Everything you are about to learn from these pages, I learned from scratch (you don’t! You’re welcome). I have exactly zero formal training in publishing, writing, printing, or graphic design. In fact, I did very poorly in high school English class. Not from lack of talent, mind you- I was writing so much in high school that I got in trouble for doing that instead of paying attention a few times. I was so ahead of the learning curve that I would give myself challenges just to make the work interesting. One time, I wrote an entire paper without using the letter E. Another time, I wrote an argumentative essay for my Environmental Science class about how we should use every resource without any regard for the planet. That’s not what I believe, it was a gag, but it was the wrong opinion so I failed that assignment. Every time I confronted the teacher about it, she conveniently had to get home very soon, and “why don’t you come see me after class tomorrow?”
School is a big scam anyway. High school is all about getting ready for college, college is all about learning to be a corporate cog. Take on five figures worth of debt, just to get a job that pays well enough to pay off my debt? No thanks. However, a lot of people can’t seem to divorce the idea of schooling from education, so they think sitting in a classroom at 8 a.m. and drooling on a notebook is the only way to learn anything.
School is just another social institution. Like all institutions, it’s fake, boring, expensive, and optional. Like all institutions, you’ll probably be better off if you reject it and pursue education on your own. Punk rockers don’t need the established music industry to get their music out there, and you don’t need some state-run institution to teach you how to live. Take the DIY ethics to education and learn what you want, when you want.
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know is available online for free. YouTube is free, blogs are free, podcasts are free, free free free. Every marketable skill you’ve ever wondered about is available to you. Explore your curiosities. Try new things. Learn by trial and error. Eventually you’ll find something that you enjoy and have a natural knack for. With practice and an insatiable appetite for more, you’ll eventually be as expert at something as the dope who went to college for it. Sure, you won’t get a degree to hang on the wall to prove to employers that you’ve gone through the slave training. You can always start your own thing and you’ll probably have a lot more fun anyway.
DIY education requires a lot of reading, and school ruins reading. It’s like how cancer patients are supposed to eat the weirdest things so that they don’t associate real food with throwing up- forcing kids into reading something they don’t give a rat’s ass about makes them associate books with a headache. It’s not the books that are poisonous, it’s the school system. It’s the teacher forcing you to read garbage, then to interpret that garbage in accordance with the Marxist dogma in the curriculum, then to discuss it with classmates you hate. It got so bad that I didn’t even bother with the Sparknotes most of the time.
You don’t have to read every book cover to cover. One of my favorite books is The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band. I didn’t finish it because once Motley Crue started talking about being old and getting married, I got bored. That’s allowed. Feel free to skip chapters. If a book doesn’t grab you within 15 minutes, put it down and find another. Read the parts you like, learn what you care about, and move on.
One main function of school is to train you to suffer quietly. That’s why they require 4 years of English, the most boring class. That’s why they have generals in college. That’s why they make you read books all the way through. Being able to sit through a Gender Studies course so you can get your degree is a great skill to have once you hit the corporate world where you’ll be trapped in meetings or doing online safety training and other such shit. It’s all fake. If you really care about learning, do it yourself.
Stay dangerous, my friends
-RJ
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