I can't help but think sometimes, if I live long enough, I will have seen it all. But these are strange times, so strange; in fact, that anything can happen, so strange that anything can be made to happen.
Told to be happening, said to be happening, or informed sources tell us is happening. The problem becomes what to believe in this dreamscape and determining whose signature is on the paychecks of those informed sources.
The domestic narrative is a follows: The stimulus worked, the economy has recovered and Americans are happily going off to work each day, in an improving economy. Stories which don't fit that narrative don't make the airwaves or tubes of the Internet. It's all about motivation, Huffington Post or Red State.com gives you double helping of agenda, served with hordirves of palatable information. Served on white linen sterility, lacking all contexts, save for pointism perspective. Sycophants, leading a group cheer, while bravely and fearlessly, denouncing the other side as the "Bad Guys" here in the echo chamber.
But every once in a while, a story slips through, like a child's ball flying over a fence, now how'd that get there? Bloomberg -- Small U.S. Colleges Battle Death Spiral as Enrollment Drops
It seems many small colleges face falling enrollment, because the students have no money and fear, yes fear, falling into the student loan debt trap. And two, they already know that there are few jobs available. A complete and total inversion of the American dream, from fearing what will become of you if you don't go to college; to fearing what will become of you, if you do. I'm not talking about college for Biff or Muffy from the Hamptons; I'm talking about college for your kids and mine. Reduced expectations, living in a country where higher education"is going out of business.
Beginning in 2008, the number of universities downgraded began to spike, reaching a record high of 36 institutions this year. Facing a more than ten percent decline in student enrollment, the budget cutters rule the day, staff and program cuts make these schools even less desirable, as in, all around the mulberry bush the monkey chased the weasel. Schools now merging, being acquired or shutting their doors. Kind of hard for the narrative to explain that one away, but they put the blame on Internet Universities. Harvard Business Professor Clayton Christiansen forecasts, as many as half of the nation's colleges and universities will fold in the next 15 years.
I don't know, maybe Internet learning is great, but I wouldn't want to fly in an airplane where everyone got their basic maintenance skills online. Learning for the careers of the future, but what are the careers of the future? Maybe, bullying, bayoneting, bloodying and bludgeoning, careers in the military or law enforcement, protecting us from the ever-expanding pool of criminal terrorists. No need for engineers or scientists, no need for teachers or civil engineers, bring on the cops, lawyers and tax accountants.
They're planning to downsize America's professional class, by 50 percent. Are you all right with that? First they came for the blue-collar workers, now they're coming for the white-collars. A new class distinction, did you graduate from a real university or did you graduate online? It's a second tier, second class education for America's new second class, the tan collar class of hotel managers and airport security officers. The sons and daughters of the generation landing men on the moon are no longer looking to the sky. You can't hide this sort of thing; it's like when the repo men show up, while you're explaining to the neighbor about your business picking up.
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