An Introduction to Interdimensional VIllainy

Monday, April 2, 2018

Why we are Helpless

I have lived on this planet for approaching thirty eight years.

In that time, I've done some pretty cool things. I've written a few novels (not published, but written). I've run several half-marathons (not full marathons, half marathons). I've earned two first degree black belts (first degree, keep your pants on). I've camped without a tent in mid February.

And most of this has nothing to do with my schooling. School has taught me a great many things, how to take tests, how to switch tasks on command of a bell, how to manage a nine to five workday with lunch and coffee breaks. Oh yes, and I learned a bunch of trivia questions answers to random subjects. I have been prepared should I ever land on Jeopardy.

By the age of fifteen, in traditional cultures, I'd have been prepared to live as a self-sufficient member of the tribe. I'd have been a warrior and a hunter, at home in the world. We could do the same job preparing our children for the world we live in. We don't do this. And why don't we? Why was I, instead, still basically a child at eighteen?

Look back a few hundred years for the answer. Peasants and aristocracy could be trained from day one. You knew your lot in life based upon your birth. Hell, the modern rich and powerful still do this frequently, knowing the jobs they will grow into and the path they will take. But the peasants have rebelled enough times, and chopped off enough rich heads, that they are now told they can be whatever the like and whatever they can achieve.

Given the power imbalance, ninety some percent will still end up as what basically amounts to peasants. And this is required for the system to function. So how do you turn children into Peasants, while convincing their parents that you're giving them a sporting chance? Of you're part of the rich and beautiful; how do you convince the poor to do your labour and fight your wars, and do so without dragging you to the guillotine?

If your rich and beautiful of Prussia, you invent the modern compulsory school system for purpose of turning your peasants into loyal soldiers and obedient workers (this is why kindergarten is named using the German word for child garden). The purpose of the schooling is the format of the schooling itself.  The bells and coffee breaks, the changing shifts, and the adherence to authority and the submission to outside testing; these are the real curriculum. But what then should the would be workers and soldiers be taught in the official curriculum, if said curriculum is purely a show designed to keep the adult peasants from rising up in rebellion?

Teach them to memorize jeopardy trivia. Teach them to answer game show questions during the time when they would previously have learned to be a hunter and a warrior. Teach them to answer pointless questions for authority figures on command when the could have been learning how to live free and walk away. Teach them skills thst only work in the class room and instincts that leave them only prepared for life as a wage slave.

Alex, I'll take Capitalist Shell Game for 600.

Life is short
Work is crap
Join my cult

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