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Perfect Palo Alto
If for some reason you were to join me in my car, going about my daily errands around Palo Alto, we would in all likelihood pass the intersection of Alma and Charleston, and you might ask me who this guard was at the railroad tracks and why he was there:

"Oh, he's there to make sure high school kids don't jump in front of a train to kill themselves", I would reply. And you, assuming you come from a place that isn't insane, would be puzzled and appalled at my answer.
The thing is, I've gotten used to this lunatic asylum. The overpressured kids in this town, some of whom are expected to somehow Make It Big, can't tolerate the thought of not being one of the 6% that are admitted into, say, Stanford, so they decide to end their lives about 60 years ahead of schedule. I personally think the notion of paying a man to sit, day after day, hour after hour, to guard a fifty foot stretch of track along a 45 mile corridor is preposterous, but I guess the town fathers wanted to show they cared.
The heart of the issue isn't the fact that this one railroad crossing is or isn't guarded by someone. It has to do with what the kids think they have to "achieve" to be worthwhile.
I was reminded of this by the front page story in this morning's Palo Alto Daily Post:
Note the remark in the rightmost column: "The student's death was not connected with the suicide death of an adult man who stepped in front of a Caltrain at Charleston Road on Sunday afternoon." You read that right. The very next day. Oh, and at the exact spot that the gent in the picture above guards..............on weekdays.
Strangeways, here we come.
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I'm always blown away at what a zero sum game is our cultural fetish with the ivy leagues. It's very easy for young people to buy into the myth of Harvard et. al. and think that to 'be someone' they have to get in. It's symptomatic of the grotesque ways that america wastes our human capital and literally burns human potential. When WAS THE LAST TIME WE HAD A PRESIDENT WHO DIDN'T GO TO HARVARD OR YALE? (Answer:Reagan, a fucking awesome president). If you test well and can network in America you don't need any real ability. The system separates the winners from the losers by age 12. Sick.
Ronnie sucked.
fuck that, half the people in the west coast are now either abusing illegal drugs, or addicted to legal ones, one of which is now cannabis.
how many untold people , perhaps as much as 10% of teenagers , whose brains are still developing, have been 'placed' on anti-depressants, or stimulants or others.
while most of them don't kill themselves, the rate of suicide is preferentially higher , much higher with people who are on drugs, now of course, the question is, IS this just self selecting behavior, those arleady predis[opsed to suicide having placed themselves on drugs or been attracted to them as an attempt at self help----kill themselves anyways.
no one really knows. but given how profiteable they are, and how self serving entrenched medical and psychoclinical bearacracies see the drug industry ( consider major pharma companies have HUGE contracts with the VA and lobby them with major open compensation schemes that constitute legalized bribery) -------
no one is going to stop this.
profiteering on brain chemistry experiments. is only ONE of the profiteering that occurs. and really, who gives a fuck about silicon valley anyways. it is the most overwrought real estate bubble in american AND many of the startups are slowly moving to san francisco. which is now in direct compeittion with silicon valley as the real estate contraction begins. what with the high costs of insurance, and the insanely rising taxes on all sorts of transportation related things------------silicon valley is at its peak now. a massive bubble.
i was in menlo park and mountainview last month. so many new and fancy ass stores. ALL NEARLY EMPTY AT PEAK HOURS.
Those committing suicide on drugs are doing it despite drugs, not because of it, seeking to self-medicate to fix depression (which cannabis can for many people).
Your ignorance of Cannabis is shining through. There is not a single person on this planet that is "addicted" to cannabis. Period. There are absolutely no physical "withdrawal" symptoms related to cannabis use. There may be some psychosomatic discomfort much the same as someone leaving their iPhone at home but that could be classified as an addiction far easier than cannabis could.
Those CB-1 and CB-2 receptors in your bodys nerve endings are there for a reason and they are to receive the natural cannabinoids the body produces.
Yes, I know you could show so called "researched" papers by psychologists or psychiatrists claiming 'marijuana addiction', but then I could show you three to that one by clinical physicians that would refute it, the former make money 'treating' imaginary addictions while the latter deal with real drug addictions.
Hard science trumps soft science with it's speculation and opinion.
Don't diss the herb. No one has ever died from using it.
A far better track record than legal drugs including tobacco and alcohol.
Like yourself, I am far more worried about the mis-use and over prescribing of the wares from so called legal drug peddlers.
Nobody ever smoked a joint and shot up a theater.
They would go straight to the snack bar.
Can't write a prescription for a spiritual problem.
sure you can, its called a lifestyle change
Slaves can't change their Matrix life-style without a full exit from the Matrix - which requires having a huge number of monetary and physical resources.
nice work if you can get it
They'll chill out when the Orgasmatrons are ready to ship.
I have a much younger acquaintance who scraped into Stanford not really knowing the trouble he was getting himself into.
The psychological stress of trying to compete 24x7 with those obsessed whack-jobs is inimical to true learning, IMO.
I myself opted for an elite (at the time) small college in SouthWest Florida (New College) after having had my fill of
that type of environment in my college prep, even though, I was near the top of my graduating class.
I did this because I understood there was more to life than just becoming a driven science geek with no real friends, just
competitors. That kind of future was just too bleak for me to stomach. In all your endeavors, you have to listen to your
heart first and foremost. It knows what you really need, and it is not enormous sums of money and status symbols.
What you really need is simply food, shelter, interesting work at a human and humane pace and the love of friends, lovers,
yourself and God. Period.
You ruined the entire piece by putting a fictional character in at the end.
I can guarantee you that without that character, you can have all those other things and love.
Hard to believe that a top of the graduating class student would succumb to the inane, invented by the masses and exploited by the 10%. Didn't you take any statistics courses? Learn the law of large numbers?? Factor in probability in all your decisions?
Did you not consider that definitivem, know it all answers, like, "period", make you seem like an elitist with no cred? That your needs are not those of everyone? That some like a hectic pace, and others a slower one?? That friends die and leave you?? That interesting work can impoverish you??
You need to re-jigger.
Why do people get all butthurt over a reference to the fictional-deity-who-should-not-be-named? You'd be surprised at the number of people at the top of their classes who do believe in the transcendant, inventor of the masses and, sadly, Whose weaker followers are sometimes manipulated by the 10% - as if non believers aren't.
You don't need God. I get it. For some of us, belief in God is at least as reasoned - and reasonable - as your rejection.
Re-jigger youself. I've already been there and done that, as a late in life convert coming from where you apparently are now, if less strident in my unbelief.
Manners, you know.
Belief in god is not the exclusive province of the dumb. The smart as you point out also claim to believe in that which can not and never will be proven. So they can't be all that smart. Many smart people do very very dumb things, like give themselves cirrhosis by drinking excessively, or drugging themselves to O.D. Because supposed smart people also believe in the unbelievable, doesn't add any weight to the argument about there being a god.
Late in life converts are super ready to fill up some empty hole in their lives with a 'story' about some supreme being who treats his creations like bull pucky, who scoffs at their miserable lives. Gets joy out of apportioning the brains, looks, and natural magnetic personalities, willy-nilly, and who regards justice as something only she can dish out.
Only pervs can look at this ultimate perv and think god is worth even a microsecond of consideration.
If nothing else, if she does exist, she would long ago be put on trial in absentia, at the Hague, and found guilty of the most heinous crimes dozens of her creations perpetrated as their accomplice.
If there is a god, I only hope I can one day kick her sorry ass down the steps of a steep Pyramid.
Manners???
The world is full of civil people who wouldn't answer a cry in the night from anyone.
My first 16 years were spent in the Catholic Church and I am one of the molested boys, as are several of my peers.
god is also a terribly incompetent recruiter.
Stamford has a 5% acceptance rate........ frigging insane.
The more insane thing is that those focused only on grades are NOT going to make the cut - which REALLY does a job on some of the applicants who are rejected only to see some other candidate get in because they play the Tuba or are part Sioux or.... who the hell knows these days?
Stamford = town in western CT
Stanford = hard-to-get-into university
Fortunately, unless you want to be an academic, the studies make it clear that it doesn't matter where you go to college. Hard work and ambition after graduation are everything, if your goal is to earn money. Lazy and failed Harvard/Princeton grads are a dime a dozen.
Samford = Southern Baptist Univ in Miss. somewhere.
Sanford = junkyard owner and proud papa
Sanford = shithole in central Flodida
Lamont = not quite Daddy
Rollo- always wanting Lamont to get into a scam he's working.
Aunt Esther-grasping heart peering into sky ranting at Fred's blasphemy.
One of the more amusing aspects of the elite university admissions process is the expectation (or, explicit requirement) that the applicant show serious involvement in his local community, with some sort of humane, charitable-type endeavor. Talking with my college-age niece and nephew about this, I was charmed by their utterly cynical eye-rolling.
Cumpulsory-cum-fake community spirit and love of one's fellow man... it's the perfect preparation for elite youth as they climb the ladder into America's governing strata. Some of them, no doubt, even believe their own hype, and "really don't care about money and status" at all.
Sadly, I have a lot more respect for the spirits of those misguided young people who take a good look around them, and decide to end their lives.
The myth of the meritocracy disintegrates when you look at a numbskull like George W. Bush: Yale AND Harvard.
Harvard gradeflation is LEGENDARY. You pretty much just have to get in.
If they really make it big they will become a 'Davos Man' and get to listen to Al Gore give a speech once a year. What's not to like?
After a school shooting incident --- I don't remember which one, students in "Lamorinda" (aggregate name of 3 of the some of the richest communities in the San Francisco area) were interviewed. All of them said, what is nice about this, is that my parents pay more attention to me. Another one said, it's nice because I get hugs now.
Just sayin'.
All of them said, what is nice about this, is that my parents pay more attention to me.
Winning!
There is a subset of ZH users, fuckwits and chowderheads to a person, who simply hate everything and everyone. Just like Kunstler. These people see nothing wrong with applauding the death of children.
Any story that gets posted, they grumble about. Silicon Valley? Economic engine of America and creator of millions of jobs, where entrepreneurs start dozens of new businesses a month? They will shit on that. "Assholes! Liberals!"
Somebody creates jobs drilling for oil somewhere, which people need? "Assholes! It's a bubble!"
Overachieving kids? They must be assholes.
Kids are stupid? They're just the Free Shit Army.
Seriously, some of you people need to go live in a yurt away from humans and never comment on the Internet again. Maybe you'd be happier. But people like that are never really happy unless they're shitting on someone else.
What can I say? This world is called a valley of tears for a reason. Most problems in this world are caused by people who refuse to dry their eyes and keep moving.
We're talking about people who clearly have no real problems of their own and don't give a shit about the problems of the proles who do all their work for them. On the contrary. Silicon Valley's ultimate goal is the Singularity---to develop robots that can truly do anything better than most humans, making human labour obsolete and removing any need to keep most humans around at all. The first act of our new robot overlords will be to kill any human with an IQ high enough to pose a threat to their masters' dominion. Why wouldn't they?
So some whizkid offed himself? Given that he might have grown up to create my future robot overlords, I say, thank God He took him and not me. My chances of dying in bed and not an extermination chamber are that bit better.
Silicon Valley? - Economic engine of America and creator of millions of jobs... Bullshit. Silicon Valley is the banksters' favorite crackhead barrel when they need a to pump and dump some VC fiat to the masses for profit. Without easy-money FED/bankster bucks the place would 20% of the size and cost it currently is. There is an argument for geographical concentration of R&D/innovation, but Silicon Valley hasn't been that place for a quarter century. There is a difference between innovative R&D ("boring" energy drillers innovating a century old drilling technique in the middle of nowhere created more jobs and productive GDP), and Silicon Valley, which has devolved into a bunch of whores congregating in red light district to peddle their wares to banksters for fiat favors.
Yeah ok, let's look at some companies started in Silicon Valley:
CA pays more than 2x taxes than the 2nd place city, NY.
It's also home to world-class food, music, and culture. Where did you say you're from again?
I've been here my whole life and I've traveled all over the states as well as over twenty countries. In fact, I can tell you exactly where that photo was taken in Palo Alto. My life most likely wouldn't be what it is if I lived in bum-fuck Iowa. Also, my small business probably wouldn't even exist if not for the entreprenuer climate here.
Jobs at Foxconn factories in China don't count, but credit will be given for corporate taxes paid in the US...
Perhaps you should reread what I wrote, and then consider this- not only do I have experience in private equity, but I also used to have an office in Menlo Park. In the 1940s and 50s my grandfather (who held something like 80 patents) worked at SRI. One of my parents went to Woodside and the other Menlo (Stanford was later). Both of grew up in large hilltop houses (with bomb shelters and all the other trimmings) overlooking the valley on multi acre lots, sort of like the one I had built here in VA. In the intervening years those lots have been turned into subdivisions with "multi-million dollar houses" that are smaller and more poorly build than MY GARAGE.
As to world-class food, music, and culture... you ought to visit Texas, or if you want a truly surreal experience, try Oklahoma City before the oil company left. Free flowing money can buy all the food, music, and culture anyone could possibly want and then some - just look at the Trucial States. So you're a beneficiary who owes their current existence to bankster largesse. Big deal, most people are- it's not that bad in the larger scheme of things and given the alternatives. When the Saudis and Russians get done ripping the shale patch a new asshole, it won't just be the oilmen and hookers in North Dakota who are sore. Most of the 400,000 jobs in that State are dependent upon the energy sector, which is also dependent upon cheap bankster credit.
Hear Hear, UR.
I live in the center of it as well. There's no economic engine. It's a farce. Creating apps that let lazy fucks order food or send pictures of their dick to strangers doesn't really do much to spur growth and innovation.
Well said, Urban
Silcon Valley is due for an earthquake. A big one. Repent.
The buildings are short here and retrofitted to withstand earthquakes. I'm not picturing a lot of repenting after a good quake; more likely frustration over a lack of carpenters and low-ball insurance pay-outs.
Thank you for making my point for me.
One of the people who killed himself there, two years ago or so, was the guy who worked at the counter at Common Ground, the gardening store. He was in his 50s and had kids. A really nice guy, but you could tell that he was terribly depressed. Well, Common Ground just closed, and there is a connection. This area is so expensive that things that exist in other areas that keep people's heads screwed on, like dopey little nonprofits (Common ground promoted permaculture) can't pay the rent and get killed off. The Bargain Box, which supported the children's hospital, just lost its lease. How long the library book sales at Cubberly will go on, who knows.
It's a dog eat dog area because of rents and housing costs, and the kids here are under terrible pressure. Imagine growing up where the cheapest house is $1.5 million - you automatically don't have a hometown that you can fall back on if things go bad in your life. Unless you want to live in a van and be hated and reviled by the strivers who just bought their $1.5 million crapshack. And kids around here have no relatives nearby; their parents moved out here for jobs, and Grandma is back in Kansas or NJ; no-one normal is around them to give them a sense of normalcy.
Anyway, this would be a horrible place to raise a kid. BTW, you notice that it is a hired guard at the railway. Not parents volunteering. Got to have 2+ incomes around here. Or if you're a rich parent, well of course you want to hire some plebe; why would you waste your own time out there in the chill??? Easier to take up a collection to buy the guards some gift certificates (they did that).
I would say that I feel like an alien living here, but the funny thing is that nearly everyone here feels that way, and they are all correct.
This morning talking with a family member who lives in San Carlos. Has the 1.5 mil house. He told me in his kid's graduating class there were four kids who killed themselves for not getting 4.0's
He has maybe 800K equity in his house (rolled over the last house to qualify for a short term mortgage) He thinks its a safe haven for his equity because Chinese keep buying up his neighborhood.
I have tried to get him to consider a slightly cheaper house but he said neighborhoods with houses less than a mil are horrible. He can't live like that
Like Dude, you started in a ratty apartment away from the ocean in Hermosa Beach and you were happy.
When he first moved to California, first week another guy moved into his apartment building from out east. The guy took off his leather jacket and threw it in the dumpster. Said he wouldn't ever need that again. My relative said he pulled the jacket out of the dumpster and it was like, brand new. He put it right on.
That is the life cycle in California. You cant go home
I dread he ever takes a big income cut
"You can check out anytime but you can never leave"
Oh My God!
Privileged People Problems!
Land where kids kill themselves for being teased at school while their pet Schnauzers eat Whole Foods chicken for dinner.
Fuck off.
I used to feel that way. I'm from rural New England, and in years gone by I had the same view; I guess I've mellowed. Don't you have kids, knukles? Don't you think they might kill themselves over something stupid? They might, you know. I don't have kids, but somehow I can manage to sorry for these poor kids who off themselves. I think their parents are to blame for raising them here.
And no, they do not shop at Whole Foods, that is cheap-o stuff for the riff-raff. They buy the chicken for their Schnauzer at Piazza's or Mollie Stone's. I however am not rich and so I shop at TJs and the Discount Grocery Outlet on Alma.
Yes. I've two kids. Both of whom have gone through some great and some piss poor times .... probably not the same ones that I'd assess as they, though.
The simple fact of the matter is that we're talking about kids who live in a nano-bubble of just about the finest temporal/secular environment of the face of the earth. They do not starve or want for shelter or clothing. They have the opportunity to attend reasonably good schools... they should not be short of any basic rudimentary skill sets as in reading, writing and maths. They've had presented to them (especially in the Palo Alto area) some very fine cultural opportunities.
Compare that to the average person in the world.
The top 1% income threshold globally is $25,000. (hard number, documented several sources, World Bank, UN, etc.)
The average globally kid does not have a full belly, a school and warm pest free bed and clean clothes let alone rudimentary creature comforts and diversions
No, I do not think that it's the parent's blame for raising them in such a place. The parent's responsibility is of sound moral and ethical character development and spiritual grounding.
Not the town in which they live.
It does not take a village to raise a child. It takes good parenting.
(hard number, documented several sources, World Bank, UN, etc.)
UN? LULZ Heck, even the WMO is in on documenting income distribution! Oh knOws knuks!
What you are saying is that these kids are raised in privilege, so they ought to be happy and well-adjusted. But it is patently the case that that is not how things work. I have relatives who are rural dirt-poor, and their grandkids (although hardly blissful) are far happier and better adjusted than the kids in Palo Alto. Because they have grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, and because they live around people who stay put, and because their parents aren't totally shallow and status oriented. So when I see kids who are screwed up because they have no relatives, who know nothing but transient people, and whose parents are ambitous status hounds, I feel sorry for the kids. I don't say to myself that they ought to be pleased and satisfied with their economic privilege.
Yes, it is the parents' fault for raising them in such a place. Good parenting includes providing relatives and a real hometown. Californians don't get this; they have really convinced themselves that if they are good parents, their kids will be fine; all their kids need is for them to be good. That is presumptuous and wrong, and it is why most people who grow up in California are freaks. The exceptions are the poor people who stick to the vicinity of their relatives; they are made fun of by the "sophisticated" Californians who produce yet another generation of human freaks.
What knuks is saying and you are not understanding is that it isn't the place, it is the parents. Those kids have every material advantage anyone could want. What they lack is ethereal and it is a result of the actions of people, not some enviornment. Knuks is saying there is no external excuse for this. You could transplant those families to the safest rural settng and they would still screw their kids up. Most likely they would move back to the rat race so they can get ahead while they leave their kids behind.
These parents put themselves ahead of their kids. The kids innately sense they have little or no value. Hence, the problems you see. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with geography or external environment.
Ther are very REAL advantages to growing up in a place with really good schools - surrounded by those that are well-off and connected. And it IS possible to raise smart, empathetic and well-adjustd kids in such a place but it DOES take parental involvement.
Too many of the kids in these places see little of their parents and are very much adrift. When my kids wer in nursery school I said that the top 10-15% of the kid in placeslike this would do astounding things - really change the world and most of them would do so for the better. They DO have social consciences and care about the world they're in. I know a couple that got arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge with OWS - one was an Eagle Scout whose project was at a local Homeless Shelter. the middle 70% will succeed to varying degrees - thier parents usually try but when you're working 60 hours a week - how much influence do you have I know one attorney who - quite literally - saw his kids only on Saturday. he was gone before they got up and home after they were asleep. He coached soccer and was availabel f/t on Saturday but was often working on Sunday. And then there's the botton 10-15% who have blown their lives and are making a mess of things despite all the advantages they had. Their parents may or may not have tried but failed. Pretty sad but it's worse in lower income places. You're screwedif you're going to a school that graduates 40% of those entering in 9th grade - where most grads cant even read at a 7th grade level. You can be brilliant but if your father's a meth addict.....
Having grown up in a very blue collar lower middle class place - first in my family (and only one of 3) - to go to college, I am very aware of the advantages that come with growing up in a place like this. You'll interview with a neighbor for college. If you need a summer job - or one after graduation - odds are someone will help you. Like it or not it DOES make a difference. For some of the kids here this all is 'enabling' - with serious consequences later in life when these kids have to actually perform. But for the kids that do the work, that EARN their place - it still makes a difference. You can be bright and capable as all hell but if you're in a failing school with oblivious and uninvolved parents you're totally lost.
American "society" is a vast joke, and Palo Alto is the punch line.
rim-shot!
"Ther are very REAL advantages to growing up in a place with really good schools - surrounded by those that are well-off and connected. And it IS possible to raise smart, empathetic and well-adjustd kids in such a place but it DOES take parental involvement."
Pardon me while I barf. Sorry, you're wrong. No, it is not possible to raise real humans in an enviroment like Palo Alto. I'm afraid that your rationalizations are the same ones I hear all the time around me. I would imagine that your kids are screwed up in ways that you don't understand, if you have moved them far from their relatives.
The crappiest Grandma is more valuable in the long run, than the most "helpful" neighbor.
I was with you both and up arrowing both of your comments until this one right here. You lost it, dude. Good overall, but you pissed away the victory.
The currency of humanity is love. If the crappiest grandma has no love for her grandchildren, she's worthless to that child (ask me how i know). If the most helpful neighbor helps out of love instead of obligation or personal profit, that neighbor can be worth more in the life of a child than any loveless family member. It doesn't take a village to raise a child - it takes love. The more love, the better.
Please don't get me wrong, and I realize that this may be the most hippybullshit thing I've ever written, but I firmly believe that without love for each other and for our kids and the kids of others - without grace and compassion and love - we all die. Every single one of us. Maybe not right away, maybe it takes a few years. Some jump in front of a train, some go inside their house and wthdraw from society, some stop calling their mother...we all die. Love is what keeps us going, keeps us together, keeps us growing. Love is the fuel of humanity. You cannot run a human on hate and selfishness and greed any more than you can run a lawnmower on ice cream.