Fixing Education...

[waldopaper]

...as the Market marches toward the Future.


Is the “education system” in the USA “broken,” and if so, how does one “fix” it? By the standards usually applied in the USA to "efficiency, predictability. calculability and control," yes, it’s broken. The cost-per-student is going up; the “test scores” are going down. What to do? Simple: apply the tried-and-proven contemporary American method that is now applied to all “social problems:” make illiteracy a felony. Close all the schools and fire all the teachers. Think of the cost savings! Every person at age 18 takes a “standardized test” to receive their “Literacy Card.” All citizens over 18 must carry their Literacy Card along with their Proof of Insurance Cards.

What about the unemployed teachers? Naturally, they will join the “private sector” that will (or not) prepare U-18-yr-olds to take their test and get their Literacy Cards. For the Rich Shitpokes: no problem (as usual)… just pay 100,000 Ameros, and get a Literacy Card. Now: another 100.000 Ameros: Masters’ Degree. Another 100,000 Ameros, PhD. Problem solved: but remember—today’s “dollar” is worth about 10 Amero cents, so 100,000 Ameros is worth about a million bucks. Don’t have a million bucks? Well, better join “The System” and participate in “free-market Capitalism.” If you’re too stupid to pass the tests, you can always pay and become a “manager.” No big deal.

Really, this is no drastic change from what we have today. It’s just with the pretense of “democracy” we have to keep calling “The System” something else. We have to pretend that “merit” has squat to do with anything. But here is “reality:” you can pay to get your “credentials,” and still be an ignorant spud, but that doesn’t matter… you can be a “manager,” and not have to “manage” anything. Meanwhile, the stupid proles who actually have to figure out how to dig a hole and fill it in will be priced and relegated as a commodity: “Human Resources.” People who actually know how to DO something are a dime-a-dozen. Rich Shitpokes are rare. That’s the model.

It’s only a matter of time before most of us are either prisoners or guards. Oh, the Rich Shitpokes will need a few doctors to keep themselves healthy and a few scientists to develop snazzy new weapons and assorted technicians to run the drones and robo-cops. They will need people who know how to read instructions and follow them. They DO NOT need poor people who require any kind of assistance, sick people who can’t pay, and anybody who can or will not follow written orders. The Fats have the answers and they are using them now: poverty is already a crime. Sickness will soon become a crime. See what’s happening?

Neo-Feudalism: that is what is happening. 0.1% of the population is calling the shots, 0.1% of us are actually resisting them. That means that 99.8% of us are a bunch of clueless fucks that have no idea that the Fats intend to turn us into their serfs by any means necessary. There are hundreds of variations on this theme, ranging from those of us who know, but think we can avoid it to those of us who know and intend to become one of the well-paid “select few” who will gain our own fiefdoms by enforcing the will of the Fats. Do your own demo-psychographic math… but my own conclusion is that 80% of us are little more than mindless disposable cattle.

To put an uncomfortable point on the 80% theory, visit (or research) a factory meat-producing feed-lot operation that sells the cheap meat that most of us eat. Cruelty and brutality toward the “meat animals” surpasses imagination of most of the 80% who buy the shrink-wrapped package of flesh and feed it to their children. Even this picture ignores the plight of the “processors,” undocumented immigrants whose fingers and arms are just part of the cost of “production.” OK- so what are the 19.98% of us who are not pre-determined meat supposed to “do?” The first step is to know about the 0.1% calling the shots… and the second step is admitting that you are not in control.

We are flesh for the Fats. We are fodder for the rich fucks, “social Darwinists” and other pork-producers who have no trouble sending us down the chute because “it’s their job.” If you think “elections” or “your representatives” have anything to do with any of this, if you think that “government” even exists, you can happily look forward to your parts in their very own shrink-wrapped package sometime soon. They probably will not eat you. They will use the bodies you produce (your children and you) as tools to grow fatter. They will stop at nothing, and that’s the most important point: NOTHING. Birkenau, with its shoulder-deep human ash pits is child’s play. You aint seen nothing yet.

So this is how we solve “social problems” in the USA: make them illegal. Ship the “problems” off to a prison holding-pen work-camp, or to a “hospital” termination point, so what about “literacy?” What this means is people capable of reading instructions and following them. The “standardized tests” will weed out the very few who actually question the instructions. No Literacy Card, so off to prison. Do you think this is satire? Our pay-or-die “health care system” would have been considered satire not long ago. Just 20 years ago, a local councilman proposed rounding up the homeless and giving them one-way bus tickets. He was laughed out of office. Where are the homeless now?

Anyone who thinks a Nazi-Germany Redux is not possible today has not been paying attention. What we call “capitalism” has evolved into a system that rewards the most ruthless and amoral, remains benign toward conformity and complicity and it has been developing its prime specimen for centuries. Any US resident who thinks there is a “government” that can hold them in check is a walking meat-wad, pre-packaged in their slave-labor China-manufactured shrink-wrap from Walmart, walking toward the death-camp in their blinking-light basketball shoes. That’s about 80% of us, and 19.9% of us are making it happen. Why? Because it’s “our J-O-B,” as in- “Just Over Broke.”

Still think this is satire? Nobody batted an eye when it became policy to piss in a cup to get their J-O-B. “Laws” were passed making it “legal” to round you up… detain you indefinitely and torture a “confession” out of you. Was any of that on TV? “Wars” were ginned up on pretexts so thin, any literate person could see through them. Thanks to the “standardized tests,” most of us read the instructions and complied. We stuck the Chinese-manufactured flags and yellow magnets on our cars like good little meat-wads and never even thought about questioning any of it. “Watch what you say.” We gobbled our corn-oil peasant-chow and joined the parade. Still think this is satire?

Better start studying for your “Literacy Test.” Privatize the buggers and make them compete! Get the Unions out of there so teachers will have to work for minimum wage like everybody else… and be damn grateful they have a job AT ALL! Let the MARKET decide what’s to be taught and how… not a bunch of weeny-head academics! Market-driven curriculum is exactly what we have in “higher” education. The employers decide what they want their employees to know. That’s the deal: teach them what we want, and we’ll hire your graduates. Why not K-12? So I took it to the logical conclusion… dispense with “teachers” altogether and let children learn directly from the MARKET! And let’s end all “entitlements.”

Which is exactly where it’s going: your “tax dollars” DO NOT entitle you to anything… except staying out of prison… unless it has been decided otherwise. “Your money?” heh heh heh… do you see YOUR name on any of that dead-president paper in your wallet? No? That’s because it’s NOT “your” money. It’s the Federal Reserve’s money… which is a PRIVATE corporation like GOD intended! Responsible to its “shareholders,” and that aint YOU. When did a bunch of whiney “taxpayers” get the idea that paying taxes “entitled” them to “decide” ANYTHING? What’s that you say? You “worked” for it? Well, lah-de-dah.

You see, The System works this way: you work, you pay, you stay out of prison (until it’s decided that you don’t).

Arbeit Macht Frei.

[curt]

The solution, if not “All-American” then universal.

A way out? Not under globalisation. Resistance won’t go global.

“There’s a game out there, and the stakes are high”
“Cards to the gamblers”
“Hit me”
“Hit me, but not too hard”
“All aboard!” “Next stop New York, Atlantic Ocean and a Paris France” Johnny Got His Gun

it didn’t help him much.

Knowing

Shiny Black Stones, strange men. Numbers. Whisper.

Hold on to the railing, we’re in for a rough ride.

[Mark]

Spot on, Waldo.

When I posted about the Ward Churchill case there were some replies that illustrate your points:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/22728

My post got six good ratings, but only one of the six dared to post supportive comments.

As far as I can determine, those who object most strenuously to Prof. Churchills "little Eichmanns" remark, do so because they fancy themselves big Eichmanns, not little ones.

[waldopaper]

Well, ye contrary ol curmudgeon, how is it that YOU have not been banned from Snarking Chump yet? (NOT an ad-hominem attack, boss! Pleeez dons beets dis po ol nigga!!!) ... just a bit of harmless joshing... heh heh heh.

As for Churchill, I agree with most of what he says... BUT... I also think he was stupid not to back-pedal a bit on his "little Eichmanns" remark... you know- the buss boy, etc. But what the hell else could you call "stock-brokers" fully aware of the economic fraud THEY were committing... but like Eichmann, were merely bloodless opportunists and career bureaucrats?

What I saw in their objection(s) was to ham-handed lack of finesse on Churchill's part. And come on... you CAN'T believe that rule-of-law is will-of-the-majority. If that were true, we would be more deeply fucked than we already are. That IS mob-rule. I'm not saying that we have rule-of-law in the US... but we have, at times, approached it... as have other societies all the way back Confucius.

What we have in the US is rule-of-money... ironic... because "money" aint even real.

[Mark]

I don't post there very often, Waldo. I take offense at personal attacks from fascists. When brothers tell me to get fucked, that's just chit-chat because we have the ability to respond in kind to our peers.

Churchill, along with some other leading experts on genocide, appears to have a position that I agree with, which is that people guilty of greater crimes don't deserve apologies from those guilty of lesser crimes. A judge who may have taken bribes and done some illegal insider trading on the stock market, has the power to impose a harsh sentence on somebody who steals a pair of sneakers, but is in no way entitled to an apology or expression of remorse from that person. Those guilty of genocide, or of supporting crimes against humanity and opposing the Nuremberg Principles, can demand an apology from Churchill for rudeness, but I don't think they're entitled to one and apparently neither does he.

When I think of majority rule, I think of Venezuela. Obviously it wouldn't work in a country with a brainwashed fascist majority like the U.S. But I'm not really sure they're a majority. With corporate controlled media, politically controlled (for the most part) alternative media, military missions to dominate cyberspace, Burson-Marsteller astroturfers, and all the rest, what appears to dominate, at least in some cases, may actually be a minority. Look at the health care debate. First the government and industry tried to depict those who favor single-payer as a radical minority. When that didn't work, they resorted to silencing us by holding public forums and Congressional hearings where single-payer could not be mentioned and anyone who who brought it up was arrested. That didn't work either (they were running out of cops), so where it stands now is that Obama has admitted that single-payer is the best possible system, but insists that Americans do not deserve or cannot achieve the best. That's a rather untenable position for Mr. Hope-and-Change, but it's the most the industry will allow him, so everyone is fully aware of how the public will is being thwarted by corporate interests.

Yes, what we have here is rule of money, but that happens to literally be mob rule, if you define "mob" as being an organized crime syndicate like a multinational corporation.

[waldopaper]

Well, thank you Brother Mark... but I think you are cutting Ward Churchill and (humbly) me WAY more slack than we deserve... and being awfully harsh on Miss Marple (who used to annoy me greatly) and the "centrists" who simply do not understand (or maybe WE don't) the "radical" use of language.

I make a great distinction between the "centrists" (who are- after all, trying to be "reasonable") and the realpolitikers (who-IMHO-should be shot)... the former are struggling to be "objective," that is... trying to understand... and the latter are simply trying to "win." Social fucking Darwinists. Kill them. THAT will get their "attention."

I think you were awfully unfair to Marple (who used to annoy me greatly)... but I did not know that she had the mind of a Jurist. From her standpoint, Ward fucked up his argument... and I agree. HOWEVER... I agree with you... the "plagiarism" bullshit was just the Fatty's lame-ass excuse to get rid of him. IMHO... Churchill stepped on his own dick. And remember...

His Chickens-Roost essay was written freshly after "9-11" when most of us believed it was "blowback" (at least I DID)... and the prospect of "inside job" was way too far-out. The reaction to "9-11" since then seems to be a combination of incompetence and evil. The exact mixture is anybody's guess. One thing is lead-pipe sure: "they" hate us cos of our freedoms is bullshit... because we don't HAVE any...

...except what color of blinking-lights we buy on our basketball shoes at Walmart.

[Mark]

Uh, is there something "centrist" about rejecting the Nuremberg Principles? If so it escapes me completely.

I'm still struggling through the (imo) overly pedantic (but then how else could they get published, have credibility, and get academic credit?) essays in, Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance, and as best I can understand it, people want to be ignorant if it benefits them (there's a lot more to it, of course). I make an effort to learn stuff, because that's what I want to do. Others don't because they don't want to know.

So what you see as "centrists," I probably see as folks with their eyes shut and their fingers in their ears, screaming, "La la la la la --- I can't hear you!"

Focus, as in forest/trees, can be important in how we see things. The fatties kill millions of innocent people, steal trillions of dollars, destroy the planet, and then accuse Prof. Churchill of insulting a bus boy and a waiter. They can't deny that they've killed millions of innocent people and are still doing it, stolen trillions of dollars and are still doing it, destroyed much of the planet and are still doing it, so all they can do is look for something to accuse Churchill of. But for him to apologize to THEM? Even if he stepped on his own dick, Waldo, it's HIS DICK. The waiter and the busboy didn't die because of anything that Ward did. Whether the fatties killed them directly (inside job) or indirectly (blowback), they're still dead and it ain't Ward's fault. It is, no matter how it happened, the fault of the little Eichmanns.

Your centrists are my "good Germans." In a fascist bureaucracy, those who are just doing their jobs, at least according to the Nuremberg Principles, are not necessarily innocent and those who do nothing are enablers.

I used to be more tolerant. Before the 2008 election I thought of many of the people I know, some Progressive Democrats and local peace activists in particular, as reasonable people trying to understand. But when I pointed out to them that Obama was committed to wars of aggression (crimes against humanity) and begged them not to vote because both major candidates (the only ones with a chance of winning) were committed to genocide, and in my opinion, a person who is genuinely opposed to genocide, doesn't vote for it, they showed that all they were interested in was winning. They stopped talking to me, voted for Obama, and they don't feel any more guilty about it than Eichmann did.

So tell me, Waldo, do reasonable centrists vote in elections where the only possible outcome is continued wars of aggression (crimes against humanity)? Does refusing to vote in an election where continuing genocide is the only possible outcome, make me a wild-eyed radical? Am I unreasonable and beyond reasoning with? If genocide is the only option on the ballot with a chance of winning, do reasonable people have to vote for it?

What the hell is a "centrist" position with regard to genocide anyway? Not for it, but not against it?

I just watched a PressTV show that had keith harmon snow as one of their guests. It was about whether Israel is exploiting African countries. The other two guests were a Zionist and a centrist, for balance.

http://presstv.com/programs/detail.aspx?sectionid=3510534&id=100747#100747

I've also embedded it (or tried to anyhow) on my little forum where people can post comments:

http://noinnovember.ning.com/group/theconflictzone/forum/topics/is-israel-exploiting-african

Keith mentioned this Jewish guy who has a corporation in Africa, or something like that, who flew to Kinshasha (?) with some guy who is high up in or well connected to the Israeli government, and they had their meals flown in to them at the cost of about $2,300 a day. So the Zionist says that's just guilt by association. As far as the Zionist is concerned, neither the state of Israel, nor the guy connected to the Israeli government, nor the corporate fatty, would necessarily know that Africans are being exploited, and having thousand-dollar meals flown in doesn't mean they have any disrespect for starving Africans near where they are eating. Can't a couple of dudes just have dinner without being accused of exploitation or genocide? So what if the reason those Africans are starving is because that corporation is stealing their resources?

Keith, having been a genocide investigator for the UN in Africa, traces things back to their source. Wars? Okay, who is funding them and supplying the weapons? Corporate exploitation of people and resources? Okay, what corporations are doing it, who owns them, who are their largest stockholders, and do they have any connections to the governments that (usually through bribes, but also through military intervention when bribes don't work) helped those corporations get their concessions? Genocide doesn't just happen accidentally. Where there is genocide or exploitation, there are corporations and governments causing it and individual fatties in those corporations and governments who made it happen and benefit from it.

Funny, the little Eichmanns who are so concerned about the busboy and the waiter now, never gave a damn about them when they were still alive. The fatties can't really say that Churchill was wrong to call little Eichmanns what they are, but they managed to find two of their own victims who were collateral damage and got all self-righteous about it. But in opposing genocide it is the waiters and busboys of the world that Churchill is fighting for. Empty words of praise won't do anything for the world's poor, but opposing genocide and exploitation might.

Prof. Ward Churchill, having devoted his life to opposing genocide and exploitation, deserves all the slack I can cut him. MissMarple and her ilk do not. And you may be right that I've been cutting you more slack than you deserve--if that should turn out to be the case, I'll stop doing it. I admire what you write, Waldo, and respect your hard-earned wisdom most of the time, but there have been a couple of times I've seen you make more concessions to your so-called "centrists" than I thought appropriate. Like they say, there ain't nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead skunks, bro. ;)

[BO]

If you want to educate your offspring, you have to take matters into your own hands. Was telling my son about this book this weekend. Tis the only history/political science he needs to know and his daddy intends to test him on it. Funny thing though, he already knows half of it.

Damn right the institutions of 'the elites' will keep you dumbed down if you let 'em. Question is...is it right to ensure your kid's awareness when the majority of his peers would rather stay ignorant and believing in fairy tales?

What's worse...had a fight with (his) mom tonight. I mentioned wanting to life the life of a hippy. She cringed and said, "I don't want to look like a hippy, I want to stay middle class." I said, "I'm talking about a state of mind not a fashion makeover...you know, explore alternative lifestyles...try to live frugally and support the stuff that really matters. Drop out if we want to. Give our son an education outside of 'the system'."

Couldn't get anywhere. I feel ya Waldo.

The information is there. The opportunity is there. But the ship is fucking stuck on the rocks because we can't seem to lose the anchor.

"nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead skunks." So fucking true. But how do you get people to move when the tire is two inches from their faces?

[waldopaper]

Ok... ok... fuck a bunch of "centrists." Especially now when the Fats got us on a course that's so fucking extreme. Fuck anybody who can't defend themselves, take their shit by force and use it to get fat. I admired Churchill's original essay because SOMEBODY had to say that shit about "little Eichmanns."

Of course, that got everybody looking up his ass with a microscope... and surprise! His nappys were not fully-clean! Truth is "we" (the USA) had it coming. Double-ironic that "we" did it to "ourselves." Fact is... there is no "we." The Fats have piped so much bullshit into our heads over the past (1)50 years that we have no idea who "we" are. And I hear ye, Mark...

If only those with clean nappies speak, nobody's going to say shit.

[Mark]

Thank you, brother Waldo.

When the shit hits the fan, the fatties with blood on their hands and shit all over their faces do busy themselves with microscopes examining the nappies of anyone who mentions that the shit hit the fan. People tend to evacuate their bowels when they die, so if you kill a lot of people, there's gonna be a lot of shit, and some of it's gonna hit the fan, but it doesn't come from nappies, and it isn't civil or polite to mention where it came from.

I got me another "centrist" here. This one insists that he isn't trying to silence me, but he sure keeps trying to shut me up. And being me, every time he tries it, I throw in another shitload of stuff he doesn't want me to say. It sorta goes:

Centrist: It isn't helpful to our cause for you to post stuff like that.

Me: Oh? How about stuff like this [insert buncha shit], is that the kinda stuff it isn't helpful of me to post?

ROFL

When I was a kid, my folks got a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People. I was, and still am, an omnivorous reader, but I wondered, "Why in hell would anyone want to do that?" and never even looked at that book. I ended up with a few friends anyway, but they had to overcome my most strenuous efforts to dissuade them. As for influence, in our society that takes affluence, and I ain't got it. Half the people who've told me that something I wrote influenced them, didn't understand what I was talking about anyway.

BO, I went to a talk today by Amy Schrift. One of the things she mentioned was that the grow-your-own-food movement has gotten so big in Russia that they no longer have to import food. I guess they had no choice when their economy collapsed, there was no more middle class, and you grew your own or you starved. Some people, like Amy, can choose their own lifestyles, but most of us have our lifestyles thrust upon us. So there's no need to start some shit with your wife--it's one of those inviolable laws of the universe that if you just wait around, shit happens.You know those survivalist websites, where they're like Waldo said, "Fuck anybody who can't defend themselves, take their shit by force and use it to get fat"? And then there's Amy with 17 acres of jungle all to herself in Costa Rica, a machete, and nothing for anyone to steal anyhow.

[pan]

Mark, I followed your link and read the interchange between you and the "GE helped me recover from my stroke guy". A couple of responses:

Your internet persona is strong, bombastic, highly opinionated, aggressive and unrelenting. You do not demonstrate much tolerance for suffering fools gladly. It is unsurprising that you oftentimes are resisted on a personal level - even when people pretty much agree with your issues.

Though I have no disagreement with anything you wrote I understand the the question as to whether your intent is to convert the unconverted or preach to the choir. Your past writings have made me reconsider some things but then I wouldn't be considered a centrist by many. If your intent is to convert the unconverted "centrist" then you might want to reconsider your tack but if you see your role as jostling the ideas of some of the already reality based folks then keep on truckin'.

It was clear that Churchill's intent with the "little Eichmanns" comment was to be provocative. He and his supporters are disingenuous when they feign shock that the state-funded institution that depends upon grants from inbedded corporations would use whatever it could to punish him for his views that were worded to attract attention and create insult. I don't disagree with what he wrote and I think he was brave to write it precisely because the reaction was expected. Churchill was Chair of his program. He is not naive to the politics of academe.

You have chosen a role on the internet that is provocative - you shouldn't be surprised when the "centrists" are provoked. Many will not be at an awareness level to accept what you are saying - they need to be educated in a kinder, gentler way that doesn't disrupt all of their myths at once - but that is OK. Others can try to reach them.