10-14-2016, 10:57 PM
(10-14-2016, 10:36 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:(10-14-2016, 10:04 PM)taramarie Wrote:(10-14-2016, 09:16 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: We live in ignorance because we have blinders. Life is all about survival based on kissing up to elites out solely for themselves. The K-12 educational system remains dedicated to churning out people to be assembly-line workers, warehouse workers, domestic workers, and salesclerks -- people damned to a lack of job security, to low pay, and to few chances for their children.Eric's post:
People with some ability to do critical thinking can recognize Donald Trump as the demagogue that he is and that a vote for him is an unacceptable risk. People without such ability have little but fear. People who have fear as their driver go for extremists, Left or Right. Critical thinking also causes people to recognize the superficiality and irrelevance of the 'celebrity' culture.
We need culture -- not mindless entertainment -- to define us. Culture connects Humanity across national borders and to the greatness of the past. Entertainment is the contemporary opiate of the masses. (If the entertainment is truly good it is culture. Shakespeare and Mozart really were entertainment in their times).
I can see the likes of such right-wing pols as Governors Paul LePage, Rick Scott, and Scott Walker trying to crush any thought inconsistent with their right-wing, corporatist agenda of low wages, underinvestment in education, and concentration of economic power. Those go together. A plutocrat playing the game of politician can win only with a cowed and foolish population. Even if the supporters of Trump are honorable on matters other than politics, their political beliefs are quite deplorable.
" Schools should be places where children learn to imagine a world that's a better place." Did American schools not tell kids what ideal qualities were dying in the world and what is needed in this world for it to be a better place? I can tell you one thing. When I finally grew up and really saw what the adult world was really like I was disgusted...till I was working with fellow millies in millie ran companies and I saw a vast difference which gave me hope that it is within us.
As to the parts i highlighted for pbrower...
What do you mean by culture and mindless entertainment? What do you define as culture?
All of my friends I went to primary, high school and community college with have all either just married and pumped out kids or have gotten the kind of work you mentioned. All but me. I would rather be dead than live a life like that. It is mind numbing, hard work for teeny pay and you are not treated well nor have many rights at all. Which is why I quit and now going to Uni to specialize in animation. I will not go back to that kind of work either. Only work that gets me to where I want to be in the end. I just cannot do it. It kills the spirit. I have seen what it does to mum and it is killing her slowly. Body mind and spirit. It was wearing me out to the point I could not be bothered with anything else. Never again. Unless it is something that puts me in the direction I want to head towards. Life is not just about money. It for me is more about what defines who I am. You spend a good amount of time at work for most of your life. I want it well spent. I do not know how others do it and some, willingly! I will not live in a lie.
Mindless Entertainment:
"Keeping Up With the Kardashians"
"Real Wives of ___________"
"Modern Family"
"Naked and Afraid"
"Ultimate Fighting"
etc ...
"The Apprentice."