"
So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a
little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel,"
Who knows what T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) really said, but Peter O'Toole delivered that line in the eponymous movie. I can't help recalling the scene when listening to the God Damned Republicans trying to blame the situation in the Crimea on President Obama and trying to make sure it all goes badly for everyone so that Americans will come to their senses and elect some silly, greedy and barbarous puppet to represent crackpot religion, rabid nationalism and klepto-Capitalism. Why not? We're already silly, greedy, barbarous and cruel: a little people with big rhetoric, a cruel people with small minds and big guns.
It's not because of Republicans -- it's because of us, because of who and what we are and it shows in everything we do, well-intentioned or not. It shows in how we latch onto theories and justify them with good intentions and use them to make things worse. It shows in how we alienate allies by making good causes less about goodness than about rhetorical conformity, it shows in how we make facts bow to theory and let the theories we obey make things worse.
So how do you make schools safer? Does it help to reduce tensions, make students feel less alienated and helpless and marginalized to expel one for pointing a finger at another student? Of course not, but "we have a rule" against even pretending to be using a weapon and so because a student could conceivably think of his finger as a gun barrel, pointing it at someone is, in some mystical way punishable. A thought -- a presumed thought is magically identical with action.
We may laugh at the assertion that minimum wage laws stifle job creation because the State with the highest has the highest rate of job creation. We fail to laugh at our attempt to reduce school violence by insisting that a hug is assault, a kiss is rape and a finger is attempted murder. Silly, barbarous and cruel.
When an aspirin is "drugs;" when a nail clipper is a "weapon" -- when punishments explore the far reaches of what is reasonable and effective and meaningful and are defended with all the passion of a Spanish inquisitor without any reference to the consequences -- so long as we continue to marginalize the reasonable for not adhering to formulas and incantations -- as long as we continue to marginalize decent, ordinary, well-intentioned people for saying the wrong word or pointing the wrong finger we will continue to be a little people: silly, greedy, barbarous and cruel.
Perhaps I am a bit confused over the finer points of Sharia Law. Does it specify "an eye for an eye" or "an eye for a finger or an arm?" Here is a user comment from your embedded link:
ReplyDeleteMy kid did the same thing! We just cut off his thumbs and that fixed it. The school said that was a great way to solve it and everyone was Happy Happy>>>>>>
I tried to read the comments, but nausea set in too soon for me to get far.
ReplyDeleteGod almighty, I wouldn't be a kid again in this country for anything.
Pointing a finger is "acting out?" and if we don't "nip it in the bud" (as Barney Fife used to say,) why then tomorrow the kid will come to school with a gun. He gave someone the finger? Kid's a RAPIST! As far as I know Hammurabi had nothing to say about finger pointing, finger giving or illicit thoughts. In those 'primitive' times, crimes were limited to doing harm. Lex Talionis was conceived to eliminate the punishment being worse than the offense. Those silly primitives! Too bad they didn't take education courses. In the beginning was the theory and the theory became word and the word is law and the word shall not be questioned.
If there is an argument against Intelligent Design, it's surely the flaws in the design of human reasoning. "the law is the law!' scream the tautological twits -- little Javerts who want to pursue some kid to the ends of the earth until he learns to obey orders no matter how stupid they may be. Frankly the self righteousness of the authoritarians, the petty tyrants who like to boss kids around and somehow have misidentified themselves with liberals makes the authoritarians on the Right happy and otherwise peaceful parents want to come to school with guns.
We're afraid so something must be done, so anything that we do must be the law and the law may not be questioned. Restricting one's freedom of expression is the cure for violence and this may not be questioned because rules are rules and doctrine is doctrine.
So defining innocuous acts as being the precursors of violence is the way to eliminate violence and if you do not agree that pointing a finger is the gateway to shooting a gun you support gun violence and once again, disagreement with this doctrine is unacceptable. We are Liberals. We have degrees in education so we know. We are the elect, so we know.
"Please sir, may I have some more?" What? The kid's a TAKER -- starve him into submission!
Thou shalt not disagree and neither shalt thou present contrary doctrines because I am a jealous God, nor shalt thou request evidence. God shall not be tested. And if the facts offend thee, cast them aside.
For I am the Board of Education who takes thy children to be molded like clay in my image. Never mind if I fuck up because (see above) and I will visit my retribution unto thy children -- and into their old age shall they be marked for distrust, for I am ( see above)
Silly. barbarous and cruel
As a culture, we've definitely jumped the shark.
ReplyDeleteApparently the people in charge of America's schoolchildren don't know a thing about children or how to deal with normal childhood behaviors. A 6-year old was handcuffed and arrested for acting like a 6-year old. When did acting like a child become something that required police intervention? And that linked incident is not the only one documented.
When school and law enforcement officials can't understand that cuffing and arresting a child for misbehaving--even BADLY misbehaving--is absolutely insane, we've lost our way.
When political correctness and Ritalin became commonplace. So, oh, about 30 years ago or thereabouts.
ReplyDeleteBut were working our way back to sanity.
Yeah, right..
... we're, could not find that apostrophe anywhere last night!
ReplyDelete