Professional Amateurs
link Protesters, police face off in Montreal | CTV Calgary.
The charade continues. By now, media reports of the ‘students’ protesting a whopping increase in provincial tuition have been broadcast worldwide. Parents of students attending U.S. colleges must be wondering what they’re missing in the story. According to the media, the broken windows, vandalized businesses and fighting with police stems from a plan by the provincial government to raise tuition by a monstrous amount ….a whopping $325 per year increase!
Cue crickets.
That is not a typo. In a time where a cup of coffee costs almost 4 bucks and a pair of chi chi jeans can run over $300, apparently these kids are taking to the streets to protest a fee increase that probably wouldn’t cover their cost of beer over a two week term.
At first, we think the issue is about entitlements, but that’s a smokescreen. We already know that an entitlement mentality has invaded our culture like E. Coli at an all-you-can eat sushi bar. Ostensibly, the whole point of getting an education is to become a productive member of society, to get gainfully employed, build a life and pay taxes. Ironically, taxpayers are the ones footing the bill for the destruction to public property and extra policing. But, not having finished their schooling, these darlings haven’t learned that yet. The real issue here is the on-going characterization of the protesters as innocent activist kids just expressing themselves.
To keep labelling these professional miscreants as ‘students’ does a massive disservice to the general public that would believe the narrative. It’s hard to get the public aroused against the uprising if people think that they are just crazy kids acting up. Besides, they are protesting the wrong party. Why don’t they demonstrate against the professors who undoubtedly will get increased salaries and benefits as a result of tuition hikes? Why don’t they demand that they teach for free? Incidentally, it’s curious at all that the cost of education has risen so steeply over the years. We are living in a time where the amount of information and knowledge available as well as access to that information has never been greater than at any time in history. It’s counter-intuitive to have the costs go higher given more supply. In theory, education should be like automobiles. They make them better and cheaper as the years go by. But that’s for another article. For a discussion of this notion, see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304636404577293430981335366.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_careerjournal
For the time being, let’s not be bamboozled by the media to believe that the rioting and destruction in Montreal is all about kids. As we’ve all seen from the Occupy Wall Street charade over the past few months, these are not organic movements however much they may be characterized that way. It takes a lot of money to organize and maintain professional mobs. Someone should figure out who is funding these useful idiots. It can’t be the kids. They can’t afford the tuition increase.