Vinyl Divine: October 2013

Disclaimer: This is not one of my normal blog posts. This is a rant..

“A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
- T.S. Eliot, "The Wasteland."

So today I found out that I'm just a "basic" Math and Science student and an "average" English student according to the state, yet I am identified by my school's faculty as a "scholar" and an advanced learner in need of enrichment. My journalism teacher tells me I have the skills to become a professional journalist I'm someone who was reading Ulysses during the summer after 10th grade, who has spent weekends in NYC going to independent theaters to see documentaries such as the one on J.D. Salinger and who has a grade of 100 in every class. I'd hardly consider myself someone with an average understanding of literature (and no, I'm not an egocentric narcissist) . Not to mention that last year, in addition to my schoolwork, I was taking a self paced Java course from Stanford University and won two writing awards from Scholastic (something that "basic" students do I suppose).
I guess this just further solidifies my "2+2=5" theory. If you can prove your answer using fictional rhetoric, your answer is "correct." However, if you deviate from the traditionally "correct" answer according to historical data, your answer is marked "incorrect." Common Core Geometry textbooks even claim that a Side-Angle-Side is a postulate when in fact it is a theorem. I suppose I have yet to learn the art of assimilation and am destined to remain an epsilon for the rest of my life. Oh, poor me.. I'll just have to spend the rest of my days writing poetry and reading Dostoevsky while the Alpha's party and smoke weed. I can only imagine the near non-existent critical thinking abilities the students and adults of the future will have. So here are a few songs that express my angst-ridden self's sheer dissatisfaction with all things standardized.

American Idiot - Green Day