Welcome to the Front Porch---kinda proud of this one....and the comments at the end will blow you away!!
There has been a white collar crime committed in the past 100 years that exceeds our wildest imagination. I'm calling it HyperEduFlation.. First, a little review of terms, in particular relating to "degrees " of theft....
The theft we usually associate with stealing is relatively crude, simple, and limited in its scope and insidiousness. Lysander Spooner contrasted invidual theft with the State's form of theft in NO TREASON:
"The government does not indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the roadside, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is nonetheless a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardlly and shameful.
"The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a 'protector,' and that he takes men's money against their will, merely to enable him to 'protect' those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these. Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful 'sovereign,' on account of the 'protection' he affords you. He does not keep 'protecting' you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by robbing you of more money as he finds it for his interest or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy of your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villainies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave..."
(Note: this punctuation mark " ; " is what we used to call a semi-colon. You'll notice Spooner used it often during his day. Don't forget to explain this to the youngsters under 40 ---- see HyperEduFlation below. It has rendered such luxuries and extravagancies, along with logic, the Constitution, US history and balancing checkbooks as mere "niche" interests.)
Now, back when reasoning and logic were valued, pre-HyperEduFlation, this would have been a persuasive argument. Back in college, I asked several lawyers to read NO TREASON, and largely, none of them were inclined to, or apparently capable of, arguing with the book's primary premise (which is not a part of this discussion. It's just interesting. To me anyway.) The lawyers, properly morally moribund, had been trained not to be effected by arcane concepts like truth, intellectual integrity. I do know one lawyer who is. I think. OK, back on topic: Theft.
The fact is, governments have had a far more sinister means of stealing from the citizenry than direct taxation. They create a state-controlled fiat currency and inflate the money supply, merrily redistributing the sheeples' power and wealth right under their noses.
This article is not even about that kind of evil chicanery. But if you understand how inflation "works," and for whom, the next several paragraphs should be interesting....
If you're taking the ride with Glenn Beck through early American history, or if you are among the 1% (generous percentage) who already knew what Calvin Coolidge did to end the Depression of 1920, you know that once upon a time their were no state schools and no federal 'funding' and 'guidance' for state schools. You also know that back then, many of the brightest people were wholly self-educated. All knew when to use a semi-colon. High school educations were rare, and meaningful. You didn't graduate if you couldn't read or briefly explain the 2nd amendment. College degrees were truly exceptional.
So, even if you went through only the 6th grade back then, you could read GULLIVER'S TRAVELS or MOBY DICK and actually have a whiff of understanding about what metaphors were to be found therein. Unless you've been in an underground bomb shelter with no outside communication since birth, you know the chances of running into a 6th grader, or high school graduate, or, sadly, a college graduate in most cases who knows what a non sequitur is or who Dwight Eisenhauer was, are not so much.
Has it occurred to you that the same thing that has happened to our currency has happened to another form of "currency": high school and college dipomas? We seem to be aware that the former is next to useless for telling us whether the owner can read or add, and the latter is next to useless when it comes to being a useful, productive citizen. "Doctorates" are now handed out each year by the fistfuls. And how many of us know more than one possessor of a "doctorate" who is dumb as a box of iron ore?
What happened? I call it, as of today---ta-da!---HyperEduFlation. Folks we're way past merely 'adding a few years' to the educational process to get the 6th grade results in civics, history, economics that were expected 100 years ago. Our country, in particular, is the all-time Weimar Republic of education "inflation." Phony, useless dipomas, misspent time in schools of indoctrination, all to breed a public of sheeples who think they're entitled to a nanny state at someone else's expense, and can tell you who is on American Idol, but not who is buried in Grant's tomb.
HyperEduFlation. As Garet Garrett said way back, "The Revolution Was." We awaken in 2010 in a country where half the population voted for a President about whom they knew nothing. And got what we deserved. We squandor more money per pupil on fake education and sheeple indoctrination than any country in history. Oops. "History"? History is so yesterday...
If you have thoughts, observations, criticism, encouragements, share them with us in the 'comments' section---show your flag!!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
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Love it, Jack. It's right on!
ReplyDeleteOkay, let me preface this by saying it's going to sound like I'm bragging (lol), but really just trying to relate, on my level, to your FP article, by sharing our personal experiences.
We homeschooled for 11 years, graduating our son this year. We did what we wanted, choosing our own curriculum, and following his interests, after doing the basics. Nobody guided us, we just bought books and figured it out at home.
This year, while making out our son's transcripts, we discovered that we had overeducated him, which does not speak highly for public education.
Colleges have been stunned at his results on placement tests. One college laughed at his results because he answered all the questions on a math portion of the test, running the computer to the end of the test, which they said had never been done before. He also won a national competition (1 scholarship awarded, based on a project rather than Affirmative Action) for $80,000 to a highly respected tech college. He won 3 scholarships altogether, so had choices to make.
We suspected he was doing well because he has public educated friends who would some over and have no clue what he was talking about when math, grammar, history, geography, politics, or social issues would come up. With math, he was doing Calculus, while his friends were doing fractions. His friends didn't know what the Cold War was, or when the Civil War took place. They had no knowledge of WWII, or even past presidents. They'd never looked at the Constitution, much less read it. They are becoming the Sheeple of the future, you talked about.
I laughed one day when I overheard he and his friends discuss the word "tooken". One in that conversation was a college kid. The college kid used a sentence with "tooken" in it. A high school kid corrected him, telling him it was "have tooked", then our son corrected them both, telling them the correct form, in the actual sentence used, was taken. There was a pregnant pause as they digested it. lol
It's really quite sad. Our kids are being let down, despite all the money thrown at the situation. They are our future, and the goal seems to be to brainwash them into being good little voting Liberals, rather than teaching them something worthwhile.
I know of many kids who have college degrees that a job does not exist for, thanks to the "green / global warming / climate change / whatever they are calling it now" agenda. They've spent a lot of money and time on education, yet don't work.
I personally have a nephew who went to college giggling about girls, and came out giggling about boys, deciding now that he's always been gay. He is now seeking to go to college, to get his Masters, in, as far as I can figure out, flowers. Yeah, that ought to be helpful.
At times, I doubted our choice of homeschooling. But, seeing our son have a solid foundation, not just academically, but spiritually too, while having learned to respect our country and not be swayed easily from his own mind, made it worth it.
Okay, didn't mean to get long winded, but education has always been a passion in our family.
I loved, Loved, LOVED your article, Jack. Thanks for sharing it.
One last note. . Looks like the kid is going for the tech college (computer programming, his passion since he was 7), which is a relief. From their curriculum, they seem to focus on teaching skills, instead of indoctrination. With the lack of jobs out there, I hope he will be employed quickly, when finished. At least he stands a better chance than some, I hope.
Thanks for letting me babble. :o)
BJ
LOVED it, Jack.
ReplyDeleteI tried posting a long comment, and it said it did, but don't see it. :o( Thinking it may be lost in cyber space now.
BJ
LOL. . Now it showed up, when I posted the second one.
ReplyDeleteBea Jay---helluva story!! Will do what I can from here to get IT out THERE. I can't think of anything more important to parents everywhere. Would you mind sharing an email or phone # where folks could contact you with questions (don't worry about overload. We're still in the generation of entitlement and since maybe only a 1,000 people get my emails, would be surprising if you had 5 inquiries....
ReplyDeleteSure, Jack. They can email me at tooeasilydistracted@comcast.net.
ReplyDeleteI've helped many over the Internet, to get started with homeschooling, over the years. So happy to answer any questions that might come this way.
I know homeschooling is not the answer for everyone, but as our school system is continuing to decline, it is becoming more of an answer, for many.