As crazy as it may sound to us, there are places in the world where people are respected for being knowledgeable, educated, or having a highly developed special ability that involves something other than putting a ball in a hole.

I have always loved learning things, and was very disappointed when I found out in my 20's that my knowledge and 3 bucks would get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Moreover, there is little or no social reward to knowing things, and no social sanction for being ignorant. Of course, reality sanctions the ignorant, but that's another thread.

Because of my interests in life -- violin, foreign languages, and internal martial arts, I find myself frequently dealing with Chinese people. Eventually I realized that this was not a coincidence.

I correspond by e-mail with my violin teacher, and learned from these conversations that where he's from (Hong Kong and Malaysia), education and knowledge is respected -- even revered. He said that in Asia I'd easily get a job teaching Russian language.

Here in the US there are a lot of fraudulent violin teachers, fraudulent martial arts schools, and so on. They make a living, they take a lot of good money, but the quality of their teaching is crap. Americans don't regard education highly, so we tolerate bad teachers. Over in Asia, a fraudulent teacher of anything would quickly be attacked by the community, and would not get any students. Here, I took lessons for years from fraudulent violin teachers. I blew thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on teachers that were utterly worthless, until I learned how to distinguish the frauds from the genuine article.

So what's the point of this thread? I'll tell you.

People, and animals, and even plants, generally lead our lives in response to "environmental signals," or "market signals." We do what is rewarded, and don't bother with what is not rewarded.

Even though Whites are not regarded very highly in the semiotics of mass media and advertising, we know Whites are valuable, so we ignore the "market signals." We invest in NYSE:YT We believe that our people are a BUY, while so many people have been selling out the YT stock for years.

I want you to think of education in this same way. Every "market signal" in America tells you it's not worth it -- there's no financial or social reward, this is a false signal. I promise you that much.

You may not get immediate rewards, and the things worth learning take years. But over the course of your life, the returns will be generous.

The two things I have in mind in particular are learning to play a musical instrument, and learning a foreign language.

One instrument I have become fascinated with lately is the steel pan drum. I know, I know, it's a negro instrument from Trinidad. But it's a melodic instrument, it sure as hell isn't (c)rap, and you can play real classical music on it:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SquUTpl0UaI&feature=related"]YouTube- Bach Prelude In C BWV846 (From "The 48") On Steel Drums[/ame]

It's much easier than violin, too. The big challenge of playing violin is getting a smooth, clean, warm tone out if it. I've been trying for 16 years and I'm OK, but if I took up Steel Pan drums 16 years ago I'd have been performing for years already.

Steel Pan drums are pretty easy to learn, they sound good, and you can play the vast classical music repertoire, as well as other styles on it. You can earn money busking on the streets or in subways or in coffee shops, and meet cute, angsty, bespectacled French majors from the local university who will tell you they study better with you playing in the background.

The other thing I recommend doing to ignore the American anti-intellectual market signal is to learn a foreign language. I'd recommend Russian and Chinese. Russian for your heart's desires, Chinese for practical purposes. One at a time, and your choice of language should depend on availability of a native speaker. If you work with people who speak Spanish, then learn Spanish. No, it's not "surrendering to reconquista." You didn't bring them in, and you'd deport them if you could. But any foreign language, except something like Swahili, will help you with job prospects and other opportunities that come along.

So take a look around at your life. Is there a native speaker of a foreign language, who would be willing to converse with you for an hour a day? If so, get the Pimsleur course for that language. They are all over Bit Torrent, now. Pimsleur is the best -- way better than Rosetta Stone.

I'm also studying Quickbooks and book-keeping. Why? Because there's always jobs doing it, and when you get good you can start a business "outsourced book-keeping." Businesses will hire you as a contractor, rather than a full time book-keeper. Financial book-keeping is very mundane, so usually only middle aged women do it. I came to realize that to support my intellectual and spiritual ambitions, I had to become "a master of the mundane," and that's it. It's pretty easy stuff, actually, once you get into it.

I will end this post with one last thought about the false market signal of anti-intellectualism in America. Most people in the US don't respect education. But the ones that do are generally higher quality people, and more fun and interesting to be with. You may not know anyone like this now, but chances are you'll run across them eventually. You will need to participate in social events out in the world of course - take continuing education classes, or participate in some cause that interests you. Remember how Ed Norton in Fight Club would go to all those "support group meetings?" That's not such a bad idea. Even if you don't have myelioblastoma or alcoholism, you never know who you'll meet at such meetings. One of our biggest problems as Whites in America is we don't get out enough. I'm often pleasantly surprised at the people I meet randomly out in the world, even when I'm out doing something I'd rather not be doing, like sitting in traffic court all day.