As IF Times

Source: College admissions cheating scandal: Prosecutors detail how Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and more allegedly rigged college entrance – CBS News

Perhaps the only thing that’s really surprising in this recently exposed scandal are the eye popping amounts of money involved. That the parents would pay such usurious sums to enroll their progeny into a name brand school reveals at least 2 things.  First, that there is too much money available to these people and secondly, the kids have to be real dummies in order to need this level of enrollment help.   It’s one thing to be a C student in math, but according to the stories, entire resumes were fabricated in order to nudge the darlings ahead of other qualified candidates. This is essentially affirmative action for rich but dumb people.

People with a grip on reality know that this protocol has been around since….forever. There was probably someone taking bribes to get onto the Ark as the waters were rising. Anyone who’s ever stood in line to get into a restaurant or night club knows that the process can be skipped by slipping some currency into the hands of the gatekeepers. (As an aside, that’s why you always need cash, it’s not that easy to bribe someone with a debit card)

No, the reason for the shock and outrage is the fact that the people endlessly preaching  sanctimony to the public about equality, tolerance and diversity are the very ones that are parties to the perpetuation of the policies of exclusion. To be clear, institutions and people should have the prerogative to do as they wish with their own institutions. But at the very least, be honest about it.

If you are one of these vaunted academic institutions, just advertise that you only take people who either; pass some level of academic competency, are good at a kid’s sport, or be wealthy enough to get a coveted space in the lecture halls. Admit that diversity really isn’t that important and that you are really only interested in making money. That way, at least people will know to which institutions they really want to send their kids. Maybe these schools should issue prospectuses as they do in the stock business wherein they issue a phone book sized document with plenty of fine print legal mumbo jumbo about risks.

Regardless, it’s become clear that the value of a degree received from many of the heretofore august educational institutions have no bearing at all to the cost involved in achieving them. Certainly not as measured by employability. Does one really need a degree in advanced gender studies from USC to be a Starbucks barista or to be a You Tube star when a simple junior college diploma will do? Let’s not kid ourselves; a primary reason that people push their kids to get into top level schools is so they can have them mix with the scions of the wealthy and famous. You get to mix with the cool kids.

Spoon feeding the children of the rich and famous to get into the best schools and the best clubs is a privilege accorded to those that have reached success in their lives.  It’s like the old joke about what is the best way to catch fish. Answer; have someone throw it to you.  This we can expect.  What we don’t like are those same groups telling us that it ain’t so.

Update:  a revelation from an hired enabler

Source: Taiwan’s ‘Bikini Climber’ social media star Gigi Wu dies after ravine fall in Yushan national park | Outdoor & Extreme | South China Morning Post

Though tragic, Gigi Wu’s 15 minutes of fame are over.  Unfortunately, her story is not that unusual since we regularly read about some ‘adventurer’ whose exploits went horribly wrong.  For some reason, the media generally mourns the passing of these individuals as if their exploits were the leading edge of human existence.  We can think of many people whose personal pursuits wound up as unfortunate misadventures:

Recently, a young missionary, John Allen Chau went to North Sentinel Island, an isolated place in the Indian Ocean populated by savage cannibals.  Despite warnings from his fellow religious friends that he would be killed by cannibals,  he went…and he was.  There have been various BASE jumpers and flying suit daredevils who have plunged to their deaths while leaping off high structures.  Numerous people over the years have tried to climb Mt. Everest but froze to death in their pursuit of the summit.

It can be debated as to whether smart decisions were made in many of these cases, but we can all appreciate that all individuals have some kind of inner conviction that they needed to address.  We could never denigrate exploring the boundaries of the human spirit.  The death of Miss Wu is tragic, but especially so because there were no boundaries of human existence being pushed.  She was a victim of the rampant cult of narcissism that has taken hold of people the world over.

Younger people, but especially a disproportionate number of girls, have fallen prey to the cult of narcissism gripping (mainly) Western society.  A half dozen years ago, the now ubiquitous device known as a selfie stick didn’t even exist, whereas these days, they are as common as smudges on smart phones.  With the inexplicable popularity of the Kardashians, the need to have coquettish images of oneself is like an out of control virus in society.  Girls of course are not alone in their self preening.  Boys do it as well, but it’s preening nonetheless, only in a different way.  Some may recall the “Jackass” movie phenomenon from a few years ago when boys were publicizing stunts that conspicuously threatened life, limb and often the octave of their voices.   The ultimate exponent of narcissism must be Oprah Winfrey, whose eponymously labelled magazine, “O” is all Oprah, every issue, every magazine cover.   You couldn’t make this up.

The mainstreaming of You-Tube videos,  Facebook and Twitter have only encouraged the fame seeking narcissism that has exploded over the past decade.  Technology has unleashed into society, both exhibitionists and voyeurs on a scale never seen in history. Unfortunately, the very large majority of this is hardly time capsule stuff.  It’s mostly ephemeral drivel that fuels the smart phone business.  If rampant vacuity were the only consequence of this phase of culture, we could probably accept that.  Unfortunately it is not.

Narcissism (and its closely related cousin, tribalism) is at the root of much of the malaise that has affected the functioning of modern society. We can blame some of this on Fred Rogers, late of the Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood childrens’ show fame.  Some may recall that his most poignant message repeated at the end of  every episode was that ‘you are special, there’s no one else like you’. A powerful and compelling message of self esteem for children at an impressionable age to be sure, but it seems to have  morphed into a grotesque manifestation of ‘me me me-ism’ as the kids became adults.  Now that message has been taken to heart by an entire generation resulting in people supporting narratives that are not well thought out, are grossly erroneous, or of no use at all, other than that they like them.

This narcissism has become its own justification for imposing these views upon others, compelling them to have the same held views or be otherwise ostracized.  Given enough exposure, popularity takes the place of fact. We see this expressed in politics with increasing frequency.  Without the guardrails of logic or sanity as barriers,  all kinds of obtuse views are given validation because to oppose them would be parochial fuddy-duddyness and  a denial of individualism.  The consequence is what you see today; utterances by people at all levels of influence unrestrained from voicing even the most naked stupidity.  There’s even a label now for this disorder, Absent Occipital Cortex syndrome or AOC, coincidently the initials of the new congresswoman from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

We see people championing views held by an inconsequential minority as if they were the interests of the majority. We see views expressed, without reservation or shame, that are diametrically at odds to an established stable society or even to logic and common sense.   I can tell you that these people aren’t the oracles of society…they are the barnacles.