http://news.yahoo.com/college-scam-201856863.html
QuoteIs a college education the biggest scam in US history?
That's the conclusion of a YouTube video called "College Conspiracy" that's drawn more than 2.1 million views online.
The theme has been picked up across that site, often by college students themselves, in videos with angry titles like "My Bachelor's Degree is Worthless," "College is a Rip-off," and "College is an Evil Debt Trap."
With a tough job market, students (and their parents) are making a tough calculation: What will I really learn in college? Will it cost me more in time and money than it's worth?
One set of statistics shows that hundreds of thousands of college graduates today hold bottom-rung positions such as "waiter" or "cashier" that hardly need a degree in business administration. That's a discouraging thought when a four-year-degree could easily cost $100,000 or more.
One argument being heard is that colleges and universities are too often in business to inflate their enrollments with students who don't really belong there – a way to rake in money and create or keep jobs in academia.
And what about billionaire college dropouts, like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose rocket-ride to fame and fortune in his early 20s was shown in the movie "The Social Network"? Entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the cofounder of PayPal, has even paid a number of talented students $100,000 apiece to drop out of college – which he sees as a waste of their time – so that they can quickly begin careers as high-tech entrepreneurs.
It's fine to question the conventional assumption that a college education is always a ticket to a better life. Not everyone is cut out for college, and post-high school vocational training is a better choice for some.
But the United States needs more well-educated college graduates, not fewer, to compete in the world economy. The era when high school dropouts or even high school graduates could find steady, good-paying jobs is fading – and quickly.
Those blue-collar jobs aren't coming back in a high-tech world. For every genius who skips college and makes a fortune, there are thousands who miss out on the opportunity in a college education to vastly improve their own lives and build a stronger America.
Consider this: The current unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. But the unemployment rate for college graduates (bachelor's or higher) is 4.3 percent, a number that has actually dropped from 5 percent a year ago. Unemployment for high school grads stands at 9.6 percent, while high school dropouts must contend with a 14.6 percent jobless rate.
Certainly colleges and universities must do a better job of providing young Americans with an education that will stand up to the demands of the 21st century. They also must look at how to make education more affordable. More use of online course instruction is one way to help bring down costs and open up access.
But today's gloomy job picture can also blot out the big-picture benefits of college. On average, college graduates earn higher wages, pay more taxes, are more likely to vote, and are more likely to enjoy their jobs. They're even more likely to read to their kids or take them to visit a museum or library.
The case for college still can be made on strictly financial terms. But that's only part of the picture.
Maybe it's my scammy college education, but the article seems to be saying something completely different than the title.
In US, you are allowed to answer "no". :huh:
Quote from: Martinus on September 16, 2011, 09:26:32 AM
Maybe it's my scammy college education, but the article seems to be saying something completely different than the title.
The title is a question. It is "asking" something.
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 09:15:54 AM
Consider this: The current unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. But the unemployment rate for college graduates (bachelor's or higher) is 4.3 percent, a number that has actually dropped from 5 percent a year ago. Unemployment for high school grads stands at 9.6 percent, while high school dropouts must contend with a 14.6 percent jobless rate.
This proves that a bachelor's degree is used by employers as an important benchmark in employee qualifications, but it doesn't prove that that should be the case.
Well the answer is that it is not an unqualified good surrounded by fluffy clouds and rainbows. There are organizations who scam people out of money for shit degrees and the crushing costs of education in general. It is not like there are not various problems with how education is going right now.
But calling it a scam is hyperbole. Just like everything in life you have to be smart about your education.
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:01:59 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
Gender studies? :P
Quote from: Martinus on September 16, 2011, 10:02:23 AM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:01:59 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
Gender studies? :P
Psychology.
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:03:32 AM
Quote from: Martinus on September 16, 2011, 10:02:23 AM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:01:59 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
Gender studies? :P
Psychology.
that's kind of not a bullshit one, depending one what you intend to do with it :P. i'm think more art and literature and such. unless you're going int a career for those feilds (and even then) it's just a useless costly piece of paper.
Mine was in anthropology ... practically the definition of a "want fries with that?" degree. :D
What people often overlook is that (a) getting a degree is useful education in basic skills like writing and research, no matter what the degree is in; (b) some employers don't care what you did your degree in, they just want proof you are capable of getting one; and (c) you can use your degree to get other, more immediately useful qualifications.
Quote from: Malthus on September 16, 2011, 10:14:21 AM
Mine was in anthropology ... practically the definition of a "want fries with that?" degree. :D
What people often overlook is that (a) getting a degree is useful education in basic skills like writing and research, no matter what the degree is in; (b) some employers don't care what you did your degree in, they just want proof you are capable of getting one; and (c) you can use your degree to get other, more immediately useful qualifications.
you graduated in the 80's, right? was the secondary education pool already over flowing by then?
and even then, for every sucessful lawyer in your anthropology class how many did end up serving fries lol
I am proud to gain at least some of my income from this ponzi scheme.
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 10:16:32 AM
Quote from: Malthus on September 16, 2011, 10:14:21 AM
Mine was in anthropology ... practically the definition of a "want fries with that?" degree. :D
What people often overlook is that (a) getting a degree is useful education in basic skills like writing and research, no matter what the degree is in; (b) some employers don't care what you did your degree in, they just want proof you are capable of getting one; and (c) you can use your degree to get other, more immediately useful qualifications.
you graduated in the 80's, right? was the secondary education pool already over flowing by then?
Early 90s. And yes.
Quote from: Malthus on September 16, 2011, 10:40:25 AM
Early 90s. And yes.
And that is why Malthus became a Lawyer.
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:01:59 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
I had a non-bullshit major - geology.
Given that I wanted to go into law anyways, I'd have been better off taking a bullshit major like history and spent more time partying in university, and less time stuck in labs staring at rocks. :(
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 10:46:33 AM
I had a non-bullshit major - geology.
Given that I wanted to go into law anyways, I'd have been better off taking a bullshit major like history and spent more time partying in university, and less time stuck in labs staring at rocks. :(
Maybe if you had partied you wouldn't have been so good at doing the boring stuff at Law School. After studying rocks and all...
Quote from: Valmy on September 16, 2011, 10:49:45 AM
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 10:46:33 AM
I had a non-bullshit major - geology.
Given that I wanted to go into law anyways, I'd have been better off taking a bullshit major like history and spent more time partying in university, and less time stuck in labs staring at rocks. :(
Maybe if you had partied you wouldn't have been so good at doing the boring stuff at Law School. After studying rocks and all...
Well, he had to get his rocks off somehow. ;)
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 10:46:33 AM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:01:59 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
I had a non-bullshit major - geology.
Given that I wanted to go into law anyways, I'd have been better off taking a bullshit major like history and spent more time partying in university, and less time stuck in labs staring at rocks. :(
But if for some reason you couldn't get into law school, you at least had a non-bs degree.
That's why, IMO, nobody should take pre-law as an undergraduate major. You don't need it to get into law school--any B.S or B.A. is good enough for that--and by itself it's not much better than a degree in English lit or Art Theory in the job market. Plus, you look like an idiot--it practically screams, "Wanted to be a lawyer but wasn't smart enough".
Quote from: dps on September 16, 2011, 11:26:58 AM
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 10:46:33 AM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:01:59 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
I had a non-bullshit major - geology.
Given that I wanted to go into law anyways, I'd have been better off taking a bullshit major like history and spent more time partying in university, and less time stuck in labs staring at rocks. :(
But if for some reason you couldn't get into law school, you at least had a non-bs degree.
That's why, IMO, nobody should take pre-law as an undergraduate major. You don't need it to get into law school--any B.S or B.A. is good enough for that--and by itself it's not much better than a degree in English lit or Art Theory in the job market. Plus, you look like an idiot--it practically screams, "Wanted to be a lawyer but wasn't smart enough".
Are there any schools that actually hand out degrees in "pre-law"?
And if I would have gotten a geology job I would have gone crazy. I did a co-op work term once where I did nothing but stare down a microscope and count mineral grains all day. :wacko:
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 10:10:31 AM
that's kind of not a bullshit one, depending one what you intend to do with it :P. i'm think more art and literature and such. unless you're going int a career for those feilds (and even then) it's just a useless costly piece of paper.
Didn't you see that recent news article about how psych grads have the lowest typical income of all college grads?
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 11:30:29 AM
Are there any schools that actually hand out degrees in "pre-law"?
I haven't really paid attention recently, but I know that there certainly used to be. I would assume that there still are.
I did a degree in English and got a pretty well-paid job that could have been interesting eventually. It was totally unrelated, of course, but I think the most of the time the worth of a degree is more a signal to employers. I think the university you go to tends to matter more. Where I worked everyone was from a uni with a good reputation.
Having said that I don't know that an English degree at Bristol (with its 3-9 contact hours a week) is necessarily worth £27 000 in tuition fees :mellow:
University here is 1800$ a session. :yeah:
Altho, that's bound to be raised in the coming years.
Students really should be made more aware of the whole you just need a degree thing. I Could have had years of fun doing history instead of struggling at something I thought would give me a better chance of a job.
But yes, the system with the whole need a degree thing sucks
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 11:30:39 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 10:10:31 AM
that's kind of not a bullshit one, depending one what you intend to do with it :P. i'm think more art and literature and such. unless you're going int a career for those feilds (and even then) it's just a useless costly piece of paper.
Didn't you see that recent news article about how psych grads have the lowest typical income of all college grads?
That might have more to do with the amount of those with serious mental issues. Or is that restricted to our psych grads?
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 10:46:33 AM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:01:59 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 09:53:16 AM
they should separate the employment rates based on thing like business degrees and bullshit majors.
I had a bullshit major. :cool:
I had a non-bullshit major - geology.
Given that I wanted to go into law anyways, I'd have been better off taking a bullshit major like history and spent more time partying in university, and less time stuck in labs staring at rocks. :(
Jor-El?
Anyway, I agree. Post-secondary education has ruined my life. I was happier as a waiter without $115,000 in debt.
Quote from: Iormlund on September 16, 2011, 01:02:47 PM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 11:30:39 AM
Quote from: HVC on September 16, 2011, 10:10:31 AM
that's kind of not a bullshit one, depending one what you intend to do with it :P. i'm think more art and literature and such. unless you're going int a career for those feilds (and even then) it's just a useless costly piece of paper.
Didn't you see that recent news article about how psych grads have the lowest typical income of all college grads?
That might have more to do with the amount of those with serious mental issues. Or is that restricted to our psych grads?
Would you like to re-phrase?
Anyway I'd say it has to do with psych as a nice catch-all major. Doesn't necessarily require too much work to major in and many of the platitudes and heuristics that are taught to students are easy to digest for the masses. To boot, it is somewhat respectable, so it is a great major for those who just want to graduate.
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 01:09:02 PM
Jor-El?
While I understand the reference (Superman's dad), I don't understand the joke... :unsure:
Garbon, it seems those studies attract people with mental problems. Knowing just 3, I thought it was bad luck on my part. That was until more people, including psych grads, confirmed it was widespread. One student even told me that around half his class had some issue or another.
English is another catch-all degree. :blush:
Catch-all in their eye.
Quote from: Iormlund on September 16, 2011, 01:18:33 PM
Garbon, it seems those studies attract people with mental problems. Knowing just 3, I thought it was bad luck on my part. That was until more people, including psych grads, confirmed it was widespread. One student even told me that around half his class had some issue or another.
Anecdotal evidence is so compelling.
I wonder if I majored in psych because I knew that I'd one day suffer from a mental illness or if it was the smallest major at my school and I had several units from other classes that I could use towards the major. :hmm:
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 01:23:50 PM
Quote from: Iormlund on September 16, 2011, 01:18:33 PM
Garbon, it seems those studies attract people with mental problems. Knowing just 3, I thought it was bad luck on my part. That was until more people, including psych grads, confirmed it was widespread. One student even told me that around half his class had some issue or another.
Anecdotal evidence is so compelling.
I wonder if I majored in psych because I knew that I'd one day suffer from a mental illness or if it was the smallest major at my school and I had several units from other classes that I could use towards the major. :hmm:
Well, you do suffer from a mental illness dear, so that's another anecdotal evidence. :P
Quote from: Sheilbh on September 16, 2011, 12:18:15 PM
I did a degree in English and got a pretty well-paid job that could have been interesting eventually. It was totally unrelated, of course, but I think the most of the time the worth of a degree is more a signal to employers. I think the university you go to tends to matter more. Where I worked everyone was from a uni with a good reputation.
Having said that I don't know that an English degree at Bristol (with its 3-9 contact hours a week) is necessarily worth £27 000 in tuition fees :mellow:
English is probably more valuable in England. hyuk hyuk...
Quote from: Martinus on September 16, 2011, 01:24:28 PM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 01:23:50 PM
Quote from: Iormlund on September 16, 2011, 01:18:33 PM
Garbon, it seems those studies attract people with mental problems. Knowing just 3, I thought it was bad luck on my part. That was until more people, including psych grads, confirmed it was widespread. One student even told me that around half his class had some issue or another.
Anecdotal evidence is so compelling.
I wonder if I majored in psych because I knew that I'd one day suffer from a mental illness or if it was the smallest major at my school and I had several units from other classes that I could use towards the major. :hmm:
Well, you do suffer from a mental illness dear, so that's another anecdotal evidence. :P
I wish you could read. :hug:
Also, I think you meant past tense. I don't think I'm depressed now. :unsure:
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 01:25:47 PM
Quote from: Martinus on September 16, 2011, 01:24:28 PM
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 01:23:50 PM
Quote from: Iormlund on September 16, 2011, 01:18:33 PM
Garbon, it seems those studies attract people with mental problems. Knowing just 3, I thought it was bad luck on my part. That was until more people, including psych grads, confirmed it was widespread. One student even told me that around half his class had some issue or another.
Anecdotal evidence is so compelling.
I wonder if I majored in psych because I knew that I'd one day suffer from a mental illness or if it was the smallest major at my school and I had several units from other classes that I could use towards the major. :hmm:
Well, you do suffer from a mental illness dear, so that's another anecdotal evidence. :P
I wish you could read. :hug:
Also, I think you meant past tense. I don't think I'm depressed now. :unsure:
I can read. I just choose not to. :cool:
Quote from: citizen k on September 16, 2011, 01:19:46 PM
English is another catch-all degree. :blush:
No it's not! :o
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 01:15:04 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 01:09:02 PM
Jor-El?
While I understand the reference (Superman's dad), I don't understand the joke... :unsure:
He was a geologist. :)
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 01:09:02 PM
Anyway, I agree. Post-secondary education has ruined my life. I was happier as a waiter without $115,000 in debt.
The system in your country is weird, and has been distorted by affluence and an overwillingness to take on enormous amounts of debt.
Quote from: Neil on September 16, 2011, 01:34:21 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 01:28:25 PM
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 01:15:04 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 01:09:02 PM
Jor-El?
While I understand the reference (Superman's dad), I don't understand the joke... :unsure:
He was a geologist. :)
He was something of a Renaissance Man.
Indeed, although I never really liked that. Who discerned that Krypton would explode? Jor-El. Who invented the Phantom Zone projector? Jor-El. Who designed the flying car? Jor-El. And so on. Then again, I guess they are a million years in advance of humans.
Quote from: Grey Fox on September 16, 2011, 12:35:17 PM
University here is 1800$ a session. :yeah:
Altho, that's bound to be raised in the coming years.
It was 600 when I graduated 10 years ago...
They paid me to go, only about £3000 per year, but that was enough to live on in the old days :cool:
I have no student loan debt, and never did. :cool: Princesca just paid off a bunch of her remaining debt this week. She has $2,500 left in total. We could have paid it all off easily, but we might need to have a leak in our water line fixed :bleeding: so are holding off till we see what the damages are for that.
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 04:16:04 PM
Indeed, although I never really liked that. Who discerned that Krypton would explode? Jor-El. Who invented the Phantom Zone projector? Jor-El. Who designed the flying car? Jor-El. And so on. Then again, I guess they are a million years in advance of humans.
I didn't understand why they didn't colonize several other stars. Yellow stars that would make them invincible. Or was Jor-El their version of Lex Luther and he was the only one who built useful technology.
Some writers have tried to address the issue and have only succeeded in producing complete nonsense, like Kryptonians being "genetically tied" (whatever that means) to Krypton, but Jor-El, jack of every motherfucking trade including ones he invented himself, cured his son of it before he shot him into space. Of course, there are the Daxamites, who are effectively Kryptonian colonists, but how they came to be is even sillier and more confusing.
I once came up with an idea where, basically, Krypton was an aggressive imperialist power, because if you could throw planets around, why wouldn't you be? But they wound up losing a great war against Brainiac and the Coluans, so in Jor-El's time they were in what constituted something of a permanent Weimar Era, heavily regulated in what kind of technology they could possess, and what they could send to space. Colonists, however infant, weren't on the approved list, but Jor-El sent his son anyway (and Zor-El his daughter). I think that makes decent sense, and doesn't involve a dozen disparate, post hoc elements, only Brainiac, who's already inextricably linked to the Superman mythos through the shrinking of Kandor, anyway.
When you think about it, it only makes sense that someone, presumably Brainiac, must have kept them in line through fear; after all, what would the natural reaction to one of our cities being torn off the face of the planet and shrunk to bottle-size so some green asshole can observe them? We'd be spaceborne in two generations and genociding whoever harbored him, unless we were kept from doing so by threat of retaliation and space sanctions.
This is also how my prospective sequel to The Day the Earth Stood Still goes, except that's about Nixon, Brezhnev, and Mao joining forces to send an interplanetary armada to fight the army of Gorts, with the side effect of liberating Klaatu's race of tongue-clucking space-Europeans, who are assholes even in freedom.
I guess this is why you have no social life. -_-
I didn't read a lot of comics when I was a kid. Some, but not a great many.
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:17:05 PM
I guess this is why you have no social life. -_-
:XD:
I always thought that the Kryptonians were constrained by a low birth rate.
Quote from: RazI didn't read a lot of comics when I was a kid. Some, but not a great many.
Well, the question was implied.
Quote from: garbon on September 16, 2011, 10:17:05 PM
I guess this is why you have no social life. -_-
-_-
Not necessarily. Lots of people like comics. And even they didn't, my interests are my interests.
I think I ought to've been the anti-Malthus. I'd have been better off trying to write and draw for a living than going to law school. I am reasonably decent at the latter, at least.
Quote from: Neil on September 16, 2011, 10:30:58 PM
I always thought that the Kryptonians were constrained by a low birth rate.
Krypton: Japan?
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 10:02:28 PM
Some writers have tried to address the issue and have only succeeded in producing complete nonsense, like Kryptonians being "genetically tied" (whatever that means) to Krypton, but Jor-El, jack of every motherfucking trade including ones he invented himself, cured his son of it before he shot him into space. Of course, there are the Daxamites, who are effectively Kryptonian colonists, but how they came to be is even sillier and more confusing.
I once came up with an idea where, basically, Krypton was an aggressive imperialist power, because if you could throw planets around, why wouldn't you be? But they wound up losing a great war against Brainiac and the Coluans, so in Jor-El's time they were in what constituted something of a permanent Weimar Era, heavily regulated in what kind of technology they could possess, and what they could send to space. Colonists, however infant, weren't on the approved list, but Jor-El sent his son anyway (and Zor-El his daughter). I think that makes decent sense, and doesn't involve a dozen disparate, post hoc elements, only Brainiac, who's already inextricably linked to the Superman mythos through the shrinking of Kandor, anyway.
When you think about it, it only makes sense that someone, presumably Brainiac, must have kept them in line through fear; after all, what would the natural reaction to one of our cities being torn off the face of the planet and shrunk to bottle-size so some green asshole can observe them? We'd be spaceborne in two generations and genociding whoever harbored him, unless we were kept from doing so by threat of retaliation and space sanctions.
This is also how my prospective sequel to The Day the Earth Stood Still goes, except that's about Nixon, Brezhnev, and Mao joining forces to send an interplanetary armada to fight the army of Gorts, with the side effect of liberating Klaatu's race of tongue-clucking space-Europeans, who are assholes even in freedom.
I love this idea! :D
Quote from: jimmy olsen on September 16, 2011, 11:06:41 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 10:02:28 PM
Some writers have tried to address the issue and have only succeeded in producing complete nonsense, like Kryptonians being "genetically tied" (whatever that means) to Krypton, but Jor-El, jack of every motherfucking trade including ones he invented himself, cured his son of it before he shot him into space. Of course, there are the Daxamites, who are effectively Kryptonian colonists, but how they came to be is even sillier and more confusing.
I once came up with an idea where, basically, Krypton was an aggressive imperialist power, because if you could throw planets around, why wouldn't you be? But they wound up losing a great war against Brainiac and the Coluans, so in Jor-El's time they were in what constituted something of a permanent Weimar Era, heavily regulated in what kind of technology they could possess, and what they could send to space. Colonists, however infant, weren't on the approved list, but Jor-El sent his son anyway (and Zor-El his daughter). I think that makes decent sense, and doesn't involve a dozen disparate, post hoc elements, only Brainiac, who's already inextricably linked to the Superman mythos through the shrinking of Kandor, anyway.
When you think about it, it only makes sense that someone, presumably Brainiac, must have kept them in line through fear; after all, what would the natural reaction to one of our cities being torn off the face of the planet and shrunk to bottle-size so some green asshole can observe them? We'd be spaceborne in two generations and genociding whoever harbored him, unless we were kept from doing so by threat of retaliation and space sanctions.
This is also how my prospective sequel to The Day the Earth Stood Still goes, except that's about Nixon, Brezhnev, and Mao joining forces to send an interplanetary armada to fight the army of Gorts, with the side effect of liberating Klaatu's race of tongue-clucking space-Europeans, who are assholes even in freedom.
I love this idea! :D
Shocking!!
We need a map.
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 10:44:21 PM
Quote from: Neil on September 16, 2011, 10:30:58 PM
I always thought that the Kryptonians were constrained by a low birth rate.
Krypton: Japan?
Except moreso, and thus more risk-averse.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on September 16, 2011, 11:06:41 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on September 16, 2011, 10:02:28 PM
Some writers have tried to address the issue and have only succeeded in producing complete nonsense, like Kryptonians being "genetically tied" (whatever that means) to Krypton, but Jor-El, jack of every motherfucking trade including ones he invented himself, cured his son of it before he shot him into space. Of course, there are the Daxamites, who are effectively Kryptonian colonists, but how they came to be is even sillier and more confusing.
I once came up with an idea where, basically, Krypton was an aggressive imperialist power, because if you could throw planets around, why wouldn't you be? But they wound up losing a great war against Brainiac and the Coluans, so in Jor-El's time they were in what constituted something of a permanent Weimar Era, heavily regulated in what kind of technology they could possess, and what they could send to space. Colonists, however infant, weren't on the approved list, but Jor-El sent his son anyway (and Zor-El his daughter). I think that makes decent sense, and doesn't involve a dozen disparate, post hoc elements, only Brainiac, who's already inextricably linked to the Superman mythos through the shrinking of Kandor, anyway.
When you think about it, it only makes sense that someone, presumably Brainiac, must have kept them in line through fear; after all, what would the natural reaction to one of our cities being torn off the face of the planet and shrunk to bottle-size so some green asshole can observe them? We'd be spaceborne in two generations and genociding whoever harbored him, unless we were kept from doing so by threat of retaliation and space sanctions.
This is also how my prospective sequel to The Day the Earth Stood Still goes, except that's about Nixon, Brezhnev, and Mao joining forces to send an interplanetary armada to fight the army of Gorts, with the side effect of liberating Klaatu's race of tongue-clucking space-Europeans, who are assholes even in freedom.
I love this idea! :D
It's not actually Nixon, Brezhnev, and Mao in space armor. I meant their respective states (or state-like entities).
Although that would probably be more salable, it's not very good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vcgCG60tw8
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on September 17, 2011, 11:22:59 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vcgCG60tw8
Quite awesome. A little immaturely red (use of stock phrases like "authoritarian," "corporatist," "complacent labor force," and so forth), but I like it. Also, arguably pretty ballsy.
Quote from: Barrister on September 16, 2011, 11:30:29 AM
Are there any schools that actually hand out degrees in "pre-law"?
Yes, and it's an excellent litmus test of schools to avoid.