Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose.
I'd seen this before, but saw it again recently (HT King Pin). I found it interesting how applicable much of this was/is, even though originally compiled over a decade ago.These thoughts remind me of the message I gave at a baccalaureate service. I may have to share it here some time.
*Edge Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any tenderness and/or edge that might develop from reading the rantings herein. Please embrace in the spirit they were given.*
SOME RULES KIDS WON'T LEARN IN SCHOOL
San Diego Union Tribune -- Charles J. Sykes (1996)
Unfortunately, there are some things that children should be learning in school, but don't. Not all of them have to do with academics. As a modest back-to-school offering, here are some basic rules that may not have found their way into the standard curriculum.
1. Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase, "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids.2. The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as much as your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain it's not fair.
3. Sorry, you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait 'til you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you feel about it.5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word of burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren't embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain or Britney Spears all weekend.
6. It's not your parents' fault. If you screw up, you are responsible. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not the boss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it's on your dime. Don't whine about it, or you'll sound like a kid.
7. Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.
8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn't. In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.9. Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summers off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we're at it, very few jobs are interesting in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization.
10. Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.
11. Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.
12. Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.13. You are not immortal. If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.
14. Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.
posted by GUNNY @ 04:03
9 comments
9 Comments:
Dude, this is greatness!
Do you honestly not understand the tone, message, or context of your quote? It is meant to mock those who would say such things, an example being the writer of the message you copied. The man who exclaims this quote is a man who spits on the downtrodden and uses people, while claiming moral superiority on his inherited gains.
Who does not work? Who does not seek advancement? What America do you live in that this is anything more than a red herring for the haves to taunt the have nots? Will you tell the veteran with ptsd out on the street to choke it up? Will you tell the single mother of four she wouldn't need welfare if she wasn't such a slut with a dead husband?
That quote is supposed to exemplify the hypocrites and "forget you I got mines" of society. The television preachers that rants about morality before god, the banker that talks down about responsibility, the wealthy who speaks of how hard they worked for their inherited positions, these are a few of those that tell us what is right in the world, while ignoring that they are much of what is wrong with it.
The Big Lebowski: Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?
[the Dude walks out and shuts the door]
The Big Lebowski: The bums will always lose!
Brandt: How was your meeting, Mr. Lebowski?
The Dude: Okay. The old man told me to take any rug in the house.
The Dude abides.
The Dude abides despite all of the self-righteous pricks screaming in the darkness.
Dear Anonymous,
I had to reread your first paragraph a few times to understand what you were saying. First and foremost, I don't see what any of that has to do with Vietnam.
But, assuming I do understand, I greatly appreciate irony, even (and perhaps especially) of my own design. I also appreciate the irony of the accusation of screaming in the darkness coming in the medium of an edge-laden post.
To your second paragraph ... I think you're a little too emotionally invested to be objective here, and perhaps throughout. The single mother of four, however, does look awfully red and in the herring family, at least in my mind.
But, in all fairness to me, I did give the following edge disclaimer:
"*Edge Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any tenderness and/or edge that might develop from reading the rantings herein. Please embrace in the spirit they were given.*"
Obviously, that's no guarantee someone, even those anonymous to me, even the potential nihilist, won't get tender and resort to ad hominem tactics.
That being said, my buddies did not die face down in the muck so that ... my point is ... I'm not seeing how you, or anyone really, could find this information directed at teens unhelpful, even if it's perceived to have an air of superiority inherent.
I don't think anyone would deny that. However, if I read the piece right, it's just as much, if not more, a knock on the world in which they are growing up as it is directed at the youth themselves.
In other words, I might summarize it thusly: "You're not being well prepared for life. I am (presumably) basing this on the young people with which I have knowledge (first or secondhand). You are not being given an adequate or accurate picture of reality. Let me give it to you straight."
Again, in reference to your 2nd paragraph, I actually know quite a few folks who don't want to work, etc.
I felt a rather abrupt non sequitor from talking about kids and what they won't learn to the disabled vet and the single mother or 4. Perhaps you are trying to take extreme examples to minimize the reality of masses of kids who would benefit from a real straight shooter with upper management written all over him. Just sayin'.
In reference to your 3rd paragraph, I'd like to separate the two sentences, because my reactions to them differ greatly.
1: "That quote is supposed to exemplify the hypocrites and "forget you I got mines" of society."
Well, I don't know that I agree. After all, the Dude is the laziest in Los Angeles County, which puts him in the running for laziest worldwide.
I don't think the Dude would disagree with that assessment. I think he just wanted his rug back, which is understandable. He wasn't trying to scam anybody, man, but for recreation he does the usual. He bowls. He drives around. The occasional acid flashback.
So, whilst Jeffery Lebowski, the other Jeffery Lebowski, the millionaire Jeffery Lebowski is an evildoer, his assessment of the Dude is somewhat on target, though some of his assumptions are erroneous.
Yet, you asked: "Who does not work? Who does not seek advancement?"
That would be the Dude. However, the Dude is not discontent with his life, nor is he seeking a handout.
It's true, the big Lebowski should not compensate whenever a rug is micturated upon in his fair city. But he's the bad guy because it winds up that he is the one looking to get rich quick through unethical means, stealing money that would/could benefit the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, which is inexcusable.
Regarding paragraph 3, sentence 2:
"The television preachers that rants about morality before god, the banker that talks down about responsibility, the wealthy who speaks of how hard they worked for their inherited positions, these are a few of those that tell us what is right in the world, while ignoring that they are much of what is wrong with it."
I don't disagree.
Regarding your second post, I've been called worse than "self-righteous," and justifiably so.
I'm working on that, though it's tough sledding and it looks like it's going to be harder than I originally anticipated.
The only hope I can offer is that at times I think I've actually made progress, but then I'm tempted to beat my chest about my progress ... unlike THOSE people who haven't attained the level of humility I have.
It's a vicious cycle in which I find myself running like a hamster in a cage.
To wind it up on my end ... Thanks for the feedback, and I do mean that honestly. It had been a few years since I'd seen this post, but it was good to rethink some things based on your thoughts.
The comments are largely directed at what, I assumed was unironic support of the Lebowski quote. For the most part I did not really address the quoted highschool message.
As for the PTSD comment, soldiers of more recent wars can have it as well, and according to virtually every other VA report we can expect to see a great deal of it returning home with young men in the next few years.
Or, to mangle another quote from the same movie.
The Dude: God damn you Walter! You fuckin' asshole! Everything's a fuckin' travesty with you, man! And what was all that shit about Vietnam? What the FUCK, has anything got to do with Vietnam? What the fuck are you talking about?
Obviously, you're not a golfer.
Really, that PTSD is bad mojo and I think it's heinous how little is done for our vets, especially the disabled ones, especially due to wounds inflicted while in battle.
In general, I could soap box about how little those folks are paid and how many of their families are on food stamps as a result.
Smokey, this isn't Nam. This is bowling. There are rules. Mark it zero. Next frame.
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