quotd

Note: To be perfectly honest, it depresses me that my blog is consisting mostly of quotations (I got it right: quotation = noun, quote = verb) these days. But it's been busy around. There's not much time to blog except for on the weekends, especially since this week is homecoming week (homecoming teaches mini-nationalism and should be abolished, plus it's a pain due to the amount of work it creates for me and a small group of dedicated students) and I'm sick too and the water main into our house broke... another story for another time. Yet I found this quotation particularly interesting. All I can say is: Colin, you and I have been caught red-handed... again... but certainly we do not dispute that humans are tiny and insignificant creatures (ourselves as much as everybody) and that they are all very closely related to apes (who do not use narcotics, I might add). Contrary to what this may protray, we do not directly condescend individuals, but we do condescend society as a whole, and we do set curves of tests. No one will, however, dispute that we won the homecoming knowledge contest, edging out over the seniors in a tight 9-8-10-0 (seniors-juniors-sophomores-freshman) victory. Recently someone wrote a very interesting and excellent piece which I here reproduce because I have no capacity to produce quality blog at this moment. Cheers.

"i talk like a teenager.

i don't think it's a crime. in fact, i think it's a good thing. sometimes i write like a teenager. i use colloquial terms in order to reflect the view of myself and my peers. colloquial. that's a word with over three syllables. and yes, i do know what it means.

now, many of you probably don't pay attention to how smart i may or may not be. that could be for a number of reasons. 1: you don't give a shit. 2: you don't talk or listen to me for some other reason. or 3: you're too interested in what i'm actually SAYING to notice whether my grammar is correct or my vocabulary particularly extensive. yes, i'm straying from my usual habit of writing in a rather informal, conversational way. bear with me-- i'm doing it to make a point.

it's true that i don't seem to display a particular interest in politics. if you were to simply read my blog and engage in casual everyday conversation with me on a somewhat regular basis, you would probably only notice my emphasis on emotion and the arts in my everyday life. but i do have a mind. and it works fairly well. i don't go out of my way to research politics outside of school, because i don't plan on pursuing a future profession in that field. however, i find the structures of both our past and present societies highly fascinating. this is why i make an effort to contribute to discussions in both my english and us history classes, and why i participate in student government at school. it is believed that our "democratic" government is one of the most important, influential institutions ever created in this world. some of us may demonstrate a particular interest in political science because of this.

others of us are more interested in the factors that shape one's personal sense of right and wrong... one's conscience, if you will.

i feel that any one of my peers who looks down on others simply because of their adolescence and interest in both pop culture and typical social activities on the whole is a hypocrite and also markedly delusional.

we are all teenagers in this high school. for those of you who haven't noticed, the age range in a school such as ours is generally fourteen through eighteen. my friends, and probably yours as well, have an average age of about sixteen. now. we all know that adolescence is a stage that, hopefully, includes much growing, developing, and maturing into adulthood. none of us are fully mature. none of us are any "better" than others. even when we reach full maturity, we will all still be humans. only humans. tiny little specks in the vast expanse of what is only our KNOWN universe. primates, like gorillas.

but i digress.

sixteen is commonly viewed as an age of turmoil. it is my personal belief that every one of us is going through some kind of internal battle during this time, however trivial it may be. in fact, humans in general tend to be caught in a constant state of existential struggle within themselves. we are all wondering. we are all unsure. we are all just making of this world what we can.

the more intellectual among us often choose to express these struggles in an articulate, overly condescending, ostensibly sure-footed way.

but not all of the intellectuals at wilson high school are like this. oh, no. some are sensitive. some are kind. some actually give a shit about the feelings of others and do not tend to share the sentiment that every less intelligent person in this school is a drooling, babbling, crack-smoking ape.

ergo, once again, adam anderson and colin corbett SUCK, and dane wins the prize for coolest person ever."

--Lindsay, taken from 10-28-2003 entry entitled "big words, dude"