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We often hear about the horrors of not having enough education, but it is seldom that we are told the dangers of being over educated. Once you have been deemed "smart" by people you respect, you begin to believe that you know everything, and that it would be unthinkable for you not to have the answer. This is not at all a correct way of thinking about the world. There is no superior knowledge; there are various different perspectives and all of those perspectives are equally valid. But the brown nosing, often referred to as networking, that goes on in intellectual communities can lead a person's supposedly superior brain straight to the gutter. Always remember that those who orchestrate horrible acts of violence such as genocide are some of the smartest people to ever walk the face of the earth. No one forces their way into being a dictator; they simply flatter others until they are able to assume power. The antivaxx and anti-mask movements are perfect examples here. Of course there are antivaxxers who are just stupid (you can turn on the TV and see some idiot yelling at a fast food worker over a mask mandate any time of the day); however, other antivaxxers hold prominent positions in entertainment, academia and politics. These antivaxxers are often ignored or presented as some sort of anomaly, as if this is uncommon. Yet the amount of people who hold PHDs that are antivaxxers (20%) is almost identical to the amount of high school drops outs who are antivaxxers (18%). There is literally no difference. Why? Because too much education makes you arrogant. It makes you believe that you have the answers when you very well may have no idea what you are talking about. Just look at how frequently people retweet or like misinformation. This happens frequently on social media. If these people know so much, if they are so much better than the rest of us, then why do they believe in things that are not even accurate? The supposedly intellectual captains of industry lie all of the time. When I was young, they told us that a bachelor's degree was sufficient. That was a lie. Today, "Your new bachelor's degree is becoming increasingly worthless as more and more people graduate from college, as jobs that used to need only a bachelor's degree now prefer master's degrees". I thought that smart people were supposed to be honest and they may honestly believe that they are correct in telling you that college is the golden ticket, but they are wrong. They are wrong because they do not live in the real world, but in fantasy land where smart people are always rewarded. Well, that is easy to believe if you hang out with a bunch of other people who have been deemed smart who also live in this fantasy land, but that is nothing more than confirmation bias and there is nothing smart about that. But what about money? Are people with college degrees at least earning the money back that they paid for? Of course a person with a college degree who was lucky enough to be hired will tell you, "absolutely, college will make you successful", but again they are simply taking into account their personal experience, not what really goes on in the real world. Here is a quote from the Economist on the subject, "Meanwhile, about 40 percent of U.S. college students don’t actually walk the aisle in four years...Additionally, some “over-educated” graduates get stuck in jobs that don’t actually require a degree." Hm, that sure does not sound like a positive return on investment. The article continues, "The Economist produced its own gauge of how over-educated the job force is, and noted that more than 25 million U.S. workers — two-thirds of those with degrees — “are doing work that was mostly done by non-graduates a half-century ago". I think this is the part where Willy Wonka would say, "So, you went to college for ten years, ended up working at Amazon, and you want to tell me how smart you are? Tell me more..."
We often hear about the horrors of not having enough education, but it is seldom that we are told the dangers of being over educated. Once you have been deemed "smart" by people you respect, you begin to believe that you know everything, and that it would be unthinkable for you not to have the answer. This is not at all a correct way of thinking about the world. There is no superior knowledge; there are various different perspectives and all of those perspectives are equally valid. But the brown nosing, often referred to as networking, that goes on in intellectual communities can lead a person's supposedly superior brain straight to the gutter. Always remember that those who orchestrate horrible acts of violence such as genocide are some of the smartest people to ever walk the face of the earth. No one forces their way into being a dictator; they simply flatter others until they are able to assume power. The antivaxx and anti-mask movements are perfect examples here. Of course there are antivaxxers who are just stupid (you can turn on the TV and see some idiot yelling at a fast food worker over a mask mandate any time of the day); however, other antivaxxers hold prominent positions in entertainment, academia and politics. These antivaxxers are often ignored or presented as some sort of anomaly, as if this is uncommon. Yet the amount of people who hold PHDs that are antivaxxers (20%) is almost identical to the amount of high school drops outs who are antivaxxers (18%). There is literally no difference. Why? Because too much education makes you arrogant. It makes you believe that you have the answers when you very well may have no idea what you are talking about. Just look at how frequently people retweet or like misinformation. This happens frequently on social media. If these people know so much, if they are so much better than the rest of us, then why do they believe in things that are not even accurate? The supposedly intellectual captains of industry lie all of the time. When I was young, they told us that a bachelor's degree was sufficient. That was a lie. Today, "Your new bachelor's degree is becoming increasingly worthless as more and more people graduate from college, as jobs that used to need only a bachelor's degree now prefer master's degrees". I thought that smart people were supposed to be honest and they may honestly believe that they are correct in telling you that college is the golden ticket, but they are wrong. They are wrong because they do not live in the real world, but in fantasy land where smart people are always rewarded. Well, that is easy to believe if you hang out with a bunch of other people who have been deemed smart who also live in this fantasy land, but that is nothing more than confirmation bias and there is nothing smart about that. But what about money? Are people with college degrees at least earning the money back that they paid for? Of course a person with a college degree who was lucky enough to be hired will tell you, "absolutely, college will make you successful", but again they are simply taking into account their personal experience, not what really goes on in the real world. Here is a quote from the Economist on the subject, "Meanwhile, about 40 percent of U.S. college students don’t actually walk the aisle in four years...Additionally, some “over-educated” graduates get stuck in jobs that don’t actually require a degree." Hm, that sure does not sound like a positive return on investment. The article continues, "The Economist produced its own gauge of how over-educated the job force is, and noted that more than 25 million U.S. workers — two-thirds of those with degrees — “are doing work that was mostly done by non-graduates a half-century ago". I think this is the part where Willy Wonka would say, "So, you went to college for ten years, ended up working at Amazon, and you want to tell me how smart you are? Tell me more..."