[kj] CRASS commercialism!

[The Exorcist]

If only he listened to his own advice.

I'd think an intellectual would have an open mind and be open to 
debate, honesty and admit if he/she was wrong.
He unfortunately has one way tunnel vision and can wax effusively 
about his cherished ideals but will
shut down his mind to anything else.

He might have a bright mind but he is still a pompous ass.

As you can clearly see, I have a great dislike for the fellow and my 
bias easily shows, however
I just felt like putting in my 2 cents.

Sincerely,
Me


At 08:37 PM 6/3/2008, B. Oliver Sheppard wrote:

>B. Oliver Sheppard wrote:

>

>"No one ever said he was a church mouse. He isn't one, thank god."

>

>

>

>

>

>In fact, here's a recent piece about Chomsky, and this is why I love 

>that 80 year old bastard. Like I said, he's no shrinking violet; he 

>takes an opportunity he can to speak to others. Here, he basically 

>conference-called a high school class, told them over speakerphone 

>the scholl was pretty much training them to grow up to be tools:

>

>http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=192670&src=5 

><http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=192670&src=5>

>

>*Linguist gives students lesson in free thinking

>Dundee-Crown talks politics with MIT professor*

>

>By Emily Krone | Daily Herald Staff

>Published: 5/17/2008 12:16 AM

>

>In a second-floor classroom at a Carpentersville high

>school, one of America's most renowned free-thinkers

>warned about 40 assembled students that the American

>public school system conspires to blunt their

>creativity and engender their obedience.

>

>Via speakerphone from his office at the Massachusetts

>Institute of Technology, linguistics professor Noam

>Chomsky told Dundee-Crown High School students that a

>two-tiered educational system exists: While the elite

>attend schools that promote critical, independent

>thought, the masses attend schools that train students

>to pass tests and follow orders.

>

>

>

>The system evolved after the Industrial Revolution,

>Chomsky said, when the ruling elite recognized the

>need to transform independent artisans and farmers

>into pliant factory workers.

>

>Today as then, Chomsky said, the imperative is the

>production of a docile work force that will perpetuate

>the status quo.

>

>Many public schools teach students that "the highest

>aspiration is to be a nurse or a policeman," Chomsky

>said. "It's indoctrination: That's my place in life.

>That's the way the school system works."

>

>But Chomsky's claim that schools don't promote

>critical thought was undermined by the willingness of

>Community Unit District 300 officials to facilitate a

>dialogue with the radical provocateur for the second

>time this school year.

>

>Chomsky agreed to chat regularly with Dundee-Crown

>students after Bruce Taylor, a social science teacher

>at the high school, last year crashed his Boston

>office and engaged him in a conversation.

>

>"I guess it left an impression," Taylor said.

>

>Chomsky's first phone discussion with Dundee-Crown

>students earlier this year drew about 260 students,

>teachers and community members, Taylor said.

>

>The students who assembled after school Friday came of

>their own volition, Taylor stressed. They approached

>the speakerphone to pose questions they had prepared,

>or thought up on the spot.

>

>"It was fantastic," said junior Ryan Nanni, who asked

>the question that touched off the discussion about the

>American public school system.

>

>"He has a whole outside perspective that's so

>different than everything that students usually hear,"

>Nanni said.

>

>During the one-hour discussion, Chomsky expounded on a

>range of topics, including the danger of unbridled

>consumerism, the Pentagon Papers, the proposed

>"gas-tax holiday," illegal enemy combatants and '60s

>radicalism.

>

>He asked students whether they would characterize, as

>the U.S. government does, a 15-year-old who throws a

>grenade at an invading American army as an illegal

>enemy combatant.

>

>And he suggested that the working definition of

>terrorism, as defined by the U.S. government, would

>make America the world's leading terrorist state.

>

>The goal of the these informal discussions, Taylor

>said, is to spark debate -- and thought -- rather than

>to espouse a particular political view.

>

>"The root of education is the need to be challenged,"

>Taylor said. "The open forum of ideas is what we're

>trying to stress."

>

>

>

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Competition is a barbaric, insensitive ritual that reeks of social Darwinism.
We cannot allow the fittest to survive on our pages. Your loss is someone
else's gain, and your gain is someone else's loss. Therefore, losers contribute
to the society and winners take away from it. Being a winner is 
unethical, while
a society of losers is happy and striving as a collective. In the 
spirit of diversity,
inclusiveness, and collectivism our contests shall have no winners.
Everyone is declared a loser, which in our book means an ethical team player.  
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