“Revalorizing the Trades”: A Joke
When people begin to read Camille Paglia’s essay, “Revalorizing the Trades,” They may find themselves swept into a sea of concepts that reflect bias and contempt towards the United States of America, its workplaces, and institutions of higher education. They may also assume that Camille Paglia may be longing somewhat for the days of her youth, stuck in the past, and wishing that things had never changed from when she was a student.
As persons begin their explorations through Paglia’s work, they will surely notice her inability to allow others to think and to judge their happiness for themselves. They will notice her claims that the middle class can no longer find personal fulfillment in today’s society and working world; that they are all doomed to the life of a professional.
Reviewers of Paglia’s work may also find her sharing her personal opinions on colleges and universities today, stating that a college education is no longer preparing young people for life or career paths that exist out of the professional class. One thing observers may notice about Camille Paglia’s essay is her own shortsightedness; the rhetoric that continually exaggerates the responsibility universities have to their students, but she never contemplates the duties the universities have to themselves. Readers may realize, unlike Paglia that a university is a business – not an inalienable right guaranteed to all young adults. They may also take note that Paglia often refers to colleges in the following manner, “Pressuring middle-class young people into office bound jobs is cruelly shortsighted.” Individuals will notice Paglia’s inability to stop putting blame on universities while placing some blame with the individuals attending and not attending college. Individuals make decisions for themselves, such as majors, careers, and life stories. What are readers to think while reading the passage, “When did students begin giving universities and colleges full reign of their lives and destinies?”
When people begin their critical analysis of “Revalorizing the Trades”, there is no doubt they will notice Paglia’s age bias. She cannot manage to escape the ideal of her own college days. Observers will notice the comparisons she cannot help making between the institutions of the sixties and modern day universities; often presenting how contrasting things are, usually sensationalizing the differences that exist between the two. Paglia feels as if the progression of society may also be to blame, “The humanities have been gutted by four decades of pretentious post modernist theory and insular identity politics.” Once again she places blame everywhere but on the largest culprits for the downfall of today’s students, themselves.
When people read and analyze Paglia’s essay, they may find themselves in a sea of misinformation and opinions that really do not relate to today’s society or to themselves; forcing them to believe that Camille Paglia must be stuck in the past and is against the march of progress in today’s universities and society.
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