Why so many college students are conservative: observation

[loudnclear]

For one thing since the roll back of affirmative action, campuses are less and less diverse (rich vs poor). Thus, a higher percentage of students are from wealthy families who can afford to send them to college. The roll back of affirmative action has resulted in a decline of an economically diverse and well as racially diverse campus student bodies. There is less opportunity for the privileged to get to know and understand people from middle to lower income segments of our society.

There is also a very well-financed effort by the likes of Murdoch and Scaiffe to finance the publication of campus newspapers which are soley designed to further the conservative perspective.

Finally, the Patriot Act has send a very cold chill througout college campuses where students of all backgrounds would share their honest feelings without jeopardy. In today's climate, especially among foreign students, their is a fear of reprisal for expressing any views that dissent from the Bush policies.

It will take years to undo the this trend.

[ugarte]

1. Also the fact that jobs are tough to come by

They don't want to rock the boat.

[DBoon]

4. And they need a good job

To pay back all those loans. The shift from grants (or just plain old subsidized tuition) to loans I think has had a chilling effect on the college experience. Makes students risk averse at a time in their lives when they should be the opposite.

[meti57b]

8. I agree and would add ... however, if they don't start rocking the boat, .

there may soon not be any jobs to come by, unless they are willing to live and work in a third world country.

[Character Assassin]

2. Do you have data to support that?

For one thing since the roll back of affirmative action, campuses are less and less diverse (rich vs poor). Thus, a higher percentage of students are from wealthy families who can afford to send them to college. The roll back of affirmative action has resulted in a decline of an economically diverse and well as racially diverse campus student bodies.

Can you please supply data/sources for that?

There is less opportunity for the privileged to get to know and understand people from middle to lower income segments of our society.

Who's to say they'd do so in any case?

[AP]

3. You're wrong about the stat: more are Democrats than Republicans

In Dec 2000, the NYT broke down the statistics for 2000 election. The more education you have the more likely you vote Dem, and for the first time ever more college students ID'd themselves as Dems than Reps.

This is a big shift from the past. Know why? Because of another statistic that more and more children of the working and middle class are going to college.

Twenty years ago, about 20-25 percent of the population went to college. They were mostly rich people's children. That percentage has doubled to about 50% and they're mostly coming from the middle and working class, so they'll have a better sense of the issues that matter to people who are middle and working class.

However, about a million students have dropped out of college in the last three years. They're mostly the children of middle and working class, so maybe the numbers will shift back to a Republican advantage (which is probably the goal of Republicans who try to dismantle public education in America). So you might be right. I just haven't seen updated stats.

[jiacinto]

12. I think that that is more people with advanced degrees

than just college degrees.

[Character Assassin]

15. Ah, sweet, delicious Irony

[jiacinto]

24. how so?

nt

[Character Assassin]

31. Do a grammar check on the post title I responded to.

[thebigidea]

36. I'm no fan of jiacinto's posts, but that's just petty

and if you want to quibble, since when is irony capitalized?

[Poiuyt]

43. You just ended your sentence with a preposition

It should be:

"Do a grammer check on the post title to which I responded."

[Robb]

5. Oh, I don't know

if it's that nefarious.

I was at Berkeley just a decade ago, and even then being conservative was entering into the picture. Students like to be counter-culture, and at Cal "counter-culture" meant becoming a rabid Republican.

Most students are like most people -- they want to have a group to belong to, and the simpler the message the better. Very little simpler than a message of hate and blame-casting....

[ugarte]

6. Conservative is not even the right word

Most are libertarian, anti-government in most respects. Anti-affirmative action and anti-drug war.

[uconnyc]

10. Let's face it

College kids in general just don't give a sh- anymore. I just graduated in August and don't remember having a political or social discussion with a "regular" classmate (those that are not a part of political and social clubs - young democrats, amnesty internationl, etc.) in the last two years.

[tishaLA]

7. I just dont see these college conservatives.

I am a grad student at UCLA and I teach those precious undergrads...and I have had very few conservatives in my classes. Yeah, I have one or two here and there--often religious conservatives--but I hardly see the growth of conservatism on college campuses others talk about. At UCLA, it's more about apathy than conservatism.

[Bandit]

9. I believe it is the dumbing down of America

I am suspicious of the education of most new college students. Ever watch Jay walking with Jay Leno. Especially at a college. It is really scarey.

[jiacinto]

14. Financial Aid Budget Cuts

A lot of schools have cut down on their aid budgets, thus making it harder for average families to get in

[zonmoy]

30. "I believe it is the dumbing down of America"

Actually isnt the whole purpose of the education system to make perfect unthinking drones rather than thinking human beings.

[jiacinto]

11. I went to a very prestigious liberal arts college in PA

And I can tell you that the whole argument of college campuses being "bastions of liberalism" is just plain misleading. On so many levels it is not an accurate representation of how these campuses really are.

At my college there were many students who came from very prestigious boarding schools. A lot of wealthy students were they and they were very conservative. Most of the alumni who worked on the Hill were all Republicans. Of those from my school who work on the Hill only one is a Democrat.

My one theory is that college is increasingly becoming more and more expensive. More and more middle class and lower income families just can't afford to send their children to a good school.

When my college admitted me back in 1996 they had a very generous financial aid program. I was very fortunate to get aid. After my mother died, leaving me an orphan, they worked with me and extended my grants and loans to me.

However, this situation was unstable and the school was losing money. So they had to tighten the financial budget and decided to admit more students whose families could afford to pay the 30K a year in fees. They did this at the turn of the century. As a result the student body is going to become more conservative. Or at least in theory. I don't know if that bears out statistically.

While I understand the financial pressures my college was facing I also have great issues with how many working class students may not be able to go. It bothers me a lot, although even I concede that something had to be done.


Most of the people I went to college with were very conservative. I used to listen to them and they were very judgmental to those with less. Not all were like that, but many of them were.

So the whole idea of colleges being "bastions of liberalism" is not true, especially at the more prestigious liberal arts and private colleges.

[aeon flux]

16. Makes perfect sense to me

In California, tuition at UC and CSU colleges have gone up 40% since January 2003. Even at CA communtiy colleges, fees have almost doubled since last year.

Perhaps colleges or the politicians responsible for funding them are deliberately hiking fees too exclude ceratin groups.

Regardless, I always felt that university education is overrated. Relatively few university grads go on to work in fields directly releated to their majors. I know several such people including my girlfriend who graduated UC San diego from the prestigious UC system. She is a FT project manager in the constgruction industry, a position that requires only a high school education and some industry experience, if that.

She would have been better off going to a trade school for that, which she could complete in about a year and would have cost her a lot less in tuition. In the long run, often a university education will cost you more than its worth. she just lost 4-5 years worth of salary, what she could have earned intead of spending that same time and money in taking a bunch of useless university classes.

[jiacinto]

18. But see college is necessary

Most places require it now. Yes it is expensive but the only way really to get more than a low wage job.

[aeon flux]

20. That may be true to an extent,

But if I had a dime for every university-educated grad I ever met not working in his or her chosen field, I'd be a rich man.

[Nikia]

34. It still usually gives you an advantage

As more people get degrees, more companies prefer people with degrees even if a person of above average intelligence with say five years industry experince would be more qualified. A degree is almost becoming proof that an applicant has a certain level of intelligence and motivation. The position that I hold at my company is sometimes held by people without degrees at other companies, but it is seen as prestigious within the industry to have people with degrees in that position. It makes the company look better. At larger companies, not having a degree, may prevent advancement as well since they often have more set in stone job qualifications. I think this is especially true for non white males who are often automatically considered less competent by many people.

[Colin Ex]

25. I've kind of noticed the same thing at my school.

I came to school looking for the huge fucking bastion of liberalism, the baby-eaters and the Godless commies. I haven't found very many, even when I've hit the campus green / dem / ACLU meetings. Everyone either doesn't give a rat's ass or follows them just a little.

The people I have met who care about politiks are pretty much split down the middle; there are about as many people on either side.

Everybody's pretty socially liberal, though, in that they like to drink, fuck, and smoke weed. Maybe that's the bastion of liberalism I hear so much about.

-C

[jiacinto]

28. Yeah

But then again it might depend on the campus in question.

[Nikia]

33. I'm glad that I went where I did instead

Carlos's college was my first choice college and I was accepted there as well. Instead, I went to a Midwest liberal art's college that offered me a better financial aid package, paying half the cost that I would have at the PA school (not that they didn't offer me a generous aid package). Anyway, I found that the student body was fairly liberal. They were very accepting of diversity in all ways and seemed genuinely intersted in helping the less forunate. Even those, who would be considered Fundies (the Intervarsity chapter), were fairly liberal. When an anti gay group(from outside of campus) came on campus and distibuted anti gay literature, the Intervaristy chapter wrote an editorial about how wrong that group was. There was less social class pressure there than at the good large state university in that state, as I was told by several students from that area. My father, who is much more conservative than I am, said that he wondered how those rich conservative parents felt sending their children too such a liberal school.
There were discussions on all kinds of issues outside of class. Inside class, we were taught that we should be constantly challenging our beliefs and the required freshman class emphasized this. The college president preached this in every address he gave.
Not everything was perfect, of course. Some students made fun of the "townies" and dining hall and physical plant staff. For the most part though such elitism was frowned on and mega rich boarding school graduates who didn't seem to have a clue were made fun of more often than the less fortunate.
I graduated in 2000. To my knowledge, the college was still offering strong financial aid packages to needy students.

[jiacinto]

49. You should have gone there

Then maybe we would have gotten to know each other. Yeah people at my school made fun of the personnel doing physical plant stuff all the time.

[theemu]

50. I've found the same thing...

...at my prestigious New England university, which is why I'm transferring out, hopefully to a prestigious liberal arts college in PA which I've been kicking myself for turning down for a while now.

So if I may ask, could you private message me what school this was? I'm hoping it's not the school I plan to transfer to, but if it is, I'd like to know about it ahead of time.

13. Insulated me-firsters

I also wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that there is not a military draft. That is, they aren't directly threatened by the possibility of their government uprooting their lives, they can be in favor of adventurism because it won't impact them directly.

[poskonig]

17. Do Democrats hate *everyone*?

Geez!

I'm a physics student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and most of the students either don't give a shit about politics or are liberal. Students in several of the classes have ripped on Bush, made jokes about Limbaugh, et cetera, so I'm not concerned the university environment itself is getting conservative. Many preoccupied with recruiting people for self-abnegation cults are loud, particularly the communists and the Bible Study dolts, but most people keep clear of such nonsense and focus on important things, like grades and beer.

:beer: Mmmmmmm

On the students themselves, most tend to be suburban, and therefore tend to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Nothing new here.

In addition, about 60% of the student body is classified as "white," which is under-representative of the white population of the United States. No one minds if the asian, jewish, arabic, and hindi populations are overrepresented, but liberals cry foul when people with European ancestry are, which I believe to be inherently unfair. With affirmative action, if any group is overrepresented, e.g. arabic or jewish students, since hispanics and blacks usually have a constant population, white christians are necessarily under-represented.

I'm merely pointing this stuff out in the interest of fairness and merit. btw, I'm an atheist.

edit: UIC's "race" distribution:

African American: 8.6% (v 13% nationally)
Asian American: 20.8% (v 4.2% nationally)
Hispanic: 12.7% (v 13.5% nationally)
Caucasian: 45.6%, even less than I thought!! (v 69% nationally)
Foreign 7.6%
http://www.dria.uic.edu/quickfacts/default.asp?rptname=distributionsummary

[aeon flux]

19. Whites can get good jobs without a university degree

Ones that don't require a university education, which may explain a lower ratio of whites on university campuses relative to their population.

However, good-paying job opportunities for minoriotes tend to be limited to certain highly-skilled or technical professions such as computers, engineering, medicine, etc. that require years of university schooling. There are exceptions of course, but that is basically true. Rasons for this are discrimination, possible limited english among certain individuals, etc. it's not as bad as once was, but discrimination is still a major factor whether we admit it or not.

[pschoeb]

37. "race" distribution should be based on State and Local not country

I live close to UIC and have for awhile. First the city of Chicago's racial breakdown is roughly 30% African American, 30% Hispanic, 30% Caucasion, 7% Asian. Therefore for the city of Chicago, whites are still overrepresented. For the State, African Americans are 15%, 12.3% Hispanic, 68% Caucasian, 3.4 % Asian. The only group overrepresented by State standards are Asians. Considering that UIC is one of the better Illinois State schools for African American and Hispanic representation, it means on a state level they are extremely underrepresented.

Of course there are other reasons for the racial makeup of UIC, it is in what historically, many whites consider a "scary" part of Chicago, surrounded by housing projects and a large African American and Hispanic population. This may be why UIC students are more liberal, as they definatly have less of a problem living and going to school in that area, or living in a big city, they also tend to be from working class families than other state universities. Also since the school is near large African American and Hispanic as well as Asian communities(China Town is just east of campus) it's not surprising the school would have a large enrollments of people who can quickly commute from home.

Actually to be really accurate we need to look at College age(18-24) demographics, and all State school enrollments. When we do this UIC looks closer to average because only 59% of 18-24 year olds are Caucasian.

School age percentages for the State of Illinois 18-24 total 1,210,898
Percentage of 18-24 year old Illinoians by race.
Asian 4%, non-Hispanic White 59%, Hispanic 18.6%, African American 16.6%

If we take all the State Universities enrollments we come up with these percentages(didn't do African American or Hispanic because these are at or below even national levels at almost all Illinois schools, there is really no question they are severely underrepresented)

70% are non-Hispanic Whites and 9.5% are Asian

These two groups are overrepresented at Illiois Public Universities. UIC does not actively recruit either White or Asian students, like they do Hispanic or African American students. Interestingly enough if UIC followed the Univeristy of Michigan's affirmative action policies that Republicans hated so much, white students(as well as Hispanic and African American) would have gotten extra points on their admission to UIC because they were underrepresented by State percentages.

Here's the school by school data

Eastern University 87% non-Hispanic white(9161.97), .8% Asian(842.48) 10,531

Southern University 68% non-Hispanic white(14686.64), 1.5% Asian(3239.7) 21,598
Carbondale

Southern Univeristy 83% non Hispanic white(10326.86), 1.4 % Asian(174.188) 12,442
Edwardsville

Illinois State 88% non-Hispanic white(18691.2), 1.5% Asian(318.6) 21,240

Northeastern* 43.8% non-Hispanic white(4817.562), 13.3% Asian(1462.867) 10,999
This is also in Chicago, near a large Korean neighborhood and large Indian and Pakistani neighborhoods.

Northern 70.5% non Hispanic white(16767.015), 6.5% Asian(1545.895) 23,783

Western 84.7 non hispanic white(11185.482), 1% Asian(132.06) 13,206

University of Illinois 68% non-hispanic white(26717.88), 12.9% Asian(5068.539) 39,291
Champagne/Urbana

University of Illinois 46.5% non-hispanic white(11625), 19.5% Asian(4875) 25,000
Chicago(one wierd thing on UIC stats they have a 10.8% race other or unknown which is extremely high and makes me wonder)

University of Illinois 87.3% non-Hispanic white(4015.8), 1.7% Asian(78.2) 4,600
Springfield

Govenors State University 56.7% white(3322.62) 1.5% Asian(87.9) 5,860

Patrick Schoeb

[sandnsea]

21. They're rebelling against their boomer parents

A bunch of peacenik, socialist, bleeding heart, feel sorry for everyone, hippies. Couple the normal tendency of young people to be against whatever they're parents are for with the steady diet of right wing propaganda and you've got the typical conservative college kid. Alot of poor young kids are spouting off the same bullshit. It's all those hippie parents who gave away the bank, coddled criminals, and had no morals who caused the problems we have today. These kids don't remember the 80's, have been spoiled by the 90's, and have been raised 100% with sound byte news. All things considered, it really shouldn't be too surprising that this is the result.

And if you don't fit this description, then you're not the kind of kid I'm talking about!

[loudnclear]

22. It's not the "boomer parents" who can afford these overrated schools

the boomers have most of their kids in junior or state colleges.

[jiacinto]

23. You would be surprised

I knew a girl who worked at my college's financial aid office. She told me that she was suprised at who was getting aid--and who wasn't. She was shocked--really shocked.

[sandnsea]

26. Oh nonsense

60's anti-war protestors came out of alot of these expensive schools. These protestors grew up, got good jobs, invested, had kids and sent them to the same expensive schools.

In the 60's, most working class kids either went in the military or got jobs. They didn't have the money, or Daddy's money, to allow them to run around the country protesting wars. I don't understand where some of the ideas about the 60's come from.

[jiacinto]

32. Yeah

and they probably ended up conservative by the 1980s and the 1990s.

[noonwitch]

27. If they bring back the draft, they'll be liberals again

They won't want to get drafted. You have to keep your grades up for a student deferrment.

[Freddie Stubbs]

29. Roll-back of affimrative action?

What in the world are you talking about? I have not read any articles win which there has been a decrease in minority enrollment in college.

[Abaques]

35. Wrong.... its MTV

Seriously, our pop-culture now spends all its time glorifying wealth and power. The plight of the poor and oppressed is ignored.

Most of the kids in college are from middle class homes. And even when they are in the lower-middle class, there is this illusion being perpetrated by pop-culture that their whole life should be devoted to aquiring things.... money, cars, women, bling-bling, whatever as long as they can get theirs.

Just look at the movies marketed for young males...

The Fast and the Furious: its really just a very expensive car commercial.

And then there is the television programming....

The Real Word proclaims that it is about real people living a real life, but its filled with models who live in some insane house somewhere.

The is also the show Cribs, which basically shows how the uber-wealthy live... its just a tease.

And then there is the fact that modern pop-music is filled with refrences to how much bling you have, or what kind of car you drive and more importantly, how that makes you a better person.


The myth that they can attain the status they see in the media is what makes young people want to keep things the way they are. They see oppurtunity in today's world even though there really is no chance they will achieve what they see on tv.

[NashVegas]

42. I'm With You

Maybe not MTV specifically as the sole thing, but definitely what it represents. The triumph of style over substance, of strategy over art.

[MrPrax]

47. You might be on to something...

I have sorta thoguht over the years the Media industry (esp MTV and the music biz) have made being selfish, stupid and conservative fashionable.

Not only that, I have noticed that there is a huge amount of 'comics' that are watched regularly by that generation (over and over again like DVD)--everyone from Dennis Leary, Chris Rock, Sandler, Miller, etc etc--that substitute cynical 'one-liners' for political observation and generally denegrate PC-ism and the Left in general.
They seem far more susceptible corporate-manufacturered 'culture'(fake terms like 'treehugger' or 'Feminazi', which nobody except the Media hate mongers use or gangsta/street nonsense) than say in the 60s when it was reversed among the counter-culture that developed it from the bottom UP and the corporate media, then co-opted it...(hippies did say 'groovy' and 'man' among themselves and then later it appropriated to the larger culture to reflect 'hipness'--including the tie-dyed clothing)

[Imajika]

38. Political Correctness...

"Why so many college students are conservative"

At the Universities I went to, and the ones I visited because my friends were attending, political correctness and ridiculous speech codes have a lot to do with why young people seem to be increasingly turning away from the left.

Yeah, I realize PC-think comes from all political directions, but the most irritating, obnoxious college and university speech codes and politically correct nonsense comes from the left end of the ideological spectrum.

Can't say this, can't say that, gotta worry about every word we utter or we might offend someone....blah, blah, blah. I hate that crap. This is why South Park is so refreshing.

Quite frankly, the primary reason I consider myself a Democrat is because I believe in sharing some reasonable portion of the wealth that America's capitalist society creates with the down trodden and truly needy of society. I believe in a social safety net, and I know all too well that most conservatives and rightwingers simply do not share this value. Even though there are some decent Republicans, I can't bring myself to vote for any of them because I'd be supporting their Party if I did - which I refuse to do. So I'll keep voting Democratic, but I do not support much that the far left advocates on University campuses - infact I think they represent nearly nothing average American, mainstream Democrats believe in.

Some of the worst kinds of political correctness comes directly from the left. Kids hate being told they are not allowed to think and say something. Young people detest being run off to sensitivity training every time some new aggrieved group pops up complaining they are offended by something. I remember how disdainful most of the student population was at my University when we began seeing lists of "offensive" words that were banned on campus. Telling people it is morally wrong to refer to someone in a certain way I can understand and tolerate, being told I am not allowed to say certain words at the risk of punishment is absolutely outrageous in my opinion. This nonsense downright borders on the "thought police" concept.

Personally, I believe in many cases, the American left on college and university campuses is just flat out obnoxious and students are increasingly growing tired of it. Yeah, the loud ideologues run around tearing up newspapers with columns they don't like, or shout down speakers they don't approve of, or assemble to complain that America is an evil capitalist country depriving the workers of the wonders of socialism - but most of the student population on most campuses, even if we can manage to keep them in the (D) column, simply hate these antics.

If the far left keeps this kind of insanity up, more and more young people will turn their backs on progressives altogether.

Just my observations anyway.

Imajika

[sandnsea]

39. Good points and ironic too

You say you're a Democrat because you believe in the Democrat's views on wealth and social policy. Yet that's the very thing Democrats tend to be turning away from. You also say you hate PC socialization, which is exactly what Democrats keep going towards. I don't know what party those views would represent. I'm thinking I'm probably alot older than you, but I totally agree.

[Imajika]

41. sandnsea

"You say you're a Democrat because you believe in the Democrat's views on wealth and social policy. Yet that's the very thing Democrats tend to be turning away from."

I don't necessarily see modern Democrats turning away from it (views on wealth and social policy), I just don't see much imagination anymore. I see a determination to protect existing programs, which for the most part I agree with when those programs succeed, but Democrats should be willing to dump what really doesn't work and capture the imagination of the population with new, innovative ideas that might lift more people out of poverty and give many a second chance. We need to be willing to try more new things, but when some of those ideas don't work we should not be so beholden to a consitutency that has become dependent on those programs that we can't elimate them and divert the funds to new ideas. If we, on the left, fight to maintain social programs that clearly do not work well or become dysfunctional, Americans will begin to turn their back on the very idea of social programs.

I believe in helping those who need it, not creating a dependent underclass that may always struggle to get by.

"You also say you hate PC socialization, which is exactly what Democrats keep going towards."

It seems that way sometimes, but I don't believe this is true. Some portions of the Democratic party push this PC socialization nonsense, but most of the nations Democrats are not doing this. The problem is, the loudest and most vocal of the left are the ones Americans are hearing in the media and on college campuses. These people are so far out of the mainstream, with ideas so abhorant to most Americans, that the entire Democratic party winds up getting tagged with them.

What young people increasingly hate is the constant politically correct garbage constantly spouted at college and universities. Once upon a time the conservative norm ruled the campus, and the left being the outsiders had the momentum and the support of the students to create change - now just the opposite situation exists on many of America's college and university campuses, and young people are rebelling and beginning to go in a different direction. The whole situation was quite predictable really.

Imajika

[edward]

40. Political Correctness

The term itself was intended as an insult by "leftists" who thought they were obnoxious.

[Silverhair]

45. I started in Soviet Communism.

During Soviet Communism, almost everything has to first be tested for being Politically Correct. That lead to a lot of stupidity. I don't remember the details, but a certain part of evolution had to be rewritten to conform to Party Doctrine, even thought it was scientificly grossly wrong. If in a war a rocket battery commander's position in the battle plan was too far forward, (Rockets have a minimum range that that can't be used inside of.) and he needed to move back a couple of kilometers to be able to use his rockets, he wasn't allowed to as "retreating" wasn't politically correct. So he fired his rockets at nothing to avoid getting shot by the political officers.

Some of the thought of the extreme left was of this caliber. There were things that the extremist didn't like that were simple matters of science that can't be changed by demonstrations & marches. To ridicule them the right began to use the term "Politically Correct" because they were acting like the Soviet Communists. From there the term grew.

[Silverhair]

44. Great Post!!

[Dr Fate]

46. The absence of a constitutional military draft...

...so long as college kids think "those other people" will be fighting the wars that they merely "support", they have no reason to question the media or Bush.

College kids are not really conservative, they are actually APOLITICAL-I'll bet 90% these "conservatives" belong to no organization or is involved in any activism, beyond voting, if that.

Bring back the draft, and Kids will AT LEAST not be "apolitical"...

[kwolf68]

48. I think its simple

There is no major psychological play going on here.

Students today are the products of a unbridled culture of greed, materialism and selfishness...They trot around campus with cell phones running up bills talking to their friends about nothing, driving nicer cars than many working stiffs.

Many of them (BLACK and WHITE) are going to college for one reason: MONEY.

Oh there are some who still value a more enlightened view of the world, but this generation isn't rebelling against the 1980s Conservatism like the Students in the 1960s rebelled against the placid Conservatism of the 1950s.

In short, our kids are a by-product of the type of culture we allow them to take part in: Moronic Television shows, the drive to acquire useless "stuff", sleeze, a me-me-me-I-I attitude. I lay 95% of the blame on corporate advertisers. As my kids start to grow and mature I will NOT allow fucking Viacom or GE to mold their intellectual foundations. We will spend a lot of time with the goddamn TV OFF.

You can't blame them. When kids are bombarded constantly by mass advertising on "what makes life valuable" how can you blame them for jumping on board.

I think we can call the future college graduates, "Brilliant Dummies." -- Although in my Biology classes I have met several people with real visions for their life and not once did they mention how fat their bank accounts may be...so the vibe is still there, we just gotta inspire it somehow.