By Kimberly Manahan (Story Editor)
Kimberly Manahan, Media Arts student
This is college: Spend four years (or more) learning how to think freely, then graduate.
This is real life: With degree in hand, get paid five or six digits to think what they want you to think, say what they want you to say, and do what they want you to do.
Part of me thinks that when I get out of college I have to change my persona in order to make a living and advance in the world.
That bothers me because I don’t want to change who I am to please someone, or change myself to make money.
That scares me.
The ticket out of college, the degree you’re handed as you cross the podium at graduation, is a ticket to the real world, where your values and ideals are more often than not taken away.
It is where your life becomes controlled by a multi-million dollar CEO who controls you and thousands of other people like puppets.
What is the point of being a freethinker when it isn’t allowed in the ‘real world’?
What is the point of breathing if a single breath – saying the wrong thing – can get you fired, thrown into debt and thrown out into the streets?
Arguing with authority can be dangerous. The choice is yours, but if the outcome is either your dignity or your salary to support a family, then the choice may not be so easy.
In a country where freedom is supposedly valued, why don’t we express ourselves truly? Because our lives are controlled by a “big brother.â€
Just about anywhere you will go there will be someone to tell you what to do. And above them, will be someone to tell them and you what to think. In a corporate structure, the higher you go, the more subject to the company’s values you become.
Don’t like the company policy? Then get out.
Don’t like the way the school runs things? Well, sorry.
Unless you make it to the top, you’re always going to be below someone who will want things done their way. And usually by the time someone makes it to the top, the corporation or institution has already converted you to their way of thinking.
The top people are the ones who have pleased those above them. To please people above, you usually have to convert to their way of thinking. They don’t like to be told how to do their job; they only want to tell you how to do yours, no matter how wrong you think they are.
But it’s not just in big business.
Become a politician. Your future depends on if you are elected into office. People will only elect you if you please them, and say what they want to hear.
I wonder how many of our lawmakers held anarchist or liberal beliefs before they decided on a set political party.
It’s not only the “boss†who can tell you what to think; it’s everyone else, too.
You can’t win.
Unless you’re independently wealthy.
But I’m not. So, I’m still thinking about how I will be able to hold on to all the ideas and beliefs and feelings that matter to me.
