Vacuous nonsense from an unsavoury relic

You really have to wonder about editorial standards at The Age these days.  The paper edition continues to provide a good set of comic strips, word games and the latest doings of the Governor.  It's sad to admit that my interest in this once-mighty broadsheet has been reduced to a single page.  Online, it looks like Who Weekly.

I enjoy The Age in part because I don't hate myself enough to read The Australian and because I find the Financial Review mildly incomprehensible -- it's not an everyday paper, although it's always entertaining to see Mark Latham's latest outpouring.  Herald Sun is a term of high abuse in my lexicon, slightly below Boltean.

It was a little disturbing to pick up the paper today to find a rather sad and confused rant from Amanda Vanstone.  The thrust of the article is that the HECS repayment impost should cut in at a lower rate -- it's currently set at $45,000.  But we don't get that argument until the last five sentences.

Vanstone's writing is a throwback to an unsavoury time.  As education minister during the early years of my studies, I owe her much for not having pushed too successfully on voluntary student unionism, slashing university budgets down to zero and many other things which I won't mention here.  Vanstone's elevation to the diplomatic service was a prize well-earned.  She combined delivering least-worst policy outcomes in a portfolio that was a key abuse-point in the constellation of hatred figures held up and routinely pummeled by John Howard & Co. with enthusiastically joining in the general fights, dismissing any thinking person as a chardonnay-swilling lefto pinky codswallop.

Poor Amanda rambles through her article today in the same vacuous key.  Her themes can be summarised as follows:

• University is a middle-class thing, which doesn't really express our idea about being an egalitarian society very well.
• Graduates enjoy better outcomes in terms of professional esteem, staying clear of criminal activities, better health and higher income.
• We now have an exaggerated sense of the importance of university, such that some young people start by defining their aspirations in negative terms -- "I'm not going to university."
• Vanstone once tried flashing her student ID at a man in Rome.  He saw the hotel she was staying in and decided she didn't need a concession.  She didn't ride in his buggy.
• Vanstone recently met a Filipina woman who was working in Rome to ensure her children had better opportunities.
• An educated population is a good thing, and the investment is justified.
• For these reasons, university graduates should pay back their HECS debt sooner.

It's a shame the point of the article comes after such a long digression.  Could it be that the sub editors on The Age had to deal with some truly atrocious copy?  Or was it submitted to them by mistake?

I think this is the key quote:

If you value wealth over skill or decency or any number of other virtuous qualities, you must expect that those who get the ticket that sends them down the wealthier path, namely a degree, feel as though they are pretty special.

Let's gloss this quote for a second.  In a society that only pays attention to money, anyone to does something to get more of it is up themselves.  Ergo, university graduates are up themselves.  Cut them down a peg or two by making them pay their debts before they're earning enough money to keep themselves.

Why is this canker about university graduates being up themselves allowed to roll around in the hallowed columns of The Age?

Think about the writer for a moment.  Vanstone herself has degrees in Arts, Laws, and Marketing, and at least two of these from a sandstone university, no less.  As a former university student, you would expect Vanstone to be a little more appreciative of the free higher education she enjoyed as a result of reforms under the Whitlam government, and to be a mite more sympathetic to those of us who have been weighed down with a substantial debt as a result of her efforts in government.  It is an embarassing fact that the Howard government was populated largely by these compromised freeloading ingrates.  They were up themselves, and continue to be up themselves, to an athletic level.  How shall we cut them down a peg or two?

Bashing up university people is so easy it's sad to watch a practitioner at work.  Critiquing middle class attitudes is more challenging, especially when you do it from inside the ultimate middle class occupation, as an ex-lawyer, picture framer, and former politician.

This would have been interesting to see, but instead Vanstone treats us to the reheated remains of something she prepared earlier.  Bashing up graduates.

You strong woman you.