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Herd Restless, Caged Crazed By Graham Whitaker 04/26/02 07:22:54 PM

Date: 04/26/02 07:22:54 PM
Name: Graham Whitaker
Email: Grhmwit@aol.com
Subject: Herd Restless, Caged Crazed
Shocked by Crime, Suicide, Surrender to School

In his chapter of the Underground History of American Education titled "A Conspiracy Against Ourselves," John Taylor Gatto says: ". . . children know that schooling is not fair, not honest, not driven by integrity. They know they are devalued in classes and grades, that the institution is indifferent to them as individuals. The rhetoric of caring contradicts what school procedure and content say: that many children have no tolerable future and most have a sharply proscribed one."

Sounds like Stan's philosopher-friend Thoreau with his "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation."

Our M.D.s or M.D.-Ph.D.s (Doctor-Doctors who become "doctors of philosophy," though obviously M.D.s do not have a flair for the actual discipline of philosophy) describe this malaise in Dumbspeak. In their dumbed-up (no profanity allowed, or I'd state it differently) jargon, they would say among other things that students are an "at-risk population" for suicide. Kept in cages like rats or in cubicles like factory-farm cattle, the pack and the herd get restless.

Pegged as dumblings whose school uniform might include computer- virtual dunce caps and other stigmata, or paraded as token-smartlings for entry into the "best-and-the-brightest" corps, students, many students, see their futures foreclosed early on.

Suicide is one manifestation of their perception of a dreary future, an intolerable life. Escaping from the classroom cell block to the corporate cubicle or corner office is not a bright prospect, unless golden carrots and golden parachutes, etc., are enough to numb the dumbing. White-collar corporate, government, professional jobs look like the cell career track with grazing room or recreation yard perks (18 holes). At least corp/pro does seem to upgrade at least interior design to mask the unmistakable cinder-block penitentiary style that distinguishes modern American architecture. Pink-collar "support service" jobs (pinks support the whites) look dreary. Blue-collar factory work--that which is still performed in the United States and not in the Far East or Mexico or other parts of the Americas--may look no better than the "opportunities" being forged through "School-to-Work initiatives," which I view as no more than preventive detention programs.

Special ed or special privilege, too many students are "checking out" early. Even the so-called best and brightest, an odious phrase that lingers from the Kennedy years, are not immune from the desire to end it all. In fact, for all the status conferred on "MITians," MIT has one of the highest rates if not the highest student suicide rate of any school in the country.

Gray

Re: Herd Restless, Caged Crazed By Stan 04/28/02 10:50:57 AM

Date: 04/28/02 10:50:57 AM
Name: Stan
Email: staneandrus@cs.com
Subject: Re: Herd Restless, Caged Crazed
Ah, Gray! Hurrah for pure dissent. Dissent, simply... I thank you for it as I sit with a BIG cup-o-coffee on a Sunday morning. That's so much better than the talking-head-beltway-bandit 'news' shows I used to care so much about. And furthermore, I must agree with your well-writ dissent. Am an well pleased that you (like Gatto) offer no solution for the problem you've identified. You may have one to be sure but to lay out the problem and offer the solution in one message makes the 'problem' simply an informercial for the 'solution'. I am as guilty of this self-aggrandizement as anyone but you and Gatto steer clear of this expected mindtrap.

I think you're RIGHT. I think the modern world of Humanity has become a great machine. At one point, and I know this from a study of history, Humanity was more like an organism. I think that bears some thought. I don't blame technology. That's too easy; technology is just a set of sophisticated tools. After all, we don't blame the bubonic plage on the Italian merchant ships that brought it from Kaffa on the Black Sea, do we?

NO it goes much deeper than that. I think the only blame for the current predicament of Humanity is Humanity itself. We have arrived where we are by our own wits. The school buildings are not exclusively made up of school-only materials, nuclear weapons never HAD to be invented or once invented, built. We make choices as a group and as individuals. We even make choices as a nation. With a nation as wealthy and powerful and amoral as the United State (and I wrote it that way on purpose), is is really so wise to be a great champion of democracy? Like Lysander Spooner intoned, and he said this in the mid-late 1800's (I paraphrase) - the governement (demoractic constitutional republic) isn't the solution to our problems--it is the source! Ouch. That's way too negative for our dumbed-down pollyanna populace to handle without a 15 minute stump-speech (reduced to a 15 second sound-bite) offering THE solution.

So thanks for making me think! I so love to think and be challenged.
Stan

mucking it up..... By SL Blondeau 04/28/02 12:33:22 PM

Date: 04/28/02 12:33:22 PM
Name: SL Blondeau
Email:
Subject: mucking it up.....
Over the years the only answer that makes sense to me is that we are truly fallen and all our attempts to fix what is in our very nature are doomed to failure. Only redemption, the transformation of our very nature, will bring about the realization of the longing that sings deep in our souls. Every attempt to fix problems man created yields new and more difficult problems. Gato's references to Buddha's saying "life is precious, do nothing", resonates in unison with Christ's reminder of the splendor present in the lilies of the valley. For me, attempts to solve problems that result from the fallen nature of man are avoidiance of the Truth that only through redemption in Christ and faithfully abiding till the Lord cleanses the wickedness from the world can the wonder we long for, be realized.
So, I also am appreciative of the "naming the problem" and not precribing solutions that are likely to just create more problems. A good friend of mine said his Dad once told him to stay clear of "Do'-gooders". AMEN! There ain't no easy fixes, and heaven on earth isn't coming any time soon. But dwelling in our brokenness and extending love and kindness on the small scale can make things bearable. What matters is always on the small scale and occurs among individuals. Looking for institutional fixes is just begging for more problems. Maybe, Stan, the words that pass between those who see the emperors nakedness can help us endure. Because ultimately I believe what matters is endurance and faith, not solutions.
Also, thanks for sticking up for the 2nd. Being a hard core NRA man it really sickens me to see how blame is assigned to things instead of human depravity.
Replying to:
Ah, Gray! Hurrah for pure dissent. Dissent, simply... I thank you for it as I sit with a BIG cup-o-coffee on a Sunday morning. That's so much better than the talking-head-beltway-bandit 'news' shows I used to care so much about. And furthermore, I must agree with your well-writ dissent. Am an well pleased that you (like Gatto) offer no solution for the problem you've identified. You may have one to be sure but to lay out the problem and offer the solution in one message makes the 'problem' simply an informercial for the 'solution'. I am as guilty of this self-aggrandizement as anyone but you and Gatto steer clear of this expected mindtrap.

I think you're RIGHT. I think the modern world of Humanity has become a great machine. At one point, and I know this from a study of history, Humanity was more like an organism. I think that bears some thought. I don't blame technology. That's too easy; technology is just a set of sophisticated tools. After all, we don't blame the bubonic plage on the Italian merchant ships that brought it from Kaffa on the Black Sea, do we?

NO it goes much deeper than that. I think the only blame for the current predicament of Humanity is Humanity itself. We have arrived where we are by our own wits. The school buildings are not exclusively made up of school-only materials, nuclear weapons never HAD to be invented or once invented, built. We make choices as a group and as individuals. We even make choices as a nation. With a nation as wealthy and powerful and amoral as the United State (and I wrote it that way on purpose), is is really so wise to be a great champion of democracy? Like Lysander Spooner intoned, and he said this in the mid-late 1800's (I paraphrase) - the governement (demoractic constitutional republic) isn't the solution to our problems--it is the source! Ouch. That's way too negative for our dumbed-down pollyanna populace to handle without a 15 minute stump-speech (reduced to a 15 second sound-bite) offering THE solution.

So thanks for making me think! I so love to think and be challenged.
Stan
Re: mucking it up..... By Stan 04/28/02 12:57:18 PM

Date: 04/28/02 12:57:18 PM
Name: Stan
Email: staneandrus@cs.com
Subject: Re: mucking it up.....
Yes, I too think there is a spiritual dimension at work here. One of the great faults of the Modern or even Post-Modern outlook is the wholesale denial of spirituality and anything more than 'faith-tradition' (to quoute Algore) or superstition. For example, the Dalai Lama is considered a 'great man' and even 'unique' but when I look at him (and I do admire him) all I really see is a follower of the Buddha who is actually following the Buddha. That (as a very poor Christian) really gives me pause. Let's have for pause. Hurrah for pause! Jesus (and most other peaceful spiritualists) preached a Kingdom of the mind or a Kingdom in heaven. Apperantly Jesus saw the flaws inherent in flawed humans proposing flawed 'solutions' to problems that are extant due to flaws in the first place Much wisdom.
Stan
PS Thanks again, SL, for making me think!!! I know the idea that circulate on this board and elsewhere in the alternative (almost totally internet) press DO ease the madness, one addled brain at a time.

Re: Re: mucking it up..... By smccoy 05/4/02 10:41:08 AM

Date: 05/4/02 10:41:08 AM
Name: smccoy
Email: rsandjjj@quixnet.net
Subject: Re: Re: mucking it up.....
I was interested in a reminder this week about the only "solution" that I can select that will help. "You must behave as if your every act, even the smallest, impacted a thousand people for a hundred generations. Because it does." (Herr Muller 1995)
Replying to:
Yes, I too think there is a spiritual dimension at work here. One of the great faults of the Modern or even Post-Modern outlook is the wholesale denial of spirituality and anything more than 'faith-tradition' (to quoute Algore) or superstition. For example, the Dalai Lama is considered a 'great man' and even 'unique' but when I look at him (and I do admire him) all I really see is a follower of the Buddha who is actually following the Buddha. That (as a very poor Christian) really gives me pause. Let's have for pause. Hurrah for pause! Jesus (and most other peaceful spiritualists) preached a Kingdom of the mind or a Kingdom in heaven. Apperantly Jesus saw the flaws inherent in flawed humans proposing flawed 'solutions' to problems that are extant due to flaws in the first place Much wisdom.
Stan
PS Thanks again, SL, for making me think!!! I know the idea that circulate on this board and elsewhere in the alternative (almost totally internet) press DO ease the madness, one addled brain at a time.