You know the story of the crabs in the bucket? They naturally try to climb out, but when 1 is almost out another will pull it back in. This keeps all the crabs in the bucket. It is hard for 1 to escape. This analogy can ring true for people too, except we are not in buckets, we are in family’s or socio-economic classes. It can be very hard to bridge one to the other. In fact, to succeed you almost surely need to do it alone.
Getting even 1 person to see your vision can be difficult. I am not saying it can’t be done. I come from a family of 5 kids and we greatly advanced our financial status, but we each did it on our own. If you are lucky enough to have a friend or partner who wants what you do, know you are blessed to have that support. But most people do it alone, and you can to if you dig deep.
I have spent my adult life wondering why I alone pursued a higher education, for the purposes of attaining an education rather than a job. I took Critical Thinking at UNB at a professor’s suggestion, and it changed my life. It taught me how to reason and think logically. I was upset that this was not taught in high school. Why, I wondered, did we not want a populist that could make better choices? Informed, fact based decisions.
That answered my own questions. How could media, politicians and big corporations control the country if they could not influence the vote? I am not at all advocating any sort of conspiracy here, I am just asserting that it is unfair for the rich send their children to school while the poor families kids are sent off to learn a trade. Our grade 12 education system is a joke, we do not prepare children for adulthood.
We do not teach basic financial prep, and credit card companies thrive in people’s budget mistakes. We do not teach the value of travel, or the ability to do it on a budget. We do not teach basic history, the historical things that shaped our Western civilization: Plato, and Democracy, to say nothing of Art from Greek and Roman times.
Critical thinking was something that used to be taught on the streets by Socrates to anyone who wanted to learn. I guess the very fact that Socrates was executed/murdered for “corrupting the youth,” shows how the elite class feels about everyone being educated and given the opportunity to advance themselves.
Why does one person gaining status mean another person looses?
Really, really what is lost? How does one person’s education take anything from you?! It does not. Unless you consider you may be out witted in business or invention, to which I say “let the best man win!” Hustle.
Life owes you nothing. If you where born without anything to your name, life owes you nothing. You must make it for yourself. If you where born in a gold cradle, life owes you nothing. Your fathers fortune is not owed to you. Break away and make your own. Recognise your privilege and do something to help someone born without that advantage.
Today we have resources like EdX, an online option to take courses for free from prestigious universities.
Be the crab that gets out of the bucket. I did it.
You can do it.