Rule No. 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grand-parentshad a different word of burger flipping. They called it opportunity. Theyweren't embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have beenembarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.
a. This is fine and I agree except for one thing. How is someone expected to provide themselves a living on minimum wage while being only worth the minimum wage? What should this someone do to feed, clothe, and shelter himself or herself?
Rule No. 6: It's not your parents' fault. If you screw up, you areresponsible. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not theboss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When youturn 18, it's on your dime. Don't whine about it, or you'll sound like ababy boomer.
a. A person would have to be entitled to take responsbility. If they're not entitled to anything and the world owes them nothing then how is it possible to take responsiblity if one is not owed this as a right?
b. What are the rules and detailed instructions to taking responsibility? Is a person entitled to these instructions and rules as well?
c. How can the parents be the boss of their child if no one is entitled to anything. This means a parent is not entitled to be the boss.
d. If we're entitled to nothing then we're not entitled to our lives as well no matter what our inalienable rights are. This should be true as well.
Rule No. 7: Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they arenow. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room andlistening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, beforeyou save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents'generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.
a. Where is your evidence that the parent's child made the parent's boring?
b. Where is the evidence that the parents were fun and exciting in the first place?
c. How do you know how each child's closet in each child's bedroom looks?
d. What is wrong with trying to preserve the rain forest?
Rule No. 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Lifehasn't. In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to getthe right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and classvaledictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt. Effort is asimportant as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblanceto anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4)
a. What constitutes a winner and a loser?
b. What does this mean right here? Does this mean the world like your boss demands perfection? How is this a reasonable demand? How can you get things right all the time when things can and do go wrong like murphy's law says?
c. "Failing grades have been abolished and classvaledictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt." Name me the schools where this occurs.
d. "Effort is asimportant as results." In my middle school, this was true. I will grant him this one.
Rule No. 9: Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summersoff. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eighthours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on.While we're at it, very few jobs are interesting in fostering yourself-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead toself-realization. (See Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 2.)
a. This is non-true. First, in alot of places you get weekends off. There is part time work as well. You do get some federal holidays off and christmas.
b. What would help a person find themselves and lead to a person's self-realization if it is not a job? How do you know finding yourself and self-realization is a worthwhile goal?
c. "It just goes on and on." This is not true. You eventually die or retire.
Rule No. 10: Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Yourproblems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials.In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs.Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.
a. What is real life then? What is life period?
b. How long will it take for me to solve my problems? How do I solve my problems?
c. If my life is a non-sitcom then what is my life?
Rule No. 11: Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We allcould.
If this is true then why do I need these nebulous, ambigious, and vague social skills to be able to obtain any type of job these days?
Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic.Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in hismouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressingyourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.
a. I totally agree with this one especially the smoking. I have no objections to this one.
Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under theimpression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse isromantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperaturelately.
a. I agree with this one as well. Why would I want to live fast and have all of this stress?
I will be the kid's gadfly on this one.
Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's abother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful itwas to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.
a. It depends on the kid and their circumstances.
31 May 2010, 12:16 pm
