Wake Up and Smell the Noise

[eric144]

"Amazing, just amazing how the best and the brightest get themselves disproportionally born into a certain racial and social class! So why educate the masses at all?) "<br><br>That's a good description of the American education system. <br><br>The problem with the British system <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>was</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> that everyone was treated as though they would get a phd. The result was that they were taught things that were useless to them, the only beneficiaries being those at the top of the academic scale. It then went to the opposite extreme, now Blair is re-introducing selection.<br><br><br>The only way to do anything is to deal with the reality not ideology. The ideology of Thatcher/reagan which continues in full force today is to keep the masses as ignorant as possible so they could be controlled.<br><br>If there is an honest appraisal of student's abilities and desire to learn a particular subject, that is the only way forward. My suspicion having taught for a number of years is that there is a genetic component to academic (that's all) intelligence and that seems to be confirmed by recent (non fraudulent) studies of twins. <br><br>Social opportunity caused by wealth, high quality parenting and paid for education are obviously VERY significant factors also. <p></p><i></i>

[AnnaLivia]

for petessake nobody past sixth grade claims the founders were perfect, and everybody hates that they held slaves.<br><br>but it's just plain blindness or maybe staggering ingratitude not to give credit where credit is due. <p></p><i></i>

[eric144]

"but it's just plain blindness or maybe staggering ingratitude not to give credit where credit is due."<br><br>In my opinion they were traitors to their country (Great Britain) by taking French money, arms and massive military support from the French, Dutch and Spanish armies.<br><br>They supported the British army against the French in the preceding war but given a chance to stab their protectors in the back, did so with great relish. The war of independence had nothing to do with liberty, but was an economic coup by a bunch of aristocratic crooks aided and abetted by foreign powers.<br><br>Americans have been brainwashed into believing their founding myths thereby excusing themselves from their countless atrocities by imagining the country represents freedom and democracy when it literally never has. It's hard to believe many people outside the USA would believe it was a more civilised society than Canada.<br><br><br>The Demonic Cabal<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.hermes-press.com/cabal_index.htm">www.hermes-press.com/cabal_index.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br>The point of all this being the observation of outraged self righteous hubris that "America is under attack" on 9/11 and the subsequent slaughter in Afghanistan was a direct result of American's programmed view of their own history.<br><br>Literally nowhere on earth would almost anyone, never mind almost everyone believe the 'they hate our freedoms' motive for the alleged 9/11 attacks by muslims. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=eric144>eric144</A> at: 10/30/05 12:42 pm<br></i>

[Gouda]

eric, could you provide any evidence that the naturally gifted elite have achieved anything positive? I mean, must they continue to fool and manipulate and oppress and suppress the masses because they fear mass chaos and ineptitude - or do they fear mass organization, liberation, justice, and SUCCESS? <br><br>I think the aftermath of Katrina in NO provides a nice case study. There's quite a bit of realism to see (or ignore) there. <br><br>I think you are saying that the real smart guys are the ones who know how to manipulate to stay on top. They certainly are brilliant at that. But that ain't smart in my book. That's narrow, shallow, hollow, blind, fearful, dumb living. <p></p><i></i>

[eric144]

What I'm saying is that if there's a power structure, certain types of individual will try to control it. The more ruthless the better chance they will succeed.<br><br>It doesn't matter that there are some spiritually enightened individuals or humanists out there, they never get to the top. Even if they achieve something (like MLK), the result will likely be mass murders like Powell or psychopaths like Rice rather than another MLK.<br><br>I don't believe the average citizen wants liberty, they want their desires to be satisfied which is why they didn't protest much about Hitler or the even more horrific fascism coming to the Unted States soon. New Orleans was only a practice run.<br><br>Give them enough food, drugs, tv and a decent car and they're perfectly content to watch Iraqis die on the six o'clock news. A good example is the death sentence in Britain. It was abolished around 1960 but ever since a large majority of citizens have wanted it back. Thankfully their representativers are a bit more civilised.<br><br>A famous BBC political journalist (after retirement) said that you could say what you like about politicians but he would trust them more than the man in the street. <br><br>I suspect the simple reason is that they have more money. I also (for example) believe that's the reason that the United States turned out (even initially) so badly. The British elite <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>inherited</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> stolen wealth, they didn't have to steal it themselves. I also suspect that's what motivates scum like Rumsfeld, Cheney and the Bushes. They're incredibly poor compared with the real wealthy.<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=eric144>eric144</A> at: 10/30/05 1:08 pm<br></i>

[eric144]

"eric, could you provide any evidence that the naturally gifted elite have achieved anything positive? "<br><br>A simple example would be the abolition of slavery in the UK (and by extension worldwide) 30 years before the American civil war. Another would be the stupendous social advances of Victorian Britain. Not to say it was anything more than a hell hole for those at the bottom even after the improvements ! <p></p><i></i>

[Gouda]

My my. Thank you, Sir, for further clarification of your position and learning. <p></p><i></i>

[banned]

" I don't believe the average citizen wants liberty, they want their desires to be satisfied which is why they didn't protest much about Hitler or the even more horrific fascism coming to the Unted States soon. New Orleans was only a practice run.<br><br>Give them enough food, drugs, tv and a decent car and they're perfectly content to watch Iraqis die on the six o'clock news."<br><br>As the Romans would have said, Quod Erat Demonstrandum.<br><br>And probably, Res Ipsa Loquitur.<br><br>The responsibility for the atrocities of the American government rests with the American people. If you don't know who that is, mosey into your powder room and take a gander in the mirror.<br><br>We have met the enemy and s/he is us, as Pogo said 3 decades ago.<br><br>No one can change it except us. By vote or by force.<br><br>And then we have much apologizing and restitution to make to peoples in the rest of the world for all those years that we feathered our own nests while our government fouled theirs.<br><br>FUCK this American bullshit about playing dumb (or actually being willfully dumb) and blaming it all on their leaders.<br><br>Until the American people are willing to eat their humble pie--flavor, crow--nothing will change. As long as we want to maintain our illusion that we are special, and that we are good people who meant well but our nasty leaders snuck around and did all that stuff and what could we do...in short, until we suck it up and take responsibility, we're as guilty as our leaders. <br><br>Back to Latin: Qui tacit consentit. <br><br>Resist them, or admit you're one of them and accept moral responsibility for what they do.<br><br>"FUCK YOU I'M NOT GONNA DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!" <br>Rage Against the Machine<br><br>---<br>By the way, I saw an interview with Bono--what a maroon! He's sure pulled the wool over his own eyes.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[eric144]

Banned<br><br>That's all completelytrue, but most Americans believe muslims carried out 9/11 and Saddam Hussein wanted to kill their children. They're ignorant because the media doesn't serve them, but the masters.<br> <p></p><i></i>

[banned]

...any more than we can blame the politicians.<br><br>The American people have access via books and foreign newspapers and the Net to views other than the MSM which are actually very easily avoided--I haven't watched the nightly network news since Walter Cronkite retired, don't have cable, and in fact didn't watch TV at all for over half a decade; I rarely pick up a hard copy newspaper or newsmagazine unless it's the CSM or The Economist or I want to read "Get Fuzzy" or check a movie time.<br><br>The American people have made a choice to ignore all these bountiful sources of alternative information and park their carcasses in front of the talking heads that parrot the official line, or skim a shit paper like, oh, the SF Comical and its hash of AP wire stories and think they are knowledgeable about what's going on in the world.<br><br>Stop letting us off the hook! We have the media we do because we don't hit the OFF button and send them a message. <br><br>I don't think the Americanpeople turn to the media to find out the truth about their world. If they wanted that they would study history, geography, economics, learn about other cultures, travel, talk to people. I think they turn to it to confirm what they already believe because they want and need to believe it to maintain the fiction that they aren't just like the "Good Germans" of the 1932-1945 period.<br><br>Who btw had a fuckuvalot better excuse to say "WE DID NOT KNOW" than the Americans do. <p></p><i></i>

[banned]

...I believe has to do with the issue of locus of control. <br><br>You ascribe an external locus of control to the American people (at times anyway, other times you blame them for being bought off into apathy). It's the politicians, the media, that dictate their failure to oppose BushCo and the roll-over-play-dead Dems.<br><br>I ascribe an internal locus of control to people. They do what they do because they want to do it, they choose to do it. For gain, out of fear, out of laziness...motives are many, but they, not whatever the forces "out there" are doing, control.<br><br>Some people see Bush as aberrant, a cancer on the country who needs to be removed.<br><br>I see Bush as the distillation of all that is dark, wrongheaded, evil, in the American character. Cut him off but not the forces he draws his power from, and we'll just have another one like him. <p></p><i></i>

[eric144]

" see Bush as the distillation of all that is dark, wrongheaded, evil, in the American character. Cut him off but not the forces he draws his power from, and we'll just have another one like him. "<br><br>Me too.<br><br>"For gain, out of fear, out of laziness...motives are many, but they, not whatever the forces "out there" are doing, control."<br><br>That's human reality, I'm pretty lazy in a lot of ways too. <p></p><i></i>

[banned]

...my idea of the good life is lying in a hammock on a beach with a good book in one hand and a lemonade in the other.<br><br>But when a bunch of fucking lunatics are trying to turn the world into little islets of conspicuous consumption surrounded by slaves living in destitution, it kinda gets me off my ass. <p></p><i></i>