Too Broke to Better Myself

As may be apparent from previous posts, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by science as I’ve gotten older, and appreciative of its impact on our lives.

Our last significant evolutionary step was our increased capacity for intelligence, which contributed to a shift from physically adapting to our environment, to adapting our environment to us, and developing the ways and means to cope with environmental shifts: we made clothes and lit fires to protect us from the cold; made clubs and spears to help us ascend the food-chain; learned to cultivate the land to improve and broaden our access to food; erected shelters so we no longer had to rely on caves.

Unbound from a limited number of natural shelters and uncultivated food sources, we were able to spread far and wide, seeking out better land and better hunting grounds, and ultimately to diversify our species through interaction with those who’d developed elsewhere.

We navigated the oceans, the skies, and even space!

Our progression as a species is tied directly to the progression of our knowledge and understanding of our environment, and of the wider universe; and to study science is to be an active part of that progression.

It’s infuriating, therefore, that such a high barrier of entry is placed on studying anything in this country. Privileged scumbags, who had their education paid for by the rest of the country, decided this generation shouldn’t be granted such a free-ride, and so introduced tuition fees.

Even more privileged and scumbaggier scumbags (backed by a bunch of feckless, two-faced, ineffectual twerps) then decided the barriers weren’t quite high enough, and trebled said fees.

It’s a sad pattern that has been repeated throughout our history: those in charge doing what they can to ensure the continued ignorance of those beneath them; whether it be religious leaders persecuting anyone who dares question their sacred texts, or politicians distracting us with spectral enemies to shift focus from their own incompetencies and inadequacies, the stupider we are, the easier we are to manipulate, and the less likely to ask awkward questions.

The last thing any of them want is the expansion of knowledge and understanding, and their reluctance to allow it is made loud and clear by the (at least) £27,000 worth of debt they want every student lumbered with when they graduate.

And if, like me, you’ve already accumulated said debt, and no longer qualify for the loans, then any desire to return to studying can be put on the shelf of unlikelihood next to being debt-free, being a home-owner, and being an astronaut.

Between the ongoing work at CERN, the potential of the FAST and James Webb telescopes, and Elon Musk’s ever more ambitious plans, I should be more excited than ever about where we’re potentially headed as a species.

And I am, as far as I can be. But at the same time, it’s devastating not to be able to be a part of that progression.