And how exactly does capitalism do it? That is, who tells certain people that they should drop out of school, put baggy clothes on, start listening to (c)rap musing and doing drugs, and what does he do to enforce it? What happens to those people who do not want to go with the (capitalist) program and go to college and apply for office or academic jobs?
>"i also would like an academic job. i am not very
>good at much else, plus i don't like following others'
>orders (and don't do it very well) or getting up in
>the morning for a 9 to 5. the idea of not being able
>to get an academic job makes me a little nervous since
>this is exactly why i went into a grad program."
>--Sarah M. Pitcher, Syracuse University (quoted w/ permission)
That is exactly why I decided to go to college - and was quite open about it to the great disappointment of my old folks. Except that I was quite good at "something else" - I was supposed to be an electrical engineer, but the engineering crowd scared me, too much "in the box" thinking and admiration for authority - hence I switched to the humanities. True, their propensity for bullshitting, endless citations, and names dropping was quite irritating, but it was a much lesser evil than the fascist mentality of the engineering profession (although I still admire the engineers' ability of making material objects as opposed to humanities' paper pushing). And of course, the prospects for getting an academic job (= no bosses and factory discipline) was much greater. So here I am - farting in a chair at a prestigiuos university, having enough time to subscribe to listservs, not having to punch in and out - ain't life great?
wojtek