Lefties

Fuck 'em all. Seriously.

How is that an entire sub-species of humans can co-opt what is, actually, a reasonable political philosophy?

You people know who I'm talking about -- I'm talking about the people in possession of useless degrees, godawful haircuts and tetanus-inducing body piercings. The people who think that wearing tight jeans (preferably in darker colours) somehow confers upon them "hip" status.

I'm talking about the people who congregate at places of congested traffic flow and insist on handing out pamphlets.

Now, this is what you have to understand: I agree with most of what these people say. I'm a little too clever to indulge in a lot of the polemic that they seem to throw around, but, generally, these are reasonable ideas. So why is it that I hate these messengers so much?

Well, it's mainly for the reasons I've outlined above. It's also for the reasons I will continue to outline -- see below.

I hate the fact that these people are, essentially, useless. What frigging purpose does the world have for a twenty-five-year-old "intellectual" who occasionally strums an out-of-tune guitar and thinks that he's supplying the world with profound poetry? These people have no skills. This may come as a shock to a lot of these people, but there are individuals out there who are just as capable of the same sort of "action", but who are also in possession of real, honest-to-God, saleable skills. People who can actually benefit humanity in some way -- people like doctors, scientists, mathematicians, engineers.

A surprising number of engineers, for example, are left-leaning and would, in prinicple, agree with what it is that these drop-outs are saying. I, as an engineer, am supportive of state-owned utilities. I happen to think that, on paper, communism isn't such a bad idea. The difference is, however, that, in addition to having these beliefs, I can actually serve humanity in some way. My sole purpose in life is not to block the entrance to pedestrian tunnels.

A doctor can heal patients, a scientist can reveal the underlying structure of nature, an engineer can build a bridge over an impossibly wide body of water -- these are all useful activities. A drop-out left-leaning Arts student, on the other hand, can't do much at all. The atmosphere in their places of congregation seems to fill them all with the feeling that they are superior to those who can manage a figure of numbers, for example.

In this case, allow me to tell you all something -- you are not superior.

In case I'm running the risk of being misrepresented, let me qualify a few things. I am not complaining about artistic people. I am not advocating that we fill the world solely with useful people. But haven't you noticed that most of the people producing worthwhile art are the ones who eschewed these sort of degrees in the first place? The best writers and the best musicians are not products of these colleges. They don't necessarily inhabit these dens of faux intelligentsia (the "inner west", to you and me). They just do what they do, and that's that.

I'm actually not too sure where I'm going with this. Perhaps I can come back to it at some point and refine my argument (such as it is). I just wanted people to understand a few things.