wasn't one of the central themes of Catcher in the Rye
about doing things for the sake of doing them and
because you were expected to? i think that the
conclusion was that at some point you have to conform
to tradition simply because it doesn't work when
everyone does the first thing that comes to mind. yes,
it is rather degrading to submit yourself to the
facade of institutionalism, but what else are you
going to do? education is the door to college, which
is the door to the institution of the world as a
(w)hole. if you jump off the conveyor belt, you are
spared from the Machine. however you will find
yourself in an isolated world of pople that refused to
sumbit themselves to the curse of eden. any goals that
they once had involving a job, money, or anything else
of the world is abandoned. we must choose the lesser
of the two evils. turning your back on the world to
tour the country indefinitely or live alone in the
woods is a life void of the usuall stresses (forgive
me for useing a martin word)and pressures. however,
you will live each day as the next and previous
without a purpose. and how do you propose to live?
your only choices are to be entirely self dependent or
to, God help us all, occasionally interact with the
beast that we are so desperately trying to avoid. i
do realize of couse, that these are the extremes of
the lifestyles being disgust(ed). anyone who belives
and has faith in a system made by men will be
shattered and broken. no one dependent on the world
around us can be happy. i wonder the same about people
who watch a lot of mtv.anyway, i would not consider
locking yourself in the woods to be any progess. and
if you do, what have you accomplished? the world will
go on being as it is and your protest will go
unoticed. you wil have died for your cause, and even
though you may have successfully fulfilled it, no one
will ever know of the thoughts you have had. they will
not see the mistakes of the world around them because
you were not there to show them the way. in order to
beat the system, you must remain inside and teach
others what you have seen and the possibilites that
you know are out (t)here. new, untainted worlds and
genuine systems await for people to dwell in them. if
you know the way, show others the path home.

-tripp