Post by KSHP: The Furious Femme on Apr 28, 2011 11:34:53 GMT -8
welcome back to KSHP, your source for a complete stranger's raging opinionations.
Now folks, I wanna tell yall 'bout a dream I had last night.
Sound effect: awwwww
I was talking to someone of the next generation from my old high school. Now this young womanwas considered extremely bright by her teachers and peers and was on her way to earning a masters degree at a nice university. real success story
Well we were talking about some damn thing or another and somehow Nazi's got brought up.
This isn't the usettling part in case you were on the edge of your seats there
what was unsettling was that I discovered that she and her friend had no idea wtf I was talking about when I mentioned Germany.
seriously, they asked me to clarify... GERMANY
so I tried to explain that that's where the Nazi's came from.
Insert blank stares here. apparently they'd only ever heard the word Nazi in a Godwin context.
"you know, World War II?" I said, continuing to fish for any frame of reference. they didn't even know what the holocaust was! And they didn't see a reason to care. They'd heard maybe something about some of that, but really it was all stuff that only a history nerd would know.
pause
So what I'm telling you here, is that when Ahmedenijad,
no wait,
better example,
Mel Gibson is mentioned in the news as being a holocaust denier, these two have no sense of fucking context, nor the curiosity to find out more.
Long pause for effect
Sigh
I realized to my horror, folks, that schools had only gotten worse since I graduated and were now cowtowing to this mentality that actually knowing stuff was for an exculsive class of brainiacs and not the cool kids. 'cause hey, as long as we can say x number of our Alumni have gone on to major universities, why should we trouble them to actually KNOW things before they leave.
Now this may come as no surprise to you my dear listeners that I had never been a big history buff myself. not when so much has been fabricated or slanted, particularly against women and minorities..
sound effect of audience groaning
ok ok, so that's not the topic for today
but the point is I had listened, and what I knew was what anyone of a highschool education or more should certainly know.
so, naturally, being meddlesome and needing to therefore remedy this appauling situation, I began a basic runthrough of some of the major wars and political events that had shaped our modern world and even pointed out Germany on a map. I knew where to find Germany because, thanks to my producer, I had seen Bridget Jones's Diary part II.
they yawned and half listened politely enough, but I could tell I had simply fallen into that "alien" category of "history nerd". Just knowing this stuff made me less cool, and my uncoolness was potentially infectious if they dared to actually absorb any of this free knowledge I was offering them.
sigh
This dream really, folks, is really just a manifestation of what I already see happening.
Our children are being subtly beaten and intimidated away from the desire to add wrinkles to their gray matter. At least that's the age where it starts.
You wanna complain about the signs written in multiple languages to accomodate those who don't speak our country's unofficial language? sure that's easy to get on board with. nice clear cut "us vs them" lines.
what about the way that virtually EVERYTHING in our culture is being dumbed down to accomodate ignorance. Have you SEEN the Learning Channel lately? Fuck have you see TV lately?
Cause really it's about reaching the bigger audience. And the dumber it is the more people can comprehend it.
The powers that be, and I don't mean Fate or God or the gov'ment, I mean the entities which control the flow of information available to the mainstream public be they corporation or religion; they don't need you to be smart; shit, it actually helps them out more if you're not; what they need is people who have money and are willing to part from it.
and maybe this is just our own collective darkside manifesting through the natural consequences of our own social devices. maybe there is some entity or organization with the cunning and wickedness to pull this off, Maybe it's fucking aliens, who the shit knows. at the end of the day though what is certain here is that humans are being driven away from that fundamental curiosity, the desire to seek knowledge, to further ourselves. The very things that make us human are under attack and this is just one more frightening example.
I'm gonna take a break here folks. I'll be ranting a bit more hopefully about possible solutions and taking calls when we return. meanwhile, go get angry
Now folks, I wanna tell yall 'bout a dream I had last night.
Sound effect: awwwww
I was talking to someone of the next generation from my old high school. Now this young womanwas considered extremely bright by her teachers and peers and was on her way to earning a masters degree at a nice university. real success story
Well we were talking about some damn thing or another and somehow Nazi's got brought up.
This isn't the usettling part in case you were on the edge of your seats there
what was unsettling was that I discovered that she and her friend had no idea wtf I was talking about when I mentioned Germany.
seriously, they asked me to clarify... GERMANY
so I tried to explain that that's where the Nazi's came from.
Insert blank stares here. apparently they'd only ever heard the word Nazi in a Godwin context.
"you know, World War II?" I said, continuing to fish for any frame of reference. they didn't even know what the holocaust was! And they didn't see a reason to care. They'd heard maybe something about some of that, but really it was all stuff that only a history nerd would know.
pause
So what I'm telling you here, is that when Ahmedenijad,
no wait,
better example,
Mel Gibson is mentioned in the news as being a holocaust denier, these two have no sense of fucking context, nor the curiosity to find out more.
Long pause for effect
Sigh
I realized to my horror, folks, that schools had only gotten worse since I graduated and were now cowtowing to this mentality that actually knowing stuff was for an exculsive class of brainiacs and not the cool kids. 'cause hey, as long as we can say x number of our Alumni have gone on to major universities, why should we trouble them to actually KNOW things before they leave.
Now this may come as no surprise to you my dear listeners that I had never been a big history buff myself. not when so much has been fabricated or slanted, particularly against women and minorities..
sound effect of audience groaning
ok ok, so that's not the topic for today
but the point is I had listened, and what I knew was what anyone of a highschool education or more should certainly know.
so, naturally, being meddlesome and needing to therefore remedy this appauling situation, I began a basic runthrough of some of the major wars and political events that had shaped our modern world and even pointed out Germany on a map. I knew where to find Germany because, thanks to my producer, I had seen Bridget Jones's Diary part II.
they yawned and half listened politely enough, but I could tell I had simply fallen into that "alien" category of "history nerd". Just knowing this stuff made me less cool, and my uncoolness was potentially infectious if they dared to actually absorb any of this free knowledge I was offering them.
sigh
This dream really, folks, is really just a manifestation of what I already see happening.
Our children are being subtly beaten and intimidated away from the desire to add wrinkles to their gray matter. At least that's the age where it starts.
You wanna complain about the signs written in multiple languages to accomodate those who don't speak our country's unofficial language? sure that's easy to get on board with. nice clear cut "us vs them" lines.
what about the way that virtually EVERYTHING in our culture is being dumbed down to accomodate ignorance. Have you SEEN the Learning Channel lately? Fuck have you see TV lately?
Cause really it's about reaching the bigger audience. And the dumber it is the more people can comprehend it.
The powers that be, and I don't mean Fate or God or the gov'ment, I mean the entities which control the flow of information available to the mainstream public be they corporation or religion; they don't need you to be smart; shit, it actually helps them out more if you're not; what they need is people who have money and are willing to part from it.
and maybe this is just our own collective darkside manifesting through the natural consequences of our own social devices. maybe there is some entity or organization with the cunning and wickedness to pull this off, Maybe it's fucking aliens, who the shit knows. at the end of the day though what is certain here is that humans are being driven away from that fundamental curiosity, the desire to seek knowledge, to further ourselves. The very things that make us human are under attack and this is just one more frightening example.
I'm gonna take a break here folks. I'll be ranting a bit more hopefully about possible solutions and taking calls when we return. meanwhile, go get angry