My experience, I suppose, is of people who don't care about ideas making stupid decisions because of it, not reflecting on their marriage until they'd been married 10-15 years and had a child, not thinking about where they stand in society but only wanting 'what they deserve', caring more about their financial status than the friends around them, and in the end, being naggingly unhappy and alone. That's one experience. Another is of myself not engaging with school and freaking out instead, and people like Steve telling me that if I just let myself be excited about ideas, if i let that show in class and in my assignments and other aspects of my life, then I would achieve academic success as well, without ever having to try for something as material as good grades. People like Steve trying so hard to be a good teacher and so invested in it because they feel that a liberal education, that trying to help people reach a critical understanding of the world around them, is a real difference they can make in the world, a good thing. And then the things I study, where ignorance of social forces only contributes to people letting themselves be ruled by them, to discrimination and psychological pain and violence, and I long to see people be more independent than that. And it seems like there are very few ways to be more independent, and one of them is related to education, to learning to stop and think critically about these things. That's why I care. And I'm not saying that everyone has to, or even that you have to, but it's why I have to care.
I know you do think about ideas in different ways, and if you're happy with the Foreign Service, I wouldn't tell you not to do what makes you happy.
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My experience, I suppose, is of people who don't care about ideas making stupid decisions because of it, not reflecting on their marriage until they'd been married 10-15 years and had a child, not thinking about where they stand in society but only wanting 'what they deserve', caring more about their financial status than the friends around them, and in the end, being naggingly unhappy and alone. That's one experience. Another is of myself not engaging with school and freaking out instead, and people like Steve telling me that if I just let myself be excited about ideas, if i let that show in class and in my assignments and other aspects of my life, then I would achieve academic success as well, without ever having to try for something as material as good grades. People like Steve trying so hard to be a good teacher and so invested in it because they feel that a liberal education, that trying to help people reach a critical understanding of the world around them, is a real difference they can make in the world, a good thing. And then the things I study, where ignorance of social forces only contributes to people letting themselves be ruled by them, to discrimination and psychological pain and violence, and I long to see people be more independent than that. And it seems like there are very few ways to be more independent, and one of them is related to education, to learning to stop and think critically about these things. That's why I care. And I'm not saying that everyone has to, or even that you have to, but it's why I have to care.
I know you do think about ideas in different ways, and if you're happy with the Foreign Service, I wouldn't tell you not to do what makes you happy.