The Crazy Years. Robert Heinlein has a series of novels exploring the inevitable unraveling of Western Civilization. My favorite is Friday, for I think what are obvious reasons. Heinlein predicted that because of a combination of various factors, Western societies would face disintegration from within. His primary reasons are the educational system, the inefficacy of the warm-bodied franchise, and the inherent impulse among many people to use the powers of the state coercively against others.
I have tried to avoid talking about personal experience on this blog. I always try to speak within a more general framework and not to involve myself in my writing. I have however had a great deal of experience in working with children of all ages as a private instructor for the past ten years or so. I have witnessed in the span of one generation the rapid evisceration of true teaching.
This problem is not immediately evident. Schools assign a plethora of homework during children's early years of education. Many of my clients report an overwhelming avalanche of homework during their children's early years of education, only to find that somehow, homework disappears from the radar when children reach middle school. This is where I come in. I am a highly specialized tutor who focuses on teaching my students how to improve their metacognition and ability to process information deeply.
The abyss of work that accompanies a students entry into middle school is as illusory as the torrent of useless busywork assigned by teachers in elementary school. It is not that middle school students have no homework, it's instead that teachers assume that students are aware that they must read, problem-solve, and explore the world on their own. Teachers assume that students know how to take notes. Teachers assume that students know how to pull critical information from a textbook. But it is not purely the fault of students.
Most of the students that I work with are high school age. I rarely get to associate with middle school students because the workload is frighteningly easy that most students are able to slide through with good grades without doing any work at all.
A few weeks ago however, I had the opportunity to work with a middle school student. She was having problems with her physical sciences class. She was in the eighth grade. As I thumbed through her textbook, I was appalled at the level at which it was written. I found it to be both banal and vacuous. It felt like it had been written for a six year old. The girl was like many children her age: unaware in the extreme. Her knowledge of the classics was scant. Her cognizance of the outside world severely limited. She had not been taught how to seek out and be thrilled by new knowledge.
Needless to say our session was challenged by her limitations. A student can only accept what they are capable of digesting--if she has not developed the correct palate, the ability to differentiate and discern subtle concepts and ideas, then she will not be able to learn more complex and difficult ideas.
This deficit is not entirely her fault. It is a cultural, social, and political failure as well. Children are naturally inquisitive. How does a naturally inquisitive mind become finely attuned to the demands of conformity within the absurd social hierarchy of a classroom? The answer: easily. The classroom is the antithesis of learning. Learning is interactive, it is physical, it is multidimensional, and it is interdisciplinary.
Our entire educational pedagogy is founded on the notion that learning happens sequentially, in an ordered and organized fashion, and that it must be directed. Children have a globular intellect that is not focused on information in an encyclopedic sense, but in an evolutionary sense. In other words, children seek information as it pertains to their particular level of development and how it is applicable to their world. Children naturally work within the realm of abstractions--how else do you explain their capacity for pretending and putting the "real" world aside in the blink of an eye and then returning with as much ease? Yet teachers seek to condition students to all behave exactly the same, and teachers expect all students to progress at the same rate and to be capable of the same skills. We are all endowed with abilities, we all have gifts, and education should be about helping each person discover what it is not only that they are interested in, but what they are going to do with their life. Education must also be about culturally informing students as to who they are, and while we do not have worship our way of life, we should at least acknowledge how good we have it compared to the plight of most people throughout history.
This post has explicitly ignored the progressive pedagogy promulgated throughout the academy and textbooks because it would require multiple posts to even begin to address the blatant bigotry toward conservative ideas and policy positions, to say nothing of teaching the history of the evolution of philosophical thought from Plato until today. I think it ought to be assumed by everyone that the progressive push toward uniformity of thought has so thoroughly permeated the institutions of education that we needn't directly address it. Education should not be a means to an end, it should be an end unto itself. Learning, like science, is never settled. To say that you have learned something is to deny the possibility that what we know is most likely wrong, that in the future we will make new discoveries that improve our understanding of the natural world. We have been using the Platonic model of education for the past twenty-three hundred years. It is time we tried something else.
The consequences of poor education have been evident for generations. Those who are highly educated in the sciences are paid more money. Those who are not, are not paid well. The more technically and technologically proficient a person is, the greater their earning potential is. The economic stratification of society will intensity as all manual labor will very soon be done robotically. What will we face then, when every hourly employee in the country become wards of the state as they have no marketable skills?
Heinlein warned us about the world we are living in. I feel more and more indebted to my father for having introduced me to Robert Heinlein at an early age. It is becoming more and more apparent that events, are simply beyond anyone's control. We should feel edified that evolution is still at work in our species, that we have not become separated from the pressures of the evolutionary invisible hand, functioning much in the same that interactions in the market generate prices; indeed we are still part of the great game. To make the best possible world for our children, we must allow a flowering of educational experimentation. After all, somebody is going to have to rebuild the world after whatever conflagration awaits us this century.
Monday, December 03, 2012
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The Image Reaches a New Zenith
Across the web, individuals are remarking on the astonishing and frankly terrifying manner with which the White House lied concerning the terrorist attack that took place in Benghazi on 9/11/12.
As I said, it is astonishing watching (or rather reading) the string of lies that has spewed forth from the administration since those brave Americans died. To blame a video...wait, let me start again. If you are a Moslem (Muslim? Moslim? What is the proper spelling? Shia? Shiite? Shi'ite? Sheesh.) and you believe that Mahomet (we are going to stick with the 19th century spelling of this bloke) is Allah's final Prophet (wait, God, Vishnu, Yahweh...hmmm...I see a pattern here) and you are upset about this person being displayed in any format....well...I have some bad news for you.
There remain a substantial number of people in the West who believe not only in the ideas of natural rights but the explicit right of freedom of expression.
Moreover, we who believe in natural rights also refuse to lie down in the face of provocative and dangerous lies by the Obama administration. And most importantly, we must hold the legacy media's feet to the fire over their refusal to do the same to the administration.
Every conservative, libertarian, and independent American must face facts: the legacy media is nothing but the communications department of the Democrat Party. They are beyond being in the tank. They are the tank.
The media tank has created an alternative universe. An alternative universe where Barack Obama is not facing certain defeat. An alternative universe where Iran is not engaged in a region wide attempt to attain hegemony. A universe in which it is perfectly fine for people to propound the benefits of ObamaPhone. What's next? ObamaCare? Oh wait. We already have that. Yay!
Why don't we just go whole sweaty lipstick covered hog and have ObamaFood, ObamaHaircuts, ObamaCondoms, ObamaSmokes, ObamaPainkillers, ObamaToeNail clippers. Whatever you want Obamicans. Ask and Obama shall provide.
And what is the media focusing on? Romney being a kind gentleman who asks a crowd that they also chant Ryan. What else is the media focusing on? Why the hell does it matter WHAT the media is focusing on?
The hermetically sealed progressive cocoon is coming undone. Watch it unravel. Watch as the real world collides with the construct that they have built around the One.
The Middle East is unraveling.
The sovereign debt crises is unraveling.
China's economy has most likely already unraveled and we won't hear about it until 2284 when the vaults are finally opened.
Iran is waging region wide war agains forces opposed to its hegemony.
Al-Qaeda runs rampant throughout Africa and we do nothing.
Robert Heinlein predicted the "Crazy Years." They are upon us. What we do now matters more than ever. We must defeat Barack Obama. We must undo ALL of the damage that he has done to the Constitution, the US military, and our global alliances. We must reverse course fiscally, and avoid the otherwise unavoidable and catastrophic collapse.
It begins with conservatives and libertarians and independents rejecting the status quo. We must not accede to their most basic demand: submit. Modern progressivism and radical Islam share this notion of total submission--Islam means submission--and we, the free and sovereign people of the United States, reject submission. We embrace freedom.
Our freedom begins with disempowering the Left. We must begin the most publicly charged effort to undermine everything the Left does via the "media". We must turn Alinksy on his head and apply it ten times stronger than they apply it to us. It is not enough to boycott--we must compete! We must bring the news better and we must do so by ending this quaint notion of the "story." The death of the US Ambassador to Libya is not a story, it is really happening right now to the family of that poor man; it really happened to him.
The conservative movement has not been very good at agitprop. We reject the notion. We want to appeal to people's minds, not their emotions. We don't want to be like the Left.
Just like your average angry Middle Eastern Muslim who doesn't want that bloke Mahomet shown riding a unicorn with rainbows streaming out of its ass has to accept that's just modernity, so too do conservatives need to accept that if you want to beat your enemy, you have to acknowledge that as unfortunate as it is, the United States is engaged in a cold civil war.
I am not the first to suggest that this the case, but it is the case. There is a battle being waged for the heart and soul of the United States. The progressive Left wants to transform America into a socialist utopia. Conservatives want to shepherd the Republic through the coming technological revolution while remaining true to our Founding principles. The progressive Left will not tell you that in a socialist utopia, everyone is equally miserable. They will not tell you that in their socialist utopia, there will still be two tiers--those who are in power and can dispense it at will--and the miserable rest of us, trapped somewhere in between Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."
The Left will not come out and say that this is what they want: an all powerful, imperial government capable of enacting whatever statutes it choose, without any consideration for constitutional limitations. This is what ObamaCare heralds. And ObamaLunch. And soon, ObamaCar.
If Obama wins the election, we will see ObamaCars driven by people with ObamaPhones getting an ObamaCheck and receiving ObamaCare. They will believe that it is Obama who has made their life livable. They will owe him their perpetual allegiance.
They will be slaves...
Slavery is a human institution grounded not necessarily in the physical chains we usually mentally associate with such oppression, but rather in the totalitarian impulse of the passive aggressive bully to control. Progressives, liberals, socialists, communists, watermelons, and postmodern feminist gender studies folks all tend toward that very passive aggressive to aggressive personality type. This impulse to manipulate and control people's mind is the very essence of slavery. You can have all the trappings of slavery you want, but at the end of the day, the slaves must know that they are slaves.
We are all slaves to the imperial federal government. Any free citizen who must work almost half the year to pay all of the taxes they owe for that year is not a free citizen. They are at best, indentured servants; at worst, they are outright slaves. And some among us are already bought, paid, and owned by the Democrat Party.
Reach out to your fellow citizens. Lead by example. Show what a citizen of a community does. Show how you do not lead from behind the way this President does. Show that you do not need a government official to sanction every action you take. Show that you believe in a country where the rule of law is paramount, free market principles are valued, and respect for the Founders brings us to a deeper understanding of the notion of freedom.
Otherwise, Forward to socialism.
As I said, it is astonishing watching (or rather reading) the string of lies that has spewed forth from the administration since those brave Americans died. To blame a video...wait, let me start again. If you are a Moslem (Muslim? Moslim? What is the proper spelling? Shia? Shiite? Shi'ite? Sheesh.) and you believe that Mahomet (we are going to stick with the 19th century spelling of this bloke) is Allah's final Prophet (wait, God, Vishnu, Yahweh...hmmm...I see a pattern here) and you are upset about this person being displayed in any format....well...I have some bad news for you.
There remain a substantial number of people in the West who believe not only in the ideas of natural rights but the explicit right of freedom of expression.
Moreover, we who believe in natural rights also refuse to lie down in the face of provocative and dangerous lies by the Obama administration. And most importantly, we must hold the legacy media's feet to the fire over their refusal to do the same to the administration.
Every conservative, libertarian, and independent American must face facts: the legacy media is nothing but the communications department of the Democrat Party. They are beyond being in the tank. They are the tank.
The media tank has created an alternative universe. An alternative universe where Barack Obama is not facing certain defeat. An alternative universe where Iran is not engaged in a region wide attempt to attain hegemony. A universe in which it is perfectly fine for people to propound the benefits of ObamaPhone. What's next? ObamaCare? Oh wait. We already have that. Yay!
Why don't we just go whole sweaty lipstick covered hog and have ObamaFood, ObamaHaircuts, ObamaCondoms, ObamaSmokes, ObamaPainkillers, ObamaToeNail clippers. Whatever you want Obamicans. Ask and Obama shall provide.
And what is the media focusing on? Romney being a kind gentleman who asks a crowd that they also chant Ryan. What else is the media focusing on? Why the hell does it matter WHAT the media is focusing on?
The hermetically sealed progressive cocoon is coming undone. Watch it unravel. Watch as the real world collides with the construct that they have built around the One.
The Middle East is unraveling.
The sovereign debt crises is unraveling.
China's economy has most likely already unraveled and we won't hear about it until 2284 when the vaults are finally opened.
Iran is waging region wide war agains forces opposed to its hegemony.
Al-Qaeda runs rampant throughout Africa and we do nothing.
Robert Heinlein predicted the "Crazy Years." They are upon us. What we do now matters more than ever. We must defeat Barack Obama. We must undo ALL of the damage that he has done to the Constitution, the US military, and our global alliances. We must reverse course fiscally, and avoid the otherwise unavoidable and catastrophic collapse.
It begins with conservatives and libertarians and independents rejecting the status quo. We must not accede to their most basic demand: submit. Modern progressivism and radical Islam share this notion of total submission--Islam means submission--and we, the free and sovereign people of the United States, reject submission. We embrace freedom.
Our freedom begins with disempowering the Left. We must begin the most publicly charged effort to undermine everything the Left does via the "media". We must turn Alinksy on his head and apply it ten times stronger than they apply it to us. It is not enough to boycott--we must compete! We must bring the news better and we must do so by ending this quaint notion of the "story." The death of the US Ambassador to Libya is not a story, it is really happening right now to the family of that poor man; it really happened to him.
The conservative movement has not been very good at agitprop. We reject the notion. We want to appeal to people's minds, not their emotions. We don't want to be like the Left.
Just like your average angry Middle Eastern Muslim who doesn't want that bloke Mahomet shown riding a unicorn with rainbows streaming out of its ass has to accept that's just modernity, so too do conservatives need to accept that if you want to beat your enemy, you have to acknowledge that as unfortunate as it is, the United States is engaged in a cold civil war.
I am not the first to suggest that this the case, but it is the case. There is a battle being waged for the heart and soul of the United States. The progressive Left wants to transform America into a socialist utopia. Conservatives want to shepherd the Republic through the coming technological revolution while remaining true to our Founding principles. The progressive Left will not tell you that in a socialist utopia, everyone is equally miserable. They will not tell you that in their socialist utopia, there will still be two tiers--those who are in power and can dispense it at will--and the miserable rest of us, trapped somewhere in between Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."
The Left will not come out and say that this is what they want: an all powerful, imperial government capable of enacting whatever statutes it choose, without any consideration for constitutional limitations. This is what ObamaCare heralds. And ObamaLunch. And soon, ObamaCar.
If Obama wins the election, we will see ObamaCars driven by people with ObamaPhones getting an ObamaCheck and receiving ObamaCare. They will believe that it is Obama who has made their life livable. They will owe him their perpetual allegiance.
They will be slaves...
Slavery is a human institution grounded not necessarily in the physical chains we usually mentally associate with such oppression, but rather in the totalitarian impulse of the passive aggressive bully to control. Progressives, liberals, socialists, communists, watermelons, and postmodern feminist gender studies folks all tend toward that very passive aggressive to aggressive personality type. This impulse to manipulate and control people's mind is the very essence of slavery. You can have all the trappings of slavery you want, but at the end of the day, the slaves must know that they are slaves.
We are all slaves to the imperial federal government. Any free citizen who must work almost half the year to pay all of the taxes they owe for that year is not a free citizen. They are at best, indentured servants; at worst, they are outright slaves. And some among us are already bought, paid, and owned by the Democrat Party.
Reach out to your fellow citizens. Lead by example. Show what a citizen of a community does. Show how you do not lead from behind the way this President does. Show that you do not need a government official to sanction every action you take. Show that you believe in a country where the rule of law is paramount, free market principles are valued, and respect for the Founders brings us to a deeper understanding of the notion of freedom.
Otherwise, Forward to socialism.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Never too late...
To start over.
On this day, this day of days.
There have been enough remembrances, enough memorials. We have prayed. We have cried. We have tried to understand.
And we have waged war. The comparisons to 1984 and the condition of total, unending war against East Asia or Eurasia or at this point, does it really matter, are replete enough not to need mentioning. The jihadis wanted war. Well, war was what they got.
And the apoplectic Left continues to stay stuck in their Marxian-infused echo chamber. Over-sampling of Democrats in almost every poll? Pah, who cares about party identification, everyone knows that Democrats are the largest party.
The Marxian Echo Chamber is a dangerous place to be. For people who are trapped there, well, I have no pity for their intellectual dishonesty. They lie to themselves every single day. And they lie to everyone they encounter.
The strike in Chicago is a perfect example of the disfunction of the Left. How can teachers strike? How can employees of the public be allowed to strike? When will the supporters of the teachers realize that the children are what matters? When will we realize that life is too precious to be entrusted to ideological, illiterate fools who think that the public is their personal piggy bank?
On this day, this day of days, it is time that we stop memorializing. It is time that we stopped living in the past. It is time that we found a way to a new future. It is time to end the Image Age. It is time to fire the embodiment of the Image Age, President TelePrompter.
It is time not to move forward, but to change course. It is time not to move forward toward some vague dystopian nightmare, but into the light that is liberty. It is bright, and it is overwhelming, but liberty is not for the weak-willed. It is for the valiant.
On this day, this day of days.
There have been enough remembrances, enough memorials. We have prayed. We have cried. We have tried to understand.
And we have waged war. The comparisons to 1984 and the condition of total, unending war against East Asia or Eurasia or at this point, does it really matter, are replete enough not to need mentioning. The jihadis wanted war. Well, war was what they got.
And the apoplectic Left continues to stay stuck in their Marxian-infused echo chamber. Over-sampling of Democrats in almost every poll? Pah, who cares about party identification, everyone knows that Democrats are the largest party.
The Marxian Echo Chamber is a dangerous place to be. For people who are trapped there, well, I have no pity for their intellectual dishonesty. They lie to themselves every single day. And they lie to everyone they encounter.
The strike in Chicago is a perfect example of the disfunction of the Left. How can teachers strike? How can employees of the public be allowed to strike? When will the supporters of the teachers realize that the children are what matters? When will we realize that life is too precious to be entrusted to ideological, illiterate fools who think that the public is their personal piggy bank?
On this day, this day of days, it is time that we stop memorializing. It is time that we stopped living in the past. It is time that we found a way to a new future. It is time to end the Image Age. It is time to fire the embodiment of the Image Age, President TelePrompter.
It is time not to move forward, but to change course. It is time not to move forward toward some vague dystopian nightmare, but into the light that is liberty. It is bright, and it is overwhelming, but liberty is not for the weak-willed. It is for the valiant.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
