Monday, June 30, 2008
100 years of the same damn mistakes...
Riverdaughter, who used to be on a local school board, offers a beautifully written piece on the horrors of her school's 1996 "Diversity Day." She sees a parallel between the "progressive" fools who alienated parents at that time and the arrogant, power-hungry pseudo-progressives who have alienated many Clinton supporters. I think her piece goes further: It illustrates how American leftists tend to annoy and outrage the very working class they hope to champion. And they've been pulling this crap for at least a century.
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8 comments:
"at least a century."
You have a longer time line than I do. I remember it from the 60s.
100 years of - what? Compulsory education? George Carlin was born early enough to be allowed to leave school in the 9th grade. My dad was permitted to leave after the 8th grade, after he mastered everything a citizen needs to participate responsibly and be productive. Francis Collins (director of the National Human Genome Research Institute), who led the Human Genome Project to its breakthroughs, was home-schooled until 6th grade. He says his mother had no idea how or what to 'teach', so she simply brought out the dictionary, and they took it from there. That's also how Malcolm X learned to learn when he was in prison, reading the dictionary. Doris Kearns Goodwin's father had been orphaned, separated from his sister until she was 18, left school after the 8th grade, passed a civil-service test, became a bank examiner for New York state, and taught Doris how to read the baseball box scores in the papers; also, he never manifested any of the so-called predictable effects of what must have been a sad and bereft childhood.
grayslady comment to Riverdaughter was cute.
It seems our society was shocked plenty: JFK, MLK, RFK, and in between, Richard Speck and Charles Whitman. Plus Vietnam.
You know, first there was the Kerner Commission's report (aka National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders), 1967-1968; and our society's hapless (but well-meaning) attempts to correct the inequities the report explained. Then there was Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and his counter-take on so-called causes of violence and poverty.
Yeah, I know: Doris Kearns Goodwin and Malcolm X's (auto) biographer, Alex Haley, both had their reputations tarnished from gotcha plagiarism charges.
Dimitri
So now the American left has been messed up for 100 years.
Is Obama too left, not left enough enough or what?
Too Christian, not Christian enough or Moslem?
You said Libertarians took over the Democratic Party.
But now you sound like a Libertarian joining that crowd in relating "diversity" nightmares.
Dimitri, none of what you say is relevant. If you think Riverduaghter was dissing compulsory education, then you are either nutty or deliberately missing the point.
Scott, you don't need to be a Libertarian to understand tht the schools have no right to FORCE parents and children into a thing like that.
J, in the 60s, Truffaut parodied this sort of thing in his film adpatation of Fahrenheit 451. You may recall the lady on the giant telescreen ordering viewers: "Hate hate. BE MORE TOLERANT -- TODAY!"
It was actually 90 years ago when we had the great example of how the rebellious left can transform into the totalitarian left. But in truth, the problem goes back further than 100 years. That is why, I think, Karl Marx -- toward the end of his life -- was given to mutterinig: "There's only one thing I know: I am not a Marxist."
It was exceptionally well written.
The whole business saddens me. I am watching while my American friends get steadily more irritated at the whole notion of racial injustice precisely cos some morons think they can foist views onto people rather than debate them. Its precisely the brand of ultra "left" nonsense that has the piss taken out of it on South Park. We are all in huge amounts of trouble.
Harry
Mr. Van Winkle (may I call you Rip?), sir: As I read Riverdaughter's complaint, I drew from it her displeasure at two points: the substitution of non-academic instruction for things like reading, math, languages, etc., and her school's attendance requirements for that 'Diversity Day', which included penalties for being absent. Of course, she intended her illustrations to serve as a metaphoric analogy for her current distress about the Democratic Party, and I merely wondered what your obscure allusion to "100 years of the same damn mistakes" pointed at. So, after all, it's Warren's masterpiece. Fine.
The Kerner Commission had the effect of altering the public school curriculum, particularly by shifting the old-fashioned punitive (including corporal punishment) paradigm into activities that would enhance so-called self-esteem. And since when is 'relevance' a blog-comment issue?
Dim
I don't know that it is embossed. If an inked version is legal, then the Obama COB may have been stamped.
Look, you would need to see the actual set-up. Thickness of paper, the type of stamp, how much ink was on the stamp -- exactly what kind of equipment was used. We don't know how easy it is for ink stamped into the reverse side to seep into the front.
Lacking that, all we have is a jpg. And a seal does show up in that. My argument is this: If a faker knew that a seal was SUPPOSED to be there, then he would have placed it on the image obviously -- visible to the naked eye -- as in DeCosta. And if a faker did NOT know about the seal, then no amount of image enhancement would give us any sign of one.
Whether or not the COB is embossed, I would never say any part of your comment is not relevant.
Dmytry
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