Yesterday my sleep-deprived brain to a stab at a very deep and meaningful post that resulted in little more than a possibly misleading introduction to the topic. My goal was to express an awareness of how differently I perceive education than the more vocal people in power. I’m a person that believes in truth vs. the creation of a myth that makes one look good. In other words, I still subscribe to the enlightenment principles that, in many ways, made western civilization possible. Instead it seems we are deepening into a religious society that is very much the mirror of the middle eastern societies we all too often profess to be unlike.
The key here is a lack of desire to pus ourselves–at least in the American diaspora–past the commercial materialism that holds us in place. The majority of Americans read at an eighth grade level–that is when they read at all. As a creative writing teacher I see about a third of my wanna be novelists start their first novel writing class having never completed a book. These are the people who want more and want to learn. The ones who don’t want more from an intellectual standpoint are the ones who represent the vast majority of the students I see and they just don’t care about the idea of learning purely for learning’s sake. If they’re going to learn anything there has to be a significant dollar figure, job, or opportunity at the end of it and I cannot blame them. This is the way we’ve cultured our society. We are creating a nation of zealots who follow the religion of capitalism with a dappling of christianity on top. As one christian think tank put it, “. . . God has given us the market process as the most powerful tool we have in a fallen world to serve each other by using our gifts.”
Perhaps in the end the real difference between us and a place like Iran is more than just power, size, and the ability to control the conversation. Instead the real difference might be how honest we are with ourselves about who we are. Over there, they seem to know exactly who they are and they own it. As a result they are villainized. Meanwhile, When Texas changed its official travel motto to ‘Texas: Its like a whole other country’ my mind flew to the socio-political make up of the state and it wasn’t a good thing. More and more the country Texas and many other parts of the U.S. seem like fails to resemble the U.S. I grew up loving.
Some Thoughts:
- Expect a waiver thursday because I have a lot to say about this latest trade of Shady McCoy and what that says about Chip Kelly. Foreshadow: It isn’t good and it has a lot to do with ego and moneyball.