Here's a counterpoint to a recent entry.
I ran into Lloydies Mike Tice '97 and Frances Sui '98 (now married for a few years) on campus today, and they had their kid along. (Actually, I already knew they had a kid.) A month or so ago, I saw Keri Ryan '98 (and her husband and child) on campus. (Mike returned here as a postdoc. Keri was just visiting because of some wedding.) I know some other Techers from my era also have kids. (The best way to say this is that there are a couple of which I know definitively and I can extrapolate the numbers to some ballpark figure.)
Why in Hell does everybody have to pollute the world with children? (One child only gives a small contribution, but it really adds up pretty fast...) I suppose it would be ok if they were trying to take over the world (see the other entry) or had some other sort of active, aggressive agenda. But no---it's just this bullshit about starting a family. What is with that? It reeks of family values, and we've all seen what that's done to the country!
OK, so the real issue here is that these people having kids makes me feel older, but at least I can make up for that by keeping my maturity level at the adolescent stage. It's a moral necessity and probably kind of 1984ish in a way. :)
3 days ago
13 comments:
Thanks for making me me feel older! >:( I only knew about kids spawned by a few people, all of whom were a few years ahead of me... Bah, humbug!
I didn't notice this so much while at Tech, but in grad school it seems like a lot of people on the academic research career track get married and then have kids in a very socially programmed way. It usually seems to work out for them but it's a little surprising, given that scientists tend to be politically liberal, to see so many with somewhat traditional attitudes towards marriage and family. Or maybe my own views are just really out of the mainstream, but from what I hear it's different in humanities departments.
Personally, I'm a career person. :)
Actually, I always thought that basically most people just did stuff and fall off the proverbial cliff in a socially programmed way.
I'm not considered 10 standard deviations from the norm for nothing!
Heh, I just noticed that alums were invited to the Lloyd Quads party. Um, no thanks.
Ah yes, the Quad Party. That reminds me of a relevant comment: my friend Phi says that in med school people either settle down right away, or party on as if they are college freshmen, without much in-between. Maybe someone should do a study of these trends across different fields.
Gazebo - I'm not sure if my observations agree with yours. The academic families I've seen don't match well with traditional family/gender roles. They marry late, usually around the end of grad school (with exceptions either way, of course). Those who have kids seem to do so as late as possible, and I don't know of any "traditional" stay-at-home mom academic families... Heck, in some cases the wife has a much more prestigious job than the husband.
Aside - humanities and social science departments are highly recommended for socialization. And odds are a mere liberal from the sciences will seem downright conservative compared to many hum/ss types. Very odd feeling, that... :)
I agree with Justin. I think most academic families do not fit into the "1950s" family mold. Also, some couples get pregnant even with precautions, and for whatever reasons, decide to have children. Just because you wouldn't have children, doesn't mean you should condemn those that have "polluted the world". I think that the world is overpopulated, and people should consider not having children.
I called them friends, so I am not condemning them. I was mostly being tongue-in-cheek until the last paragraph.
As for pollution, I have experienced second-hand children all too often, so I think I have a very strong case here. (This is not a Housequote. I phrased it this way on purpose.) If they are getting in my way, then I am being negatively impacted by others and have the right to rant about them. :)
I am condemning so-called family values, which is not the same as condemning the people who seem to have them. It just means I disagree with some of my friends. It's just like disagreeing whether a solution is stable or not. :) (Except that it's harder to get publications for this in my field...)
Cool beans.
Thanks for the clarification.
I get sick of hearing George W. and other politicians talk about "family values."
Yeah, and I'm using the term in the specific modern meaning it has come to possess.
Perhaps instead of insulting Dubya I should just post a link here to previous insults I've given him?
Actually, I used some new ones successfully at lunch yesterday, but preaching to the choir helps with the success immensely.
May I bud in? My opinion on techers having kids have been warned to run dangerously close to elitism, but I say all the powers to the couples.
Family values... It does seem that it only have value if it fits a specific mold doesn't it.
-jing
Jing: You may absolutely butt in!
So, are you a closet believer in eugenics? :)
I am very guilty of elitism when it comes to Techers (and other things)... I'm better than I used to be. I think one of the negative things about Tech is that it seems to instills an unhealthy level of elitism in its students (and probably faculty members too). At some point, I definitely had some of the 'You only went to [name of school] and I went to Caltech, so therefore...' attitude, which of course paints the world in such broad, sweeping strokes that it's ridiculous. I still am inclined to see Caltech on the resume and positive opinions about the person (and this is reasonable because there are strong correlations at work here), but I thankfully got over dismissing people who didn't go to one of the very "top" schools.
It's true; the term 'family values' has come to mean (or at least imply) certain things I despise even if many of my own families would fit under older uses of the term.
Hmmm...Because this entry was a counterpoint to the other one and I'm already writing a comment, I'll write the following here: I am still feeling really awful about that anonymous potshot someone gave me earlier today. (Yes, my jolly response belied how it actually made me feel.) It's funny: If that person gave their name and it's somebody I know, then I would just take it as a joke. Without the name, I instead assume they actually believe what they wrote (which they obviously have every right to do), but then it's really, really mean-spirited to share that comment anonymously. OK, well whoever did that, if your goal was to make me feel like total crap, then your mission has been accomplished. Granted, this is largely because empirical evidence is completely on your side so far and I also believe that your prophecy will prove to be accurate. But I didn't need the reminder of how hopeless I am in this respect. That was harsh.
what's going on? I'm completely confused. I don't see any unnamed comments. Regardless, respectfully srew the unknown is what I shall say.
I guess by elitism I mean I think it's a good thing that techers are recreating. I think as far as students from these top schools, techers are the more if not most humble ones. But, I am biased.
-jing
Yeah, I cross-posted---a small O(epsilon) coupling term between entries seemed appropriate. This was partly because I was already writing in this space (which had slight entanglement with the other entry already) and partly because I was wondering if this is a one-time thing or if the expanded readership is more generally interested in what I have to say. (Presumably, they'll find something better to do if they're not. Among other things, it might be beneficial for that person to invest in a dictionary.)
Respectfully screwing the unknown is sound advice. I hope that I will take it and not let things bother me next time.
Techers certainly can't take over the world unless they procreate. Vive la revolucion! (Not that I can spell that properly or anything...) Actually, I don't know if that's true or not. Maybe we're just all arrogant curs? (Don't answer that.)
We certainly share some of these biases... Most of my favorite people are Techers, but sometimes we do have some difficulty interacting with the outside world (me especially).
Post a Comment