Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Monday, November 08, 2004

The fallacy of "easy."

At CoffeeHouse the other night a group of students sat around talking about classes and what they were going to take. One of the students in particular was having difficulty putting a schedule together because every time someone mentioned a class she would exclaim, "but I heard that it was hard!" Finally, one of the other faculty members shared his perspective that part of the college experience was to be challenged beyond one's means and so be forced to grow to become a better and more well-rounded person. The student expressed her skepticism verbally while a number of others shared her opinion, at least if their facial expressions were any indication of their beliefs.

It would be easy to parody this student were her views not shared by so many of her colleagues. I often hear of students at Gordon who change their major so that they don't have to take physics from me. I also hear that they go on to other schools where they don't succeed because they couldn't pass their upper division classes. It would be easy to parody the group if it weren't for the societal outlook that says that "owning your own x is easy!" and "no money (or effort) down and no payments (or work) for twelve months!" We're a get something for nothing society. Everyone wants the degree but they don't want to sacrifice to have it. Maybe this generation is incapable of sacrificing.

Let me give you an example. As a country, we are at war. Now, as a citizen I've not been asked to sacrifice anything for this war. While some have sacrificed children, parents and loved ones most have not been bothered by or affected by its prosecution. In WWII there was rationing and tightening one's belt. Throughout the Cold War we knew that we paid higher taxes to fund the military. In this war we get $300 tax cuts and run up a massive debt with no plan to pay it back. When we have a war caused recession we refinance our homes at lower interest rates and spend the extra cash remodeling for a more comfortable life. We sacrifice nothing as a society to make this happen; we get something for nothing or so we think. But the bill will have to be paid sometime. Just like the student who keeps putting off the hard classes will eventually be forced to leave college with nothing to show for her effort, so shall our society have to pony up to cover the tab sooner or later.

David Wilcox wrote a song for the Big Horizon album titled, "All the Roots Grow Deeper When it's Dry." I think that adversity develops character in people and in society. The greatest generation was the greatest because they endured the Great Depression and fought a great war. They passed down to us a sense of America as a place where dreams could be achieved through hard work and enterprise. What we seemed to have heard was only the first part and we have decided that the second is entitlement. The thinking goes, "If they had it, why shouldn't I?" The answeris obvious. The knew what they valued and they worked to secure it through sacrifice of the less important things. When I speak with my grandparents about what life was like I'm always struck by how clearly they understood what was important and what wasn't. I wish more of today's thinkers and decision makers could do that. More importantly, I wish more of us could force ourselves to see beyond our own limited horizons. I don't object to a war in Iraq, especially if it liberates an oppressed people. I do object to being given a tax cut I'll have to pay back someday with interest while fighting that war. How many Americans would support the President if he came out and said, "The war will cost the country $68 billion. I'll be expecting a $225 check from each of you this year in addition to your regular taxes. You can pay this now or volenteer to do some of the work the government will have to cut out to save this money. With $10/hour I think we can get away with about 25 hours per citizen."

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