Well, the good news is that my back is back to normal now.

I first heard this cell theory in an introductory Philosophy class in university. I was taking it in the summer of 1997 or 1998. The professor put a more positive spin on it, though. You're a new person so whatever mistakes you made in the past, that was somebody else and you can forget about it.

I've also heard reference to this basic premise recently in a podcast in reference to the wave of sex allegations in the US. The podcast host said that he's not responsible for anything that happened over seven years ago because that was a different person.

But going back to this philosophy professor, he was an old man. Probably dead now.

Really shit class. It's a real tragedy that in the US university system, you have to take classes in every discipline. So if you're majoring in history, you have to take a math class, a chemistry class, an economics class, et cetera. Why? It's irrelevant.

Likewise, if you're majoring in civil engineering, you have to take a politics class, a literature class, and a Spanish language class. What's the relevance?

I know that the idea goes back to the Roman and/or Greek education system where, allegedly, they studied various disciplines. And by studying all of this crap, the theory goes, you become a more well-rounded person.

This idea has long since ceased to have any basis in reality. Now, all of these useless courses that you have to take are done to maximise profits for the universities.

I wonder how many people out there have quit university because they couldn't pass some class that was completely unrelated to their major. I'd hazard a guess of 50% of all university dropouts are because of this. The other 50% could be anything: can't afford it, transferred to a different univerity, got a decent job, apathy, marriage, moved, whatever.

So I'm taking this introductory philosophy class. The professor is kind of a jerk. One of the assignments was to bring something that has life in it to class. So everybody brought a seed except one woman who brought her gerbil or something.

I mean, what a stupid assignment. I'm paying money for this. It's a required class. If I don't pass a philosophy class, I can't get my degree in politics. The guy next to me can't get his degree in physics without this. The skank in the corner can't get her degree in music without this.

What a waste of time and money. You want a degree in nursing, you need a philosophy class. Actually, the nursing students were probably the worst affected by this. People who want to be nurses aren't typically the best students. They're people with realistic goals in life trying to get a required degree so that they can do one specific job that pays about $25,000/year. Why are you making them take a sociology class?

Social science students are also badly affected by having to take math classes. If they knew how to do math, they wouldn't be studying social sciences. And it's not like you're going to learn math in university. If you haven't figured it out by that point, it's not happening. I took an algebra class three times in university and only passed because I finally found a guy that passed everyone.

It's pretty amazing that I managed to get a degree, all things considered. But then what was the point? What good did it do me?