As children in 5^th or 6^th grade we were all educated on all the bad things in this world that could potentially divert us one day from our path to success and lead us to the road of failure and misery of life. We all had to sit there and listen through all those boring health class all those years and hear the same thing over and over again until it just got stuck in our minds like a virus trying to manipulate our way of thinking. “Drugs are bad, sex is bad and evil” they said and “if you have sex you will obtain all these STD’s”, and ‘if try drugs you will fail at life”, they said “police are friendly people and are here to protect you from harm and evil”.

            That was a cleverly thought out plan to brainwash our young innocent minds and without us noticing that we had developed a fear towards those things they spoke about.  They used fear to keep us under control, barred us from being able to learn from our mistakes, allowing children to look down upon those such people that started to divert towards the mainstream society and had become one of those which we feared so greatly. Thinking that such a person must withhold great evil in their hearts to be about to smoke, and drink, and even use the word that we shall not even speak of; drugs, or even have sex before marriage and somehow obtain every STD that walks the Earth. But, how can a person be able to kill most of their brain cells with a drink, or destroy their lungs with a pack of cigarettes?

            Whats that? Oh right, we aren’t kids anymore, and have realized that there is no boogeyman hiding under the bed. All those things that we were taught to fear as children are nothing more than pebbles on our journey through the harsh jungle of life. You don’t get STD’s every time you have sex, nor does a woman conceive a child every time you engage in unprotected sex. A drink won’t destroy your half your brain, and the worst lie yet; police aren’t friendly nor are they here to protect us from harm. Police are people that put bread on the table by catching red handed those who break the law and even catching red handed those have done nothing wrong. Why didn’t those friendly police officers in 5^th grade tell us that one day he will pull you over when you are driving home from school without you have committed any moving violations and then sends you on your way home with an early Christmas present; a nice collection of tickets handed to you with a smile on his face; no, not movie tickets, but rather fines which have no point of origin; no purpose or even reason for their own existence. A ticket for having tires slightly below pressure, ticket for having a CD hanging from the mirror that is said to be an obstruction of view, a ticket for talking on the phone while driving when you don’t even own a cell phone, and even a ticket for increasing the bulb capacity of your headlights so you can see the road better at night and be safer. Then there is of course the police officers that were bullied in high school and now take revenge on the rest of the world. They hide and wait while they watch you until you commit a crime so they can incriminate you for it. I thought police were here to protect us and prevent crime not patiently pray for one to happen just so they can smile at you with that same black tooth that would always stick out like a piece of coal in the snow when he would smile at you all those years ago during that class he taught in 5^th grade. That same friendly smile is now grinning at you as he proudly writes up your offenses.

Why, why, WHY didn’t they tell us that justice exists only when you do the right thing and in the rare occasion, not get crucified for it?  Why did they tell us how bad and evil sex is and how we must stay away and abstain for as long as possible when in reality sex one of the most beautiful acts a human can perform? Isn’t sex the ultimate act of passion? Why did we have to grow up with such a fright toward sex that we didn’t even get a chance to experience our own sexuality? Where is the justice now?

When did this idea that started before my time of educating children on the necessary skills to be successful in life and as person get manipulated into this massive lie which has deprived us all of our childhood experiences and mistakes that we could of learned from? Why have we been miseducated in such a way? Is there a reason behind it, a finical reason perhaps? Could it be for money? Are people that cruel? It has been said that banking establishments are far more dangerous than standing armies. The sad truth is that they really are. Can it be? Is greed the answer? I cannot even bear the thought in my mind that my own self-indulgence is somehow directly proportional to my own financial stability. I guess Hitler was right after all, "the great masses of the people... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one(Adolf Hitler)."

So in this long path to success I find myself at the fork in the road once again, and knowing that I am nothing without education I will go the way which will lead to changing this world and becoming someone worthy of remembrance. Society has failed to feed me proper education and thus in fact making me educate myself like I have done throughout the past several years. Money will buy you a home and guns, but it can’t buy you protection, money will buy you luxuries but it can’t make you content with life, nor can it make you understand. The most powerful force in the universe is not compound interest as Einstein has lead us to believe, it is instead one that nobody can take away from us and can allow us to do anything and become anything, and without it we are nothing and it makes us who we are; that power is education.

 Self education is my only hope and the only true source I can trust, the only real path I know exists, the only way that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Self education is by society’s nature, the only path a person can live their life by to make it this capitalist world that is being driven by competition and bled dry by betrayal and greed.  After all, "There is no wealth like knowledge, and no poverty like ignorance. (Ali ibn Abi-Talib)”

Then I understood why. It suddenly hit me like a coconut falling from a tree. I suddenly saw the answer. I understood that this realization of the lies and miseducation that have that kept me from so much and allowed me to grow up in fear of many things are in fact the lies that bind the truth! The truth is in fact something one couldn’t have figured out any other way. If it wasn’t for my own miseducation I would I have never understood the need for my own self-education. That is why.