Higher learning

So the other day I was talking to a person who was going to a university (an American one) and he said he was taking some "Middle East Studies" class or something. I asked him if he knew the difference between Sunni and Shi'a Islam and he didn't know. I then asked him if he knew anything about how after World War I, territories formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire became League of Nations mandates under British and French administration, and he knew nothing about it. I don't know what he's being taught but I think knowing the difference between the two main denominations of Islam and the history of the region is important if he's going to act like he's an expert on the subject. I'm not claiming to be an expert but it's funny how I know so much more than him. Nonetheless, he's the educated one because he's taking a class for it at a university and I'm not.

I got F's in school and I dropped out and I have never spent a single day in college so can somebody please explain why I know more than him?

>>31

For most subjects outside of hard science, universties are a giant waste of time.  Especially things like History and Sociology/Psychology (IMO both are psuedoscience with good lobbying), and literature.  In fact, studying Soc/Psych and "literature" does more to destroy your mind than to help you learn.  What those courses "teach" you is that things like "fact", "truth", and "data" are at best irrelevant and at worst a conspiracy by "the elites" to hold down and oppress.

That's why the "science" of psychology has so many schools of thought.  Some think that it's Maslows hierarchy of needs, others still listen to Freud, and others listen to Jung.  This isn't Logic, Science or Reason.  If they'd use any one of these tools, they'd realize that they've been taught that 5 or 6 completely different (and in many cases contradictory) theories are all equally true and correct. 

It's worse in literature -- to get a good mark in literature, you have to pretty much make up new theories for what each "symbol" in a story or poem means.  Everything in a story is a symbol, and nothing they symbolize has anything to do with actual function in the story, the author's stated opinion on the topics, or anything related to current events of the day. 

By the time one has marinated in such courses for 4+ years, his mind is ruined.  He can no longer think logically about facts and reason.  He believes (as he was taught) that those things are bullshit, so he'll believe whatever makes him feel good. 

Hard sciences are a different story.  If you get the wrong answer on the physics test, you fail.  If you can't name and locate a humans innards, you'll fail human anatomy.  Engineers with a degree have had to prove that their stuff will stand.