are we all just numbers?

Tonight I made a couple of calls to dispute a charge made to my credit card. As I was thanking the guy that helped (or at least promised to) cancel the charge, he reminded me that his name was Joe and his service number was 27032. Or something like that. Now, obviously service rep numbers are primarily for organizational purposes. But as I sit here procrastinating on finals studying, I can't help but wonder, "Isn't that exactly all that this world has made us? Numb3rs."

I would like that believe that it isn't true. That we aren't all just numbers. Recently, the school newspaper has been running letters from disgruntled students that have been "reduced to numbers" by the combined graduation ceremony. I hate to be the one to break the bad news. (Actually, I don't really care.) But it's not just Rutgers that is turning people into numbers. It's the entire industrialized world.

Grades for instance, have become a measure for intellectual success. If you average from 90-100 on a 100 point scale, you get an A. That means you're Average if you're Asian. And pretty damn awesome if you're anything else. 80-89 makes you a B, which can either be really bad or ballin'. And so on. Apparently the world does not agree with Professor Schall and those before him, who argued that the highest lessons in life are not--indeed, cannot-- be taught within the confines of the modern university.

And even when we have moved beyond our mundane student years, spent pointlessly toiling for inflated GPAs and meaningless test scores, our sense of value doesn't really change. We are still numbers. The only difference is that outside of these academic walls, we are no longer judged by grades; we are now judged by our salaries and achievements. Starting out, we are judged for all the things we did or didn't do in college. All the clubs we paid our dues to but never really cared about. All the volunteer work for people whose names we don't even know. After all, it's all about the numbers. That means its better to help a thousand people superficially than it is to help ten personally.

Then we grow up and start working. We start making a "living." And still we are only numbers. The measure of a man is in his paycheck. All anybody cares about is a person's net worth. Of course, all that accumulated net worth doesn't really help anyone else unless the person buys the farm.

If this is true, then we do in fact live a very sad existence. And while, yes, I do believe that this is the fate to which modern society would like to encumber us; no, I do not think we have to play by the rules. You can build grand white castles in the sand. Or you can store up true treasure.