My wife’s sister’s husband has spent a few years as a corporate lawyer for various companies, most recently for some insurance company working to screw other companies out of their coverage. So he tells me “you know, I just don’t like my job, I’m making a ton of money, but I’m not happy, I want to do something meaningful, I want to help people” etc. I’m thinking “oh, okay, right on.” But then my BIL loses me completely when he tells me “so I applied to become and FBI agent and I have already made it pretty far in the process. So an agent might contact you when they do my background check.”
(First of all, I’m not speaking to a fucking FBI pig for nothing. Fuck that. And I told my BIL so: “I will not be speaking to the FBI. If an agent contacts me, that is exactly the entirety of what I will say to them before I hang up the phone or shut the door.” But I bit my tongue when it came to why I felt that way)
The topic didn’t come up again, but I’ll probably see him again in a couple of weeks. And I feel like I need to say something to him, but what? He claims being an FBI agent has been his dream since he was 15. He apparently thinks joining the FBI is a way to help people. He’s tired of looking after rich people’s money and rich corporations’ money (bro what do you think you’ll be doing with the FBI???) I also feel like a big reason he is doing this is to seem cool and masculine and interesting, not out of a genuine desire to help.
What do you guys think? How should I approach it? What specifically should I bring up to demonstrate that the FBI is not the best way to help people? Should I go all out that the FBI is demonstrably evil? Or should I take the approach that it is lame as hell? What alternative path would you suggest to someone with a law degree who says they want to help people?
I’m not trying to attack him or anything. It is lame and has made me lose respect for him, but I’m not trying to lead with that.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I am agreeing with you but stating that arrogance will make it really hard to get through to him. The system and especially law schools, ivy league, professional training, etc. use the same model as the military to instill overconfidence in their students (that’s how you get people to go on suicide missions). The cup metaphor is referring to the fact that these institutions fill you up with this misinformation, instill arrogance and then you are a full cup that no more water (info) can be added to. Humility undoes that process.
Oh! Onto onto and I agree. A big step myself in moving left was shedding that arrogance and subsequent chauvinism. Its such a trap.
The one I find myself in now is that I’m so full o’ communism I can’t handle conversations with western leftists or radical centrists because its like holding up a mirror to your past self and that’s both uncomfortable and also infuriating because they talk so much shite.