Monday's Rant

While certainly there are black people that feel like "whitey" has kept them down and is still keeping them down, but it is certainly not ALL black people, so please don't generalize us and group us all in your 'they' statements.

Now, as the wife of a teacher, I see many cases where the parent or whomever the child is living with is not motivated at home to do his or her best in school. I see parents that are tolerant of the child and intolerant of the teachers & the schools efforts to get the child on the right track. This is not only in the homes of the black students. I find that where black students simply are not motivated is often times because the parents are so busy working to keep money flowing from whatever job they've got going, they're just not home enough and 'too tired' to do the parental thing. I find that is a sad excuse - no matter what your race.

Sadly, when 'the black community' addresses the issues which you're referring to and the ones which I've just mentioned, those who need to be 'addressed' are more often than not those in non-attendance (for whatever reason. Some don't have a car so they can't drive there. Some can't take the bus because they don't have fare. Some can't go because they don't have a sitter, Some can't because they've got to be at their 2nd job) A smorgasboard of reasons why all crop up.

Again, I personally don't believe any of these are valid reasons (except maybe having to be at work). It's sadly an epidemic among some black people of lesser conditions - but certainly not all.

I think it's a matter of 'some think they can't, so they don't' - for whatever reason this is their though processes.

And, as the wife of a teacher - I'll tell you, you can't discount the things that go on at home as having an effect on the student in school, because it does - both white, black , hispanic and all others. It's sad that we can't think of a way to motivate the PARENTS to motivate their children, or rather, that the parents won't accept the motivation to motivate their own children...

I find the school system to be like the healthcare system...a total wreck. IF you can get to the teachers (or the healthcare workers) you have a chance of finding the only people in the system who give a damn about the kids...but the system itself and the administrators who run it are a textbook of FUBAR. I don't believe the educational system in this country can be saved, and more and more ignorant people are being turned out.

I also believe that's the idea. It's the lazy, the uninformed, those who are not only disinterested in but incapable of scratching the surface and gaining a real understanding what's going on that allows a handful of "leaders" to go about their business largely undeterred.

interesting.

onyxelle if you don't think that the dumbing down of America is purposeful think again. Good proles are what's necessary for a handful of people to live like gods.

uhm...i meant interesting as in you're probably right.

remind me to make more than a 1 word comment next time.

Many people make the mistake of attributing the plight of human nature to problems in whatever system they oppose.

Fix ____ and everyone will/would/ live in harmony.

The status discrepancy you claim is a result of a mass-consumerist culture is backed by biological goals.

The goal of nature and chaos is not to attain perfection, it is to change - to constantly adapt its self to a changing world. A perfect being adapted to the earth 200 years ago would probably be out of luck now. (Look at the Native American Indians, whose ability 100 years ago to live off of small amounts of food served them well, but now this adaptation leads to obesity. ) You can even look at nature on the molecular level - it is constantly balancing itself. [ tangent: It may be coming from or eventually leading to perfection - a state of total static harmony - but that seems difficult to fathom because if it were ever in a state of perfect harmony there would be nothing to disrupt it - causing it to be in the wonderful imperfect state it is currently in.]

Many social animals (including humans) have social hierarchies based on certain attributes. This hierarchy holds true for both human interaction and mating ritual. In the American capitalist system we have more availability of goods available to us on which to spend our wealth, but surely our displays of status through material things aren't much different than the ostentatious palaces of the past (under much different governments and economic systems.) on a biological level, a person who amasses wealth shows that they can be a good provider for their families.
Sure, it is ridiculous how some people race to have the best new refrigerator, or what have you, but it is not some new moral dillema, it is a product of human nature (through social hierarchy.)

About the individual vs. society argument: Humans have a balance of self-preservation instincts and mutualist instincts. You can both participate in a community and be an individual. There is no conflict unless one dominates the other. For example, if you were a Jewish person living in Germany when the Nazi's took over, your self-preservation and inidividual interests would take over and you'd get the heck out of that community, right?

The leaders of every nation aspire to have wealth and power. Our system simply doesn't pretend this isn't so. All men are not created equal. You are more gifted than most. Try earning some money. Once you have; I'd like to hear your response to someone telling you that you didn't earn it.

Noah, this rant is only subtly different from your last. Your youth precludes you from the experience necessary to fully understand the ramifications of what you are wishing for. Your belief that successful people wish to keep everyone else on the bottom rung is false. The more money the masses have, the more money I can make. Henry Ford figured out that if he paid his people well enough to buy a car; they would. He was also bankrupt at age 40, having failed at 9 other ventures before starting Ford Motor Company.

Your position on education is also false: In Costa Rica the citizens get their higher education for about $10 per year. Result?... a large number of very educated poor people. The difference in pay for having an education is simply smaller. The successful people are still the ones who seize their opportunities for themselves.

I would never belittle the atrocity that was slavery. Nor should you belittle the 100's of other atrocities in history. Certainly the descendents of the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity have enjoyed some benefits created by same. That does not entitle you or anyone else to lay claim to wealth you haven't earned. It is up to you to earn your fortune. Can you fathom how tied up our courts would become if we allowed people to file suits based on "the sins of the father" or grandfather etc.? Earn your own fortune. Then help others who you feel are a product of oppression to do the same. Take it upon yourself to level the playing field. Crying over spilt milk isn't going to change anything.

Well stated, OC, realities are seldom considered in the collective when one starts out to howl at their "oppressors."

I wasn't defending or picking, just expanding.

Noah's outline only works in a purely capitalist state of mind. Where one person is climbing to the top of his stack of money, another is caring for a family and rich in love, and still another is in perfectly good health, while another has brains, another has god, and so we are all the ultimate achievers and the ultimate failures at the same time.

However, Noah's idea of gaining at someone else's loss does not account for love, health, wisdom, and spirituality.

But I could be wrong, because all of his anger was directed at America. So everyone in Canada here can achieve without someone else biting his dust.

By the way, where has tuesday's rant gone off to?

Excellent points Individual. My recent visit to Costa Rica was a real eye-opener. Most of my adult life; I've spent aggressively accumulating what I considered to be wealth. Then I came upon a culture that seems to place a much higher value on the things money can't buy. I've never seen such a happy populous, despite an obvious lack of financial resources. I am now questioning my own direction and seriously contemplating a move to Costa Rica. A day hasn't gone by since my visit that I don't miss their Pura Vida. My definition of wealth has been permanently altered and already I feel richer for it.

No Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday rant, and not a word from Minister Noah.

See, it IS the season of miracles....

Good for you occom! Although, I would like to retire in Brazil or Mallorca.

Noah would definitely have to be a Catholic priest.