The Decaying Evolution of Education...

[LizzieMaine]

I think if I live long enough to see a real revolution in this country, it won't be instigated by film school students. It'll be instigated by ordinary people being *personally affected* by what needs to be revolted against -- and by affected, I don't mean inconvenienced or annoyed, I mean people sleeping in the streets, going hungry, realizing that their Ph. D doesn't entitle them to be in the front row when it comes to pawing thru the dumpster for a chunk of bread with no mold on it.

One of the unfortunate aspects of our modern age is the superficiality of "empathy" among just about every class of people. We live in a world, today, where people are sleeping in the streets, going hungry, pawing thru dumpsters, and by and large, as long as we're not personally involved, it's not our problem. I've stood in the lobby many times watching people come tutt-tutting out of searing documentaries about these issues, muttering "powerful film, powerful film," and shaking hands with the director and telling him how powerful his vision is. And then they get in their Lexuses and drive off to meet their dinner reservation at Primo. Their empathy goes as deep as a movie ticket, which is to say not at all. Of such is not a revolution made.

So we wait for the bottom to fall out, and think about what side we'll be on when it does. And in the meantime. we find things to laugh at, just to maintain our sanity.

 

[Harp]

The funny thing was when I went through Army ROTC, they paid us a monthly stipend. the silly thing was it hadn't changed at all since Vietnam.
Worse still, I was 28 when I pinned on...

You were a 28 year old Second Lieutenant?

 

[philosophygirl78]

I think if I live long enough to see a real revolution in this country, it won't be instigated by film school students. It'll be instigated by ordinary people being *personally affected* by what needs to be revolted against -- and by affected, I don't mean inconvenienced or annoyed, I mean people sleeping in the streets, going hungry, realizing that their Ph. D doesn't entitle them to be in the front row when it comes to pawing thru the dumpster for a chunk of bread with no mold on it.

One of the unfortunate aspects of our modern age is the superficiality of "empathy" among just about every class of people. We live in a world, today, where people are sleeping in the streets, going hungry, pawing thru dumpsters, and by and large, as long as we're not personally involved, it's not our problem. I've stood in the lobby many times watching people come tutt-tutting out of searing documentaries about these issues, muttering "powerful film, powerful film," and shaking hands with the director and telling him how powerful his vision is. And then they get in their Lexuses and drive off to meet their dinner reservation at Primo. Their empathy goes as deep as a movie ticket, which is to say not at all. Of such is not a revolution made.

So we wait for the bottom to fall out, and think about what side we'll be on when it does. And in the meantime. we find things to laugh at, just to maintain our sanity.

Whether you drive a Lexus, Maz, or beat up Toyota, does not make you more guilty than another to ignore the very real problems you mention. It is a difficult question to ascertain: who is truly at fault or holds the 'most' responsibility for the above stated issues.... Whoever it is, there is one fundamental reality: whoever is placed in charge of reform, assistance or programs, needs to have a thorough understanding of economics, finance, and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the groups who most often cry for that change are faulty in that aspect of education...

 

[p51]

The internet has bred "slactivism" to a degree where people think clicking, 'like' on someone's Facebook page is the same as actually doing something. Revolution? You're not going to see one because the majority of people have insulated themselves so thickly that they have no intention of every helping with any change, just as long as their facebook is still getting freinds and likes...

You were a 28 year old Second Lieutenant?

Yes, yes I was.
They thought I was a crazy old man, humping through that course at that age. the next youngest guy in my commissioning group was over 5 years younger and he was a prior service SGT.
I remember getting ready to do a PT test once and the SGT grader asking me age. I was 27 at the time, and he yelled out, "Hey, does anyone have the rest of the APFT chart? He's older than the last age I have on my grid!" They'd cut off the right hand of the age grid as the majority of cadets of course were in their teens and very early 20s.
I was older than all but one of the Company Commanders I served under and several of the staff officers, too. They all assumed I was prior service though most never asked.
I think it served me well because people, for the most part, assumed at the least I'd lived more life than your standard 2LT...
I pinned on 1LT on my 30th birthday, by the way.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I think if I live long enough to see a real revolution in this country, it won't be instigated by film school students. It'll be instigated by ordinary people being *personally affected* by what needs to be revolted against -- and by affected, I don't mean inconvenienced or annoyed, I mean people sleeping in the streets, going hungry, realizing that their Ph. D doesn't entitle them to be in the front row when it comes to pawing thru the dumpster for a chunk of bread with no mold on it.

One of the unfortunate aspects of our modern age is the superficiality of "empathy" among just about every class of people. We live in a world, today, where people are sleeping in the streets, going hungry, pawing thru dumpsters, and by and large, as long as we're not personally involved, it's not our problem. I've stood in the lobby many times watching people come tutt-tutting out of searing documentaries about these issues, muttering "powerful film, powerful film," and shaking hands with the director and telling him how powerful his vision is. And then they get in their Lexuses and drive off to meet their dinner reservation at Primo. Their empathy goes as deep as a movie ticket, which is to say not at all. Of such is not a revolution made.

So we wait for the bottom to fall out, and think about what side we'll be on when it does. And in the meantime. we find things to laugh at, just to maintain our sanity.

" A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." - Mao Tse Tung -

 

[philosophygirl78]

I think if I live long enough to see a real revolution in this country, it won't be instigated by film school students. It'll be instigated by ordinary people being *personally affected* by what needs to be revolted against -- and by affected, I don't mean inconvenienced or annoyed, I mean people sleeping in the streets, going hungry, realizing that their Ph. D doesn't entitle them to be in the front row when it comes to pawing thru the dumpster for a chunk of bread with no mold on it.

One of the unfortunate aspects of our modern age is the superficiality of "empathy" among just about every class of people. We live in a world, today, where people are sleeping in the streets, going hungry, pawing thru dumpsters, and by and large, as long as we're not personally involved, it's not our problem. I've stood in the lobby many times watching people come tutt-tutting out of searing documentaries about these issues, muttering "powerful film, powerful film," and shaking hands with the director and telling him how powerful his vision is. And then they get in their Lexuses and drive off to meet their dinner reservation at Primo. Their empathy goes as deep as a movie ticket, which is to say not at all. Of such is not a revolution made.

So we wait for the bottom to fall out, and think about what side we'll be on when it does. And in the meantime. we find things to laugh at, just to maintain our sanity.

I would also go as far to state that there is very little sanity, if any left, on a social scale...

 

[Harp]

I think it served me well because people, for the most part, assumed at the least I'd lived more life than your standard 2LT...
I pinned on 1LT on my 30th birthday, by the way.

I never knew a 2nd LT older than 23; one, a 21 year old lasted three days.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I would also go as far to state that there is very little sanity, if any left, on a social scale...

Sanity is subjective, though I often question my sanity & sometimes it replies..

 

[Bolero]

Incredible amount of meaningless Minutia being posted here....
Bottom Line...Our American Educational system K thru 12 and on into College has been reduced to a Ninth grade HS level compared to the 1950's early 60's. maybe even lower.
Education today as well as in 1960's comes down to Parenting and Ones ability to Think Out of the Box on ones own initiative ...
Flame away...

 

[philosophygirl78]

Incredible amount of meaningless Minutia being posted here....
Bottom Line...Our American Educational system K thru 12 and on into College has been reduced to a Ninth grade HS level compared to the 1950's early 60's. maybe even lower.
Education today as well as in 1960's comes down to Parenting and Ones ability to Think Out of the Box on ones own initiative ...
Flame away...

Ninth grade is a stretch....

 

[philosophygirl78]

Sanity is subjective, though I often question my sanity & sometimes it replies..

Everything is subjective...

 

[p51]

I never knew a 2nd LT older than 23; one, a 21 year old lasted three days.

'Nam, I assume?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The internet has bred "slactivism" to a degree where people think clicking, 'like' on someone's Facebook page is the same as actually doing something. Revolution? You're not going to see one because the majority of people have insulated themselves so thickly that they have no intention of every helping with any change, just as long as their facebook is still getting freinds and likes...

That is exactly right. You cannot shame the bourgeoisie into a revolution, because the bourgeoisie *has* no shame.

Some first-class comedy has been written about this fact, too. The Marx Brothers built much of their career ridiculing bourgeois complacency in all its many facets -- they weren't any relation to that other Marx, but old Karl would have found them very entertaining.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Incredible amount of meaningless Minutia being posted here....

Good point, let's talk about the length of zippers and the ribbing of hat band ribbons instead.

 

[Bolero]

Touche... although not really sure you get my point anyway...

I also forgot to add to my Post that "Left Wing Liberalism" and "accompanying Left Wing Idealog" has been the main reason for the "Lowering of the Standards" for Teaching Degrees and Law Enforcement Requirements... since the middle 1960's...and so it goes.

 

[philosophygirl78]

Elites and vested groups have much more control than either side of the spectrum... Nothing happens by accident.... There are no dummies in power.... The only sucklings are the consumers and ones who bite either side of the apple with ferocity... Although, one side is a bit more bitter than the other, that's for sure....

 

[LizzieMaine]

And to think my high school principal was a Bircher. Ah, happy days.

But for what it's worth, I can think of no class on earth more complacently bourgeois or less likely to have anything to do with any actual blood-and-sweat revolution, than modern academia. Those who fear its clammy touch around their throats one night may sleep easily.

 

[Fading Fast]

" A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." - Mao Tse Tung -

And, after he succeeded in leading a class revolution, he probably racked up the largest mass murder rate of any human being on earth ever, which means he topped Stalin and Hitler, two other revolution leaders.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

One of the great ironies of history is that those who set out to create a Heaven on Earth ended up unleashing the exact opposite instead.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

If you don't learn at least one new thing every day of your life, you're just not paying attention.

I recently saw the new Star Wars film at a cinema in East L.A. and it had subtitles in Spanish. As distracting as it was I did learn a new Spanish word: charraterra.