deep below those self-righteous exteriors there lie feelings of inadequacy, feelings of isolation, feelings of rejection from the mainstream world? Quite possibly. When lives revolve around research, writing, and indoctrinating, it all becomes too mechanical and too aloof. Students such as myself, who thirst for knowledge and the opportunity to pursue independent academic endeavors but not the liberal mentality that often accompanies the lectures, find ourselves disenchanted with the typical college cirriculum and wonder why we develop feelings of having wasted at least four years of our lives.
I recall the excitement once felt after having graduated from high school three years ago. The idea of being in an environment which was to foster independent thought was overwhelming; it was a devastating disappointment to find that I would have to obtain my education through other means, specifically through my extracurricular activities. Sitting through endless ramblings and rantings of professors does nothing to truly "enlighten" me. I detest professors who try to convince me that their opinions are the only opinions.
If only there was more objectivity presented by the professors so that students could be given the facts and then led to formulate their own opinions, maybe students wouldn't feel so intellectually empty upon having graduated. It benefits neither the professor nor the student when opinions are spoon-fed; we only cheat future scholars when we don't present them with ALL the perspectives due issues. It is no wonder that I find myself racing through my textbooks minutes before exams; attending classes has become like a mandatory sentence in the prison of indoctrination.
Sonia Mohammed is the Chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas and is truly disenchanted by the academic leadership at the University of Texas at Austin.