Not easily offended

Sometimes I have to sit and think for a while to decide exactly how offended I am by the stupidity of someone else. Being offended allows someone else a level of control over me and it grants to some other person or institution the legitimacy to be taken seriously. If I could simply ignore something because I dismiss it as stupid or, at least irrelevant.

So I have been thinking about whether I'm offended at something and I think that I have decided that I am. Not because I think the person who said (typed it) but because the statement has the potential to be taken by other idiots as a reasonable comment. And that's what afears me.

I don't know if you are aware of what has been going on in my town/county, but the cost of private school is very high as is the cost of living and many of the private schools have to offer scholarships to the students who cannot afford to pay full tuition. This rankles those who pay full tuition, as they see their money being used to support others who needn't go to the school in the first place. The central argument is "if you can't afford to live here, don't take charity -- move."

So on one of the blogs where the posts are less important than the comments (a condition, thankfully, not evident here) a person posted a comment stating how he made the sacrifice of having to become a lawyer in order to ensure his children's education. Anyone who took a job paying less than 6 figures doesn't deserve any help. His words were "I would have loved to have been a [fill in the blank] and only made $70 or $80k but I didn't b\c I am a man who pays his bills so now I toil away 24/7 so that leeches can get discounts at school ".

I don't think I have ever* been so offended in my life. Let's parse his dumb comment and I'll show how the veneer of a reasonable position masks some of the most ego centric, self congratulatory junk I have seen.

1. Assumption 1 -- people choose their careers

ok, this is somewhat true. I did choose to be a teacher (after I chose 2 other things and they didn't work out) and people often pursue callings and could have pursued others if they chose to. But I am no good at math. That's a fact. I am actively bad at Chemistry. Could I have chosen to be a doctor? Could I have chosen to be a professional ball player in order to pay my bills? The fact is, we are guided by interests and by ability (I believe that even learned abilities rest on the shoulders of innate strengths). Could a surgeon have chosen to be a successful lawyer or did he have a knack for science. I faint at the sight of ketchup so medicine wasn't in the cards for me.

2. Assumption 2 -- people choose careers thinking ahead to private school tuition

on the blog site, a couple of people have insisted this to be true. I don't believe it. I don't believe that a sophomore in college would choose to go to law school because he knows that in 10 years, the cost of private school will be difficult to afford if he follows his heart's passion and becomes an fireman. If someone was so much of a martyr, not only do I propose that this person will be an inferior (depressed) lawyer but I would suggest that if his foresight and therefore goal dictated going into a field for its ability to pay private school tuition, he either could have become a Wall Street tycoon or a plastic surgeon and raked in more than a lawyer, or become an educator at the school where his future children would attend so as to get substantial tuition breaks. Either way, his martyrdom was poorly done.

3. Assumption 3 -- People who make 70-80 k aren't men who pay their bills

Sure we are. we just work hard to lower our bills. Not everyone who makes under 100K needs tuition assistance, and not every bit of tuition assistance comes from the school's scholarship coffers.

4. Assumption 4 -- Lawyers are unhappy being lawyers, people who make less are happy doing other things

Sometimes people are happy with their careers. Sometimes not. Sometimes even people happy with their careers are not happy with their jobs. Sometimes, people feel limited by their jobs and/or careers but have no alternative. I don't think that the guy who pumps gas or serves dinner at the family restaurant necessarily jumps out of bed and is all excited about how fulfilling his work is. Nor do I think that most lawyers hide under the covers because they despise what they do and chose the career even though they knew it would stink.

Leaving college, I had planned a career as a lottery winner. It didn't work out. I didn't have the chops to be a spaceman/rock star/fireman/baseball player. So I went into a field where I had skill and interest. Sorry that it doesn't pay as much as the always lucrative but never satisfying field of law. Jackwagon.