#1 2011-08-26 14:23:48
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … 89790.html
Read the rest of the article if you like, but the first paragraph is what caught my eye.....
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#2 2011-08-26 14:33:23
"We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about 18 where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique."
Ah - Fuckingmen... this nails it. All I have to do is look at the wreckage in my family over the generations that military life imposed. My family had it's share of lifers, damaged goods and social dreck which I think directly stems from the culture of the forces.
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#3 2011-08-26 14:57:36
Yeah, time once again for the the myth of the Independent Man.
Tell me you didn't plot the mortar telemetry on that eyesore in high school. Why yes, as a matter of fact, I did.
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#4 2011-08-26 16:52:26
Dmtdust wrote:
"We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about 18 where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique."
Ah - Fuckingmen... this nails it. All I have to do is look at the wreckage in my family over the generations that military life imposed. My family had it's share of lifers, damaged goods and social dreck which I think directly stems from the culture of the forces.
One problem: Unique != special
Every single turd is unique, but there's nobody who is likely to call one "special".
I think the same can be said of human beings.
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#5 2011-08-26 17:44:27
peco wrote:
Every single turd is unique, but there's nobody who is likely to call one "special".
How 'spatial?
Presenting Bill Hicks, here on old trope day.
Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs
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#6 2011-08-26 21:05:08
Teaching kids to teach themselves isn't rocket science but our once peerless public schools have now spawned two generations of the unreachably ig'rant...
We should provide these hapless scholars with a High Street approved reading list.
Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs
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#7 2011-08-26 21:18:03
choad wrote:
Teaching kids to teach themselves isn't rocket science but our once peerless public schools have now spawned two generations of the unreachably ig'rant...
If I were the type to believe in conspiracy theories, this is the one I'd believe. A dulled, ignorant, uncurious population is of great benefit to those in power.
P.S. It's spelled "ig'nant."
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#8 2011-08-26 21:20:29
John Taylor Gatto.
Look him up.
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#9 2011-08-26 22:10:50
XregnaR wrote:
John Taylor Gatto.
Forget the classroom, that's a given. What I had in mind was maybe too ambitious; a list of books or shorter works all kids should read.
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#10 2011-08-26 22:22:24
The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guinn
The White Goddess - John Graves
The Collected Poetry Of William Butler Yeats
The Collected Poetry Of Allen Ginsberg
For Starters.
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#11 2011-08-27 00:04:54
We Have Always Lived in The Castle - Shirley Jackson
Grapefruit - Yoko Ono
Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
1984 - George Orwell*
*Don't look so shocked.
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#12 2011-08-27 01:08:17
XregnaR wrote:
John Taylor Gatto.
Look him up.
Another John Taylor Gatto fan.....
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#14 2011-08-27 04:04:47
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (for the pessimists) or Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (for the optimists)
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