why bother?

i work with a guy who i'll call "jake." he's a young guy, about 22 or 23, tall, clean-cut, big forearms, slightly stupid. i'm sure he's nice enough, but i think he's a bit of a frat dick (without the frat). he's in community college right now, taking classes part-time while selling cell phones full-time.

honestly, i don't much care for him. out of all the people i work with, including little orange annie (who i'll tell you about some other time), i like him the least. he's just a big dumb oaf, and a bit of a drama queen. always whining about something or other, or bouncing off the walls he's so excited about something. plus, he's dumb and if there's one thing i can't stand, it's dumb kids. does that make me an ass? probably.

in any case, he's taking a philosophy class right now. a class he keeps talking about dropping because he's "a christian, and none of these things apply to me." he doesn't see the point in studying anything that might go against his world-view, he doesn't see the point in philosophical study at all. he likes being told what's right and wrong, and following the rules and wearing his little cross-made-out-of-nails around his neck. it's infuriating to hear him talk about how thought isn't important, how everything he needs to know is in the bible (which i doubt he can even read, what with the old english translations of hebrew and the dizzying geneologies). he has that cocky air of being right all the time. i know not everyone is interested in different philosophical ideas, i know a lot of kids wouldn't get off reading foucault or sarte or derrida*, but what's the point in living a life unexamined? how can people not be at least curious about what other people think? i mean, i'm all for religion, but i always thought faith becomes stronger when you actually look at why you feel a certain way, how other's view things, and if you actively participate in learning and exploration, instead of just doing what everyone else is doing because you think you should or out of a fear of hell.

then again, he probably isn't smart enough to take a philosophical class or engage in any sort of critical thought. this is a dipshit boy who lost $900 in vegas playing black jack. i just hate listening to him open his meat-head piehole all day long, talking about shit he doesn't understand, proud of the fact that he doesn't have to think because someone else does that for him. when i was in high school i had this idea that in college and then in the real world after, i would only be surrounded by people interested in thinking. i thought college would be full of kids like me who were into existentialism (ha!), read sartre on the beach on their summer breaks, and then after i had my degree i'd work with the same people i'd studied with in college. i thought education would give me access to a world and life where other people who were interested in knowledge for knowledge's sake would abound. i understand now that i was just another pompous teenager with a basic understanding of philosophical thought, but it was a good daydream nonetheless. and i still find myself thinking about it when jake opens his big fat mouth to talk about getting some chick's phone number.

*yes, i like the french philosophers best. sue me.