Hijinks in low places

Living for now in a town with a university (WVU) known more for the destructive and anti-social behaviour of the children who attend there than any real accomplishments makes one take pause regarding the entire college system in the US.

At one time, University was a place for the elite and accomplished. Now it is an almost essential survival tool, as more and more employers consider a 4-year degree the equivalent of a high school diploma thirty years ago, and parents are forced to second-mortgage their house so junior, who really has no interest in 11th century European political movements, must now spend 4 years in a strange city competing for the right to come home and work as a trailer salesman.

C.S. Lewis was right about the democritization of society, including our educational institutions: They are no longer places of excellence, but strident mediocrity (look at our current political leaders if you want more proof of the Salieri Effect, the destruction of excellence and genius in the name of paranoid underachievement).

The first weekend with the students in town this year produced the usual rash of emergency calls (and probably, quite a few incidents that were quickly swept under the rug by the school, they seem particularly good at covering up rapes in colleges nowadays) but this latest fad of starting fires, which included last year's post-game burning of people's cars for no other reason than they just happened to be parked on a street where the morons with the Bic lighter happened to be, seems to be a throwback to almost primitive knuckle-dragging. Regardless of whether or not this violence and property destruction is fueled by the easy access to alcohol on campus (the majority of students are underage for drinking, but the local papers seem intent on focusing bar and beer ads on students as, after all, we are talking responsibility not to the community, but to advertising revenues as the defining force in modern Journalism) or just the fact that the notion of "best and brightest" does not seem to apply to admission standards at most universities anymore, which are run as for-profit corporations, where often the administration's #1 job is fundraising, not standards-raising, it is a sad commentary on the quality of people in general, not just the specific students who cannot seem to make the distinction between "party" and "vandalism".

Don't even get me started on the subculture that celebrates drunken date rape as a rite of male passage. You don't want to hear that. I hope the Daily Athenaeum (The DA is the student newspaper at West Virginia University) takes a stand in this area and at least shows an allegience to higher principles than revnues from bars and endless "editorials" about the upcoming football season. (Idea for new Coors ad: "I like...burning peoples' cars...thowin' up in bars...and twins!")

This endeth the sermon. (Yes, it is noted with no irony that I am an ordained minister.)

On a brighter note, sat with Tag at Books A Million yesterday and we discussed his upcoming book, his trip to New York, and the preliminary work I am doing towards my next book.

Also noted: No sound out of Maggie in several days, wonder how she's doing...I miss her.

Haven't checked email yet this morning, hope it is good stuff and not just the recent rash of spam.