All of your ancestors managed to navigate the gauntlet and reproduce.  From single cell organisms, to complex ocean dwellers, to mammals, to homo sapiens.  They maintained homeostasis, escaped predators and rivals, and managed to find mates.  All of them managed to survive and multiply so you, dear reader, could be here.

Think back across 6 million years of evolutionary history at the improbability of you and I existing.  Think of all of the things our ancestors had to be and do in order for us to be where we are.  It throws modern concerns into sharp relief.  The resilience and resourcefulness that is built into our genes is staggering.

And so, in evolutionary terms, there is no such thing as a loser.  We are all made of sterner stuff than that.

The first reason is supply and demand.  The supply of graduates has exponentially increased while the demand for said people has not kept pace.  This is kind of a no brainer.

Second, the mania for education is a classic instance of confusing correlation and causation.  In the past, when the smartest and most driven 10% of the population got a University education, a degree was a pretty good indicator of future success.  It’s not that the degree caused graduates’ success; it’s that the degree was a tangible marker of someone who was ambitious.  (Being a logically positivist society, we like things we can see and understand.)  Now that 50% of Canadians get a tertiary education, it is no longer a good indicator.  Almost anyone can get a garden variety BA.   In fact, it takes an ambitious person to say “no” to school and go to work.

The third reason is that schools continue to raise tuition in an attempt to discipline students into thinking the degree is of value.  Human’s have a funny quirk in their psychology that makes them conflate cost with value.  The more something costs, the more we think it is valuable.  For example, we think a Rolex is more valuable than a cheap digital watch, even though they do the same thing.  You can argue that a Rolex provides prestige, which is valuable in of itself, but that is hard to quantify.  Luxury goods are famous for conflating cost with value.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Noam Chomsky (not my favorite guy, but he’s right in this case)

My feeling is that student fees are instituted, basically as a technique of indoctrination and control. I don’t think there’s an economic basis for them…. What you’re talking about, I think it should be opposed, because it’s a general form of indoctrination and control, which goes down to kindergarten… It’s a way to make sure that children aren’t free, independent or inquisitive, exploring.

Money quote

The Han Chinese didn’t get to be the all-time world champion ethnic group by being nice guys or by docilely soaking up every foreign idea that came along.

Stephenson, as always, has an amazing turn of phrase.  Mao Bell, I got the ill communication.

This is the event that should be remembered, not 9/11.

The heavy breathing on the consumer tech articles is annoying, but the cultural analysis makes up for it.

Check out the others.

The visuals immediately stand out.  When watching a scene of Tibetan monks create a mandala, you can see individual grains of sand in the artwork.  It makes me wonder what we’ve lost by jumping to digital.

The scenes in Mecca might blow your little mind.

A couple of months ago, I wrote about utopians and the retreat from responsibility.  I think that apocalyptic prophecies and utopias are related.  Both are very common, both fail every time, and both are addictive.

The most common form of apocalypse is the religious variety.  40% of Americans think we are living in end times.  William Miller and Harold Camping are examples of this.

The other major type is the environmental catastrophe.  This one is popular with liberals, luddites, and environmentalists who want things to go back to the way they were.

The third type is the natural disaster groupies.  They believe we will be struck by an asteroid, earthquakes, tidal waves, and the earth will stop rotating on its access.

I think the primary motivator for these end-of-days fantasies is escapist.  Why take responsibility for your life when the world will end soon?  You might as well leave everything at loose ends and ride the wave on out into the darkness.  In an uncertain world, the end of the world, like utopia, can be a very comforting thing.

The dreadful thing is that it is contagious.  I found myself checking the clock towards the evening of the 20^th in the latest round of nonsense.  I couldn’t help it.

1. Santa Cthulu. The holiday monster.

2. Kukulkan. The plumed serpent.

3. Din Tai Fung.

4. Skree’it. The crying child on every airplane.

5. Lao Wu. The three headed oracle.

6. Ted. The judgmental.

7. The tremendous mound of human fat.

8. The cute and angry ghost of veal.

9. Hefner the Sexy Werewolf.

10. The smoke monster from Lost.

11. Lance Bass.

12. Balrog. The Queen of unfortunate SEO.

13. Bycyclops. The two eyed cyclops.

14. Liu Wen. Secretary of the treasury of the damned.

15. Liu Yen. Carrier of the Lucy Liu Flu.

16. Oolong Cha. The tea time murderer.