You shouldn't feel too bad about still being on p. 91. I am about to move on to p. 92 :) but first:
Hedges says in the last paragraph (in reference to Adorno): "He knew that radical evil was possible only with the collaboration of a timid, cowed, and confused population, a system of propaganda and mass media that offered little more than spectacle and entertainment, and an educational system that did not transmit transcendent values or nurture the capacity for the individual conscience. He feared a culture that banished the anxieties and complexities of moral choice and embraced a childish hyper masculinity." We're there, aren't we? I suspect the use (and near worship of) standardized testing is very useful in making sure that teachers who might have a sincere desire to "nurture the capacity for the individual conscience" are kept from doing so. I recently wrote on my blog about what used to be possible before the current "fill in the bubble" method of education: The Teacher of a Lifetime Award. And coaches who were interested in mentoring boys toward manhood instead of just toward lucrative endorsements, didn't we use to have those as well?
That coach may be sleeping well for yet another reason. A conscience can be killed slowly over time. He may no longer have any need of making those excuses, or any others to himself.
I love the Franklin P. Adams quote. I wonder if we don't deny people something valuable by channeling them along in education and spoon feeding them the information. I wouldn't trade anything for the joy of discovery.
I'm guessing that we moved from a "God-respecting nation" to a Mammon worshiping one in a relatively short time due to a perfect historical and cultural storm. People left farms and moved to cities and so were separated from family wisdom and the feeling of community at the same time Madison Avenue gained powerful cultural influence. The sound advice and good examples of thrift, character, community involvement, personal responsibility, selflessness, and honesty weren't held up as ideal quality traits. The new values embraced by post modern families were about recreating the lifestyle in the images that were, for the first time, everywhere. Parents and grandparents who were no longer held up as paragons of virtue, but were now looked upon as quaint and unsophisticated. Along with that, government programs that were meant to be a safety net, probably allowed the most recent generations to emotionally and intellectually disassociate themselves from social problems. Taxes can became a sort of moral hall pass for not being too concerned about an aging relative or or hungry child at the bus stop. "There's a program for that."Even if people weren't saying it out loud, they were thinking it. They still are.
I thought that tiny bit of KR's speech might bother you. But in a hypothetical model we can imagine students able to choose a school where a particular learning style is focused on. That school might also be filled with teachers who enjoy that particular style of teaching. I'd like to see education move toward smaller, more diverse schools and the ability for students to choose a system that most speaks to their passions. Gever Tulley runs a summer program called The Tinkering School which is a good representation of a kind of education that kids are being completely denied in our overly safety conscious culture. Here's his video: 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do. This should be required viewing for all parents, especially the mothers of sons. Lots of people have passion and the imagination necessary for us to improve things, but much of it seems to be outside a system that is beholden to a variety of people and groups who have an interest in keeping things the way they are. Here's one man's vision for helping kids in his local community get the tutoring help they need: Once Upon a School relates the story of how Dave Eggers started 826 Valencia. The lack of passion, enthusiasm, and imaginative solutions is a big part of what's wrong within the traditional system.
Following a list of "human violations" by Giroux, Hedges says: "But we do not name them. We accept the system handed to us and seek to find a comfortable place within it. We retreat into the narrow, confined ghettos created for us and shut our eyes to the deadly super structure of the corporate state." (p. 92)
This morning on the news they were featuring the scores of people camping out around the country to be among the first in line for the Black Friday sales, which depressingly is now bleeding over into Thanksgiving day. One social commentator interviewed likened it to climbing Mt. Everest. Being able to get the best deal possible delivers a sense of "personal achievement" he said. Shopping is now PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT? Is this the "comfortable place" we've found? Is THIS how little we expect of our lives? Proud inhabitants of the aforementioned "ghettos created for us."
Martin Niemoller's famous quote needs to make the rounds again, it seems. From the TEA Party protesters to the Occupy Wall Street crowd many just want these complainers to go away (maybe so they don't have to think about some of the uncomfortable parts of the messages). When we are seeing campus police in riot gear pepper spray students who are involved in non-violent civil disobedience, we should all be extremely concerned. On the contrary, the reaction I've seen most often to that story is so much shoulder shrugging. That kind of complacency is dangerous, as you've pointed out.
So much more to say, but I should be cooking something! :)
Not what we say about our blessings but how we use them is the true measure of our thanksgiving. ~ W.T. Purkiser
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