A fun day.
Feb. 2nd, 2005 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptIt's a veritable information dumping today! Since several things all decided to camp out on my doorstep, namely a lot of my newsletters and friendslist postings (mixed with my usual haunting at places out in the strange parts of the 'net) has provided me with more than enough material to get revved up over a number of topics. I think they may all have a twisty sort of relationship to each other.
The starting part is easy. Remember the guy who wants "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance? Well, since he was initially rebuffed for not being the right person to bring suit, he's decided not to let that get in his way and is going to try again. I have no problem with it. If he succeeds, okay. If not, I think he'll keep trying. Either way, I look on with amusement. There's a good chance he'll be crushed in the court of public opinion, perhaps because the media reality generator will ensure his swift demise as a credible person.
Now, if someone could only do the same to Microsoft. As it is, they're going to make it mandatory that you verify your Windows copy with them to access the full spectrum of their support. Major patches will still be free, so that they can't be accused of being a security risk, but they're pushing this on them. I don't particularly like the idea of Microsoft servers keeping track of what I've been loading and not loading... they might start arbitrarily charging for support, like many popular anti-virus programs.
Now would be a good time to learn how to kernel-hack, I think, and for somebody to put down a good Win-Emulator for Open Source software, so that I can play my Wingames on a different OS.
Today also marked a media release of what my professor was talking about on Monday - high schoolers don't know or don't care about the First, think that the government should be able to censor media (if they aren't already, I'd say), and think that the First doesn't protect the things it does, like flag burning or freedom of Internet speech (and action). Plus, the finding says that those who do journalism, First Amendment classes, or have student-run newspapers are more likely to know and apply these ideas to their own lives, resisting the school system's want to censor their expression. There's a few really good examples that one of my newsletters delivered to me today: Vermont kid's shirt (political) censored on "promoting drugs and alcohol" (a half-assed decision: kid doesn't have to censor the word cocaine, but does have to cover up the pill-popping image of Bush), L.A. girl punished for publishing material about what goes on in high school homosexuals' life, Virginia kid receives FBI visit after criticizing Marines (it's just as bad as the kid suspended for violent crayon drawings) , and the usual "parent concerns" censorship (this one's the girl's article. If you want the group that's asking the school to reconsider their book selections, click here)
These things annoy me greatly. The students do not set down their rights when they enter school - there's been at least one court case that upholds this idea. Students should be allowed to express themselves freely. If there are concerns about whether or not they will be inclined to violence because of poetry or images or speech, the answer is not a draconian "zero-tolerance" policy, but a careful evaluation of the situation and its context. If they aren't shooting the school, make sure they don't intend to, yes, but don't assume they're going to. It's like what happens in Iraq - some decisions have to be made whether or not to publish. (Publish, publish!) This is why I watch Newdow with interest - he talks about "Under God" and "In God We Trust" as violations of the establishment clause. I don't think he'll make it through the Court, if they decide to hear him, but he raises an interesting question. Can I say in the same breath that I want compulsory comparative religion courses and that I wouldn't mind if "under God" were taken out of the Pledge, or does that latter part irrevocably bind me to the opposition of whatever neo-conservative, zealous pseudo-Christian faction is currently in power?
Perhaps if we could just not let the media spin our reality for us...
Related, yet not, today we were talking about Beat culture again, and in an off-hand remark, I asked whether Beat was an American mid-life crisis. I drew a lot of laughs out of it, but the professor backed me up, saying that it very well could be, if we think of it as Jung originally intended. We got into a discussion about how we relate (and don't) to Beat - the idea of just running about the country, trying to find ourselves has a certain romanticized appeal, but we're all a bit too cautious to actually go out and do it. We've had it drilled into us that you just don't do such things if you want to be happy. Instead, you're supposed to get a job, have your 2.5 kids, and live in a suburb with a white picket fence and neighbors who think just the same way they do. Well, the whole corporate/job culture is, as it stands, a monster consuming our souls, at least to this author. And to Beat, as well. If Beat was the American mid-life crisis, and Hippies were the extension of Beat (so the second stage of it, maybe?), then America went through it, looked back saying, "Thank God that's over" and went about business as usual. Or that those who move the machinery did so, anyway. The impact was not felt at the places it was directed, not really, since the corporate conformity culture is really more tightly wound about us than usual.
College as the place where you discover yourself was contrasted with college as the place where you get yourself a degree and a job - both sides were in force there - many of the people said both views were presented to them, while some only had the job aspect presented to them. One of the foreign students (is there a better way to get that idea across, because "foreign student" implies a remoteness, an alienation, that really isn't felt) noted that in Russia, her homeland, the schooling system makes you choose a major in high school, and then prevents you from ever changing it once its decided. Much like the sorting that happens in other schools. I don't think that middle school, or even high school, is a proper time to be evaluating students on what they should be doing for the rest of their lives. She said that there were a lot of unhappy, unsuited degree-holders doing jobs they hated.
I let the class know about my unique experience - the MEMS degree being the result of my design to "take whatever damn classes I wanted to and figure a degree out later" - going to college to find myself, coupled against grad school, which will hopefully be me getting a Library Science Master's so that I do get a job. I hope it's the kind of job described as one that is loved so well that it is a joy to do the work, rather than the cubicle wage-slave that a lot of people are stuck with. And that I have enough deniability to practice esotericisms and anarchisms and attempts to open minds through the providing of information without having to justify myself to the local lynch mob (or have someone from the Community Oversight Group breathing down my neck - you know who I'm talking about). But that's another matter, for another day. Tomorrow, work, unfortunately. And I did promise myself that I would do some thesis revisions tonight. So it's post, then work, then bed. At a reasonable hour, unfortunately.
The starting part is easy. Remember the guy who wants "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance? Well, since he was initially rebuffed for not being the right person to bring suit, he's decided not to let that get in his way and is going to try again. I have no problem with it. If he succeeds, okay. If not, I think he'll keep trying. Either way, I look on with amusement. There's a good chance he'll be crushed in the court of public opinion, perhaps because the media reality generator will ensure his swift demise as a credible person.
Now, if someone could only do the same to Microsoft. As it is, they're going to make it mandatory that you verify your Windows copy with them to access the full spectrum of their support. Major patches will still be free, so that they can't be accused of being a security risk, but they're pushing this on them. I don't particularly like the idea of Microsoft servers keeping track of what I've been loading and not loading... they might start arbitrarily charging for support, like many popular anti-virus programs.
Now would be a good time to learn how to kernel-hack, I think, and for somebody to put down a good Win-Emulator for Open Source software, so that I can play my Wingames on a different OS.
Today also marked a media release of what my professor was talking about on Monday - high schoolers don't know or don't care about the First, think that the government should be able to censor media (if they aren't already, I'd say), and think that the First doesn't protect the things it does, like flag burning or freedom of Internet speech (and action). Plus, the finding says that those who do journalism, First Amendment classes, or have student-run newspapers are more likely to know and apply these ideas to their own lives, resisting the school system's want to censor their expression. There's a few really good examples that one of my newsletters delivered to me today: Vermont kid's shirt (political) censored on "promoting drugs and alcohol" (a half-assed decision: kid doesn't have to censor the word cocaine, but does have to cover up the pill-popping image of Bush), L.A. girl punished for publishing material about what goes on in high school homosexuals' life, Virginia kid receives FBI visit after criticizing Marines (it's just as bad as the kid suspended for violent crayon drawings) , and the usual "parent concerns" censorship (this one's the girl's article. If you want the group that's asking the school to reconsider their book selections, click here)
These things annoy me greatly. The students do not set down their rights when they enter school - there's been at least one court case that upholds this idea. Students should be allowed to express themselves freely. If there are concerns about whether or not they will be inclined to violence because of poetry or images or speech, the answer is not a draconian "zero-tolerance" policy, but a careful evaluation of the situation and its context. If they aren't shooting the school, make sure they don't intend to, yes, but don't assume they're going to. It's like what happens in Iraq - some decisions have to be made whether or not to publish. (Publish, publish!) This is why I watch Newdow with interest - he talks about "Under God" and "In God We Trust" as violations of the establishment clause. I don't think he'll make it through the Court, if they decide to hear him, but he raises an interesting question. Can I say in the same breath that I want compulsory comparative religion courses and that I wouldn't mind if "under God" were taken out of the Pledge, or does that latter part irrevocably bind me to the opposition of whatever neo-conservative, zealous pseudo-Christian faction is currently in power?
Perhaps if we could just not let the media spin our reality for us...
Related, yet not, today we were talking about Beat culture again, and in an off-hand remark, I asked whether Beat was an American mid-life crisis. I drew a lot of laughs out of it, but the professor backed me up, saying that it very well could be, if we think of it as Jung originally intended. We got into a discussion about how we relate (and don't) to Beat - the idea of just running about the country, trying to find ourselves has a certain romanticized appeal, but we're all a bit too cautious to actually go out and do it. We've had it drilled into us that you just don't do such things if you want to be happy. Instead, you're supposed to get a job, have your 2.5 kids, and live in a suburb with a white picket fence and neighbors who think just the same way they do. Well, the whole corporate/job culture is, as it stands, a monster consuming our souls, at least to this author. And to Beat, as well. If Beat was the American mid-life crisis, and Hippies were the extension of Beat (so the second stage of it, maybe?), then America went through it, looked back saying, "Thank God that's over" and went about business as usual. Or that those who move the machinery did so, anyway. The impact was not felt at the places it was directed, not really, since the corporate conformity culture is really more tightly wound about us than usual.
College as the place where you discover yourself was contrasted with college as the place where you get yourself a degree and a job - both sides were in force there - many of the people said both views were presented to them, while some only had the job aspect presented to them. One of the foreign students (is there a better way to get that idea across, because "foreign student" implies a remoteness, an alienation, that really isn't felt) noted that in Russia, her homeland, the schooling system makes you choose a major in high school, and then prevents you from ever changing it once its decided. Much like the sorting that happens in other schools. I don't think that middle school, or even high school, is a proper time to be evaluating students on what they should be doing for the rest of their lives. She said that there were a lot of unhappy, unsuited degree-holders doing jobs they hated.
I let the class know about my unique experience - the MEMS degree being the result of my design to "take whatever damn classes I wanted to and figure a degree out later" - going to college to find myself, coupled against grad school, which will hopefully be me getting a Library Science Master's so that I do get a job. I hope it's the kind of job described as one that is loved so well that it is a joy to do the work, rather than the cubicle wage-slave that a lot of people are stuck with. And that I have enough deniability to practice esotericisms and anarchisms and attempts to open minds through the providing of information without having to justify myself to the local lynch mob (or have someone from the Community Oversight Group breathing down my neck - you know who I'm talking about). But that's another matter, for another day. Tomorrow, work, unfortunately. And I did promise myself that I would do some thesis revisions tonight. So it's post, then work, then bed. At a reasonable hour, unfortunately.
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Date: 2005-02-03 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-02-04 10:22 am (UTC)