throwaway74829

You would fall into the "of the world" camp. There are others, a relative minority but prevalent everywhere, that don't want to be a part of this, nor want their children involved. You will likely never interact with them, and their thoughts and feelings will never reach you -- but that doesn't mean their worlds are inane (or rather, more inane than any other).

The deterioration of quality within the "elite universities" is self-evident if one goes by more nuanced measure than "how high up the industrial and political ladder" its graduates reach. What the contrary is, is a matter of values that I will not be elaborating upon (this conversation has become tiring).

What a vulgar rendition: "little nothing no-name universities."

There's more to a college than how much money it's going to make you throughout your entire life. In the case of St Lawrence and Adrian: this is where you send your children to if you don't want them to end up "of the world." They're small campuses, in controlled environments, with people from similar backgrounds (i.e. long-time upper middle class, no intentions of "moving up" or down). $40-50k a year for a couple of years is absolutely nothing if you want to make certain your offspring don't end up silly (and if you're of that notion, you surely can cover the cost).

For Landmark, it's obvious from a cursory glance of their info that this is a "special case," and different from the rest: it's a college tailored towards those with learning disabilities. Whether or not this justifies the costs is another matter, but it cannot be seriously lumped in as a regular college for comparison.

T1 is more marketing than substance. Most of the "Ivy League"s have fallen off since coming into public consciousness, and being flooded by people other than those that once brought it a good name. Even the "grinder schools" (e.g. CMU, MIT, etc.) are following in similar fashion (again, appearance over substance). Will they expose you to a wide range of people that may end up being useful towards some end in the future? Yes, but it's obscene to even think such a thought.

None of that is culture -- unless you apply it in a shallow way.

The South is a cultural wasteland. The only thing it has going for it are its manners.

"America" is in the unique position of having no culture -- barring "make money" -- to assimilate to. This obviously leads to much greater ease of assimilation for immigrants; you don't even need to speak English. If you can achieve an upper middle class income, you have assimilated and are thus dubbed "American."

In Europe, it's much different. There's no "short cut" to being accepted in your host society; and I very much doubt anyone really assimilates into a European culture if they're not born within. There's a depth to it that is impossible to grasp unless you've been submerged in it for the entirety of your life.

You will never be a German. Should you decide to change your mind, and make the decision to move to and have children there -- then perhaps they will end up being German; but that path is closed to the individual you.

Accepting people is a long process when your standards are high; and short when low. Letting people come and go as they please does not make for a very stable society, filled with the types of persons that are beneficial to the whole.

On such polarizing topics, there is no neutral. Both sides will detest you for not being on their's.

Logic won't win you any friends; and it certainly won't change anyone's feelings.

As trite as my post is: I don't see the merit in yours.

Full disclosure: I don't work with C++ anymore.

You don't have to keep up with all the stuff it adds. If you actually need a certain thing C++ has added -- that you're unaware of -- you'll naturally find it when you go looking for it.

Otherwise, it's best to just stick with the feature-set that you know. KISS/YAGNI/if it ain't broke, don't fix it (but if it is broke, find a better way). Et other cliches.

Tolerance is tiresome. Putting up with nonsense, and being impelled to consume metaphorical shit, is vulgar to the soul.

In art, the nonsense is the lack of honesty. Inauthenticity brought forth and exhibited for all of us to see. People without a shred of depth having the obnoxiousness to put something out that appears to be more than it is. The hubris.

Each passing day, I understand the wisdom of the French and their intolerance more.

How would that stoke the egos of all godless psycopaths?

A spiritual one -- its causes numerous.

Though it would be invigorating to have a word for the whole thing. Maybe the Germans have something for us?

A provocative and astute diatribe.

My question for you: why humor this absurdity?

I'm of mind that the whole thing should be thrown out.

How low tutelage has fallen.

Once the noblest of duties; now...

You've put to words an intuition I've always had, but been unable to verbalize: it irritates me when someone converses with the intent to reach some end... or just enters a conversation with some notion or emotion that they're holding tight onto, and will not waver no matter what.

Worse are those people with canned lines and vocal inflections... the same ones on repeat over and over again; like they've built up a toolbox of sound bites to navigate them through all of life. It's unbelievably grating to hear.

It feels vulgar... to make one's presence and desires so known and obvious... instead of having a conversation for its own sake... for the sake of amusement or personal expression...

It's as if they're treating socialization as a constant string of business deals to be navigated... gross.