Opinion piece
Educated Cronies
Damian Marley calls then educated fools. Professor Julian Cobbing calls them Mr and Mrs Clever in his lectures about how humans became so innovative and “progressive”. I call them educated cronies. The masses of elitist thinking graduates who learn the one then and then like hypocrites turn around and do the very things that support the crisis’s that plaque mankind today.
We think we are so wonderful so we go around doing what we please with the physical environment, forgetting that it is the womb that birthed us. We have created structures and institutions of exploitation. We exploit each other as well as the earth’s resources and all of this is done in the name of increasing the world’s wealth. Increasing it to what? I don’t know but I do know that this “increase of wealth” knows no limit.
The technologies we create also add to the deterioration of our planet, especially through pollution. From their manufacture, testing right up until their uses, technologies like computers and simple trains have caused us to use huge portions of fossil fuels to create the electrical energy needed to operate them. Some of these gadgets are not even necessities and they are mostly found in the richer parts of the world.
This vain culture of consumerism spurs on the rapid consumption of natural resources and heavy pollution of soil, water, and the atmosphere to rake in the profits for major rich world corporations. Then we end up with things all sorts of economic, social and political stratification. This stratification created by the unequal distribution of wealth in the world. We overuse all our basic resources like water, and the soil that grows our foods and plants. One only needs to glance through the academic thought of people like Anthony Giddens (2006: 940-943) or better yet, take a walk around your own town to see what I am talking about.
We go to school and taught about global warming and all these catastrophes then when we go home in our fancy fume emitting cars, we chuck that knowledge into the boot and use up huge amounts of electrical energy with our “wonderful technologies” before we go to bed. I would know because I too am guilty of this. Then we go too the malls to loot up as many products of exploitation as we can like special types of coffee. Even though we know which brands are associated with unfair trade and in doing so, we further contribute to poverty in the third world then we wonder why the economic class gaps are widening and why there seem to be more hobo’s and potential “tsotsi’s” hovering around at every available public space, yet we helped put them in those positions.
When we graduate and get jobs and we see the money and the things it can do for us, we think that we can suddenly have our own soccer teams in our back yards. I can understand how people who are living below the poverty line can have more children, primarily because they don’t always know any better and the fact that sometimes they hope that their children will grow up to be the families’ savior and so the more the better their chances of survival. Of course, more times than not, we know that the opposite is quite true. Some of these families send up just reproducing another and bigger generation of poor people. What I don’t understand is how a person who knows that the world is at precarious place, faced with food crisis, economic crises, political crises because of the systems that we have created, can then go and have a lot of children. It’s no longer about whether you can afford them ladies. If you have duplicated yourself and your spouse, you have given your contribution to the human race. We are increasing at a faster rate than what the world can sustain so does that mean that the world needs more humans?
I think not. Population growth, in my opinion, will only serve to cause more tension as the scramble for basic resources and commodities looms closer and closer. One only needs to look as far back as the Iraqi war, which most people know was about oil rather than weapons of mass destruction.
It is unjust for us to gather at educational institutions, conventions and summits and to be come up with all these solutions and precautions and then we only expect the poor to comply. We talk about hybrid living then we go and build big houses with wooden flooring and under-floor heating systems.
Where is the organic intellectual to put to practice the fruit of his intellect? Is he/she lying dormant somewhere, oblivious to the world’s dire need the knowledge that he can share. There few who do exist, are facing a line of fire from the powers that be who do not want them to say anything that will bring about global change. This means that it is up to us to throw our weight in with them and refuse to become hypocritical educated cronies of capitalism.
We are part of the system sustaining the world crises. I am just saying we need to stop acting like selfish elitist snobs and start behaving like humane people who are concerned about this world, its inhabitants and are willing put their education to good use and do something effective. There’ve been many before us and shall be more after us so we better start learning how to think beyond our own noses and we better do what know is right fast.
Damian Marley calls then educated fools. Professor Julian Cobbing calls them Mr and Mrs Clever in his lectures about how humans became so innovative and “progressive”. I call them educated cronies. The masses of elitist thinking graduates who learn the one then and then like hypocrites turn around and do the very things that support the crisis’s that plaque mankind today.
We think we are so wonderful so we go around doing what we please with the physical environment, forgetting that it is the womb that birthed us. We have created structures and institutions of exploitation. We exploit each other as well as the earth’s resources and all of this is done in the name of increasing the world’s wealth. Increasing it to what? I don’t know but I do know that this “increase of wealth” knows no limit.
The technologies we create also add to the deterioration of our planet, especially through pollution. From their manufacture, testing right up until their uses, technologies like computers and simple trains have caused us to use huge portions of fossil fuels to create the electrical energy needed to operate them. Some of these gadgets are not even necessities and they are mostly found in the richer parts of the world.
This vain culture of consumerism spurs on the rapid consumption of natural resources and heavy pollution of soil, water, and the atmosphere to rake in the profits for major rich world corporations. Then we end up with things all sorts of economic, social and political stratification. This stratification created by the unequal distribution of wealth in the world. We overuse all our basic resources like water, and the soil that grows our foods and plants. One only needs to glance through the academic thought of people like Anthony Giddens (2006: 940-943) or better yet, take a walk around your own town to see what I am talking about.
We go to school and taught about global warming and all these catastrophes then when we go home in our fancy fume emitting cars, we chuck that knowledge into the boot and use up huge amounts of electrical energy with our “wonderful technologies” before we go to bed. I would know because I too am guilty of this. Then we go too the malls to loot up as many products of exploitation as we can like special types of coffee. Even though we know which brands are associated with unfair trade and in doing so, we further contribute to poverty in the third world then we wonder why the economic class gaps are widening and why there seem to be more hobo’s and potential “tsotsi’s” hovering around at every available public space, yet we helped put them in those positions.
When we graduate and get jobs and we see the money and the things it can do for us, we think that we can suddenly have our own soccer teams in our back yards. I can understand how people who are living below the poverty line can have more children, primarily because they don’t always know any better and the fact that sometimes they hope that their children will grow up to be the families’ savior and so the more the better their chances of survival. Of course, more times than not, we know that the opposite is quite true. Some of these families send up just reproducing another and bigger generation of poor people. What I don’t understand is how a person who knows that the world is at precarious place, faced with food crisis, economic crises, political crises because of the systems that we have created, can then go and have a lot of children. It’s no longer about whether you can afford them ladies. If you have duplicated yourself and your spouse, you have given your contribution to the human race. We are increasing at a faster rate than what the world can sustain so does that mean that the world needs more humans?
I think not. Population growth, in my opinion, will only serve to cause more tension as the scramble for basic resources and commodities looms closer and closer. One only needs to look as far back as the Iraqi war, which most people know was about oil rather than weapons of mass destruction.
It is unjust for us to gather at educational institutions, conventions and summits and to be come up with all these solutions and precautions and then we only expect the poor to comply. We talk about hybrid living then we go and build big houses with wooden flooring and under-floor heating systems.
Where is the organic intellectual to put to practice the fruit of his intellect? Is he/she lying dormant somewhere, oblivious to the world’s dire need the knowledge that he can share. There few who do exist, are facing a line of fire from the powers that be who do not want them to say anything that will bring about global change. This means that it is up to us to throw our weight in with them and refuse to become hypocritical educated cronies of capitalism.
We are part of the system sustaining the world crises. I am just saying we need to stop acting like selfish elitist snobs and start behaving like humane people who are concerned about this world, its inhabitants and are willing put their education to good use and do something effective. There’ve been many before us and shall be more after us so we better start learning how to think beyond our own noses and we better do what know is right fast.
Labels: crisis, educated cronies, global, hybrid living, organic intellectual, over population, pollution, technology
posted by CruisersLac at
5:46 AM
1 Comments:
Educated Cronies is an opinion piece written in an idealistic manner. I doubt you know the meaning of the word development. You mention how technologies like computers and trains use up to much fossil fuel for electric energy; you find them unnecessary.
It’s the 20th century and global communication is based on internet connection; I wonder if you ever considered that transport saves us the trouble of having to walk from here to Cape Town.
You also seem to have an issue with unequal distribution of wealth or social stratification. I can only imagine that you came to university not only to get educated by to earn a better salary. I might be wrong seen that you believe in equal distribution of wealth you would much rather prefer to earn the same salary as a street sweeper. The way that wealth is distributed is only fair as some people work hard for their money and some people are just lazy; they would much rather feed of unemployment grants.
You should truly study social stratification a meritocracy issue and not as a functionalist view point as this is idealistic. You think the power elites are selfish look around the government is doing all they can to eradicate poverty; they give citizens basic needs and grants and educational funding ; but really now intellects can not solve every global issue they are not God they are only human.
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