Neanderpundit

On a Thursday in june (no! Wait! in July!)
a Zonker I know caught some slings going by
As an arrow or two
Zoomed right over his head
“I must stop this now,
or I soon will be dead!”
he thought and he puzzled
at what he should do
and who should be muzzled
and punished (times two)
He smiled as he thought
gave his fingers a snap
he slipped on his shoes
and he grabbed his red hat
He visited Vman and Ellison and Cat
he told them all stories of fire and of fat
he cursed his opponent
and asked for their help
they jumped up and pointed
and said with a yelp
“You fight your own battles
you ungratrful dope!
we have no bad blood
between us and chou chope”
then Zonker returned
slinking, back to his lair
and wondering why he
had had no luck there
he logged in to MT
and posted some drivel
then went off to bed
began softly to snivel
“I must stop this war
so I don’t get delinked”
then he looked out the window
and quickly he blinked
“There’s a whole crowd of people
out on my front lawn”
so he rolled up a blunt
and said ” Fuck it, till dawn”

If I had, I’d know that the three positions on my fuel petcock
(RES, ON, PRI) meant, in this order, “Reserve”, “Normal operation”, and “Fill your crankcase with gasoline”

SHeesh, I hope to hell I’m getting done with this, I want to RIDE this damned thing.

Here’s a guy (Mike Strickler) who seems as if he’s a decent teacher. He seems to care about his students. He seems to have done a great deal to make sure his students can find, learn, and comprehend the subject material. Hell, I WISH I’d had a couple teachers like that in my high school years.

Problem is, when confronted with a group of facts that don’t jibe with his own worldview, he just shuts down and ignores them. SO even the (supposed) best teachers have issues, and in this case, some MAJOR issues.

So now imagine a student in a class like this. He finds fault with his instructors but he knows that if he doesn’t do the coursework as the instructor expects it to be done, he has a bad or failing grade. He has a LOT of instructors that are like this, but over the course of his edcation, most are worse, if anything. He enters college, and finds that the situation has become, if anything, worse. His teachers in college fight conventional wisdom to jam ever increasing bullshit down his throat, and it’s not all political. Each teacher has a huge bias toward his own pet theories, and most of those theories are bullshit, because if they were of any value, they’d be working inb their industry instead of teaching. Rather than being told to seek out the truth for himself, the student is forced to learn complex (and conflicting) theories about what is and what isn’t reality. Upon entering the working world the person has a headful of information thaty he will never use because he has learned almost nothing useful and almost everything he needs to know he will learn on the job in the first six months to a year. And usually, because he’s fought his way through an inept and inneficient eduacational system designed to produce copies of itself rather than productive individuals, he will cease to attempt to learn anything new. You know the face of this guy pretty well, because you see him a lot- he’s your doctor. Or your lawyer. Or your accountant. Or you. Have you broken out of the mold that made you who you are, and enabled yourself to question everything, to open your eyes to the “other” realities to the world, or when confronted with something that challenges your worldview, do you dig in your heels and stop the discussion because you refuse to look at anything that might change your mind? Look hard at yourself. It’s quite difficult to do. Do it, and you’re a human. Don’t, and you’re just another manufactured sheep.