The World of Grandpa Don

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A friend recently sent an email which included an article by someone named Cindy Osborne. Her intent was to discredit movie actors who had made statements against going to war in Iraq. My problem was that her rational was that the people she named had not either finished college or even entered college and were therefore incompetent to make rational judgments on the subject. That premise may work with other scholastic snobs but it doesn't hold water with me! 

You don't need a string of degrees after your name to be intelligent. I flunked out of IIT and managed to do just fine. Through on-the-job training, some night courses in subjects pertaining to my work and some common sense, I managed to become a branch manager, vice president and member of the board of directors of a large and well respected contracting firm. With my wife, I was able to raise a great family and retire comfortably. 

During this time I performed the functions of draftsman, estimator, engineer, project manager, and division manager. Also during this time and since I have encountered a number of "educated" people who had very little common sense and could not solve the simplest of problems. I also encountered a number of scholastic snobs.  Several assumed that I had a degree just because I displayed some problem solving abilities. Others could not understand what I was doing in my position since I had no degree.

In all fairness, I am also acquainted with many educated people who display a great deal of common sense and are obviously well educated and intelligent and who do not fit in this category. I do not intend to generalize all degreed individuals into any group. My point is that for an intelligent person, a college degree is a great asset. But A college degree does not guarantee intelligence.

 For those young students out there, by all means, get an education. It is an invaluable aid to success. But once you have it, don't think you know it all and don't become a scholastic snob.

Now back to the war protesting actors. They have a right to their opinions. They have a right to express them. It is our right to form our own informed opinions and disagree with these actors or anyone else. But we do not have the right to silence them or try to convince others that they don't know what they are talking about because they have no college education. That is plain stupid! 

I can hear what they say, conclude that they are right or wrong and go my way. At the same time, I can admire and enjoy their work as actors. I love Martin Sheen's portrayal of the president (Who sends troops to fight in foreign nations.) while I do not agree with all his personal views.  I do not allow the actors personal views (or morals) interfere with my life in any way nor will I deprive myself of enjoyment because of it. As long as he can separate his role on the screen with his personal life, so can I. And, I don't care that he didn't go to college. He obviously didn't need to in order to succeed in his career.

We can disagree with others but let us do it based on our informed perception of the merits of the cause, nothing else. And let us not take to discrediting those who disagree with us particularly in ways which are totally unrelated to the merits of the cause. In addition, let us realize in our differences that there may be limitations to our knowledge as well as faults in our perceptions. These limitations apply to us and those with whom we differ. One of the greatest faults of humans is the tendency to convince ourselves that only our views are right and then to make matters worse by considering everyone else not only wrong, but inferior.

Don Plefka
04/05/03