Recent musings

A couple of thoughts have been rolling around my head recently:

1. Have we proven that violence is truly not "the best way"? (thanks hcul)
2. Is education actually helpful to people?

Big questions for which I have no answers. I suppose most people would say the answers are intuitively "yes" and "yes" but I'm not so sure anymore. With regard to the first question - violence has been a mainstay of our lives about as long as we have history and lots of people would say that their lives are just fine. Why should people bother to change the way the think and live if they're happy with their lives as they are?

With regard to to the second question - how does it actually help? Don't the majority of college graduates in up in a job not remotely related to their degree? Public schools, apparently, aren't teaching kids anything but how to pass some extremely specific tests so I guess that education isn't too applicable to anything outside school. How much does our current educational system actually do to help people in their lives?

Academics spend a lot of time addressing these questions but I don't think anyone has made much headway. The educational system still blows out its ass and violence is still worshipped in our culture, even with all the complaints about its destructive nature. So if, on the surface, people are content enough with life as it is to not even think about something different, why do we hear so much bitching and moaning?