Rote Wonder
A problem in our country is that we feel rote education is the only model that works until college, which unfortunately is not even mandatory. This results in two very different problems: the lack of critical thinking capacity and the loss of wonder.
Under the first, we have too many people who aren't trained to critically think. Not enough people think about what they hear, read, or see and instead just accept it as truth, when more often than not it's just a version of the truth, and in some instances, an outright lie. The differences which may seem like minutia might actually foster end results miles away. Not enough people stop and ask "really?" Or more importantly "why?" Because sometimes, when we ask why, the answers we're originally given just don't make sense.
Second, children are the only ones left that have wonder in today's society. They're the only ones that believe in the unbelievable. Part of this is the emphasis on science. I don't think science is bad, only finite. It emphasis on understanding everything is laudable, but at the same time limiting. Who's not to say that faith healing doesn't work, that magic doesn't exist, or that there might even be those who can change back and forth between human and animal form? If there were ways to quantify and understand these things, there would probably be scientific models that would explain them. And maybe that in itself would kill the wonder. But I think what I'm trying to say is that science seems to foreclose the possibility of all it can't explain. And so as a society we build walls around ourselves, saying that isn't possible, or that can't be true. But shouldn't we all wonder?
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posted by mW @ 10:50 AM
Under the first, we have too many people who aren't trained to critically think. Not enough people think about what they hear, read, or see and instead just accept it as truth, when more often than not it's just a version of the truth, and in some instances, an outright lie. The differences which may seem like minutia might actually foster end results miles away. Not enough people stop and ask "really?" Or more importantly "why?" Because sometimes, when we ask why, the answers we're originally given just don't make sense.
Second, children are the only ones left that have wonder in today's society. They're the only ones that believe in the unbelievable. Part of this is the emphasis on science. I don't think science is bad, only finite. It emphasis on understanding everything is laudable, but at the same time limiting. Who's not to say that faith healing doesn't work, that magic doesn't exist, or that there might even be those who can change back and forth between human and animal form? If there were ways to quantify and understand these things, there would probably be scientific models that would explain them. And maybe that in itself would kill the wonder. But I think what I'm trying to say is that science seems to foreclose the possibility of all it can't explain. And so as a society we build walls around ourselves, saying that isn't possible, or that can't be true. But shouldn't we all wonder?
Why Some Laws Are Wrong
Personal lives of people should be just that. Personal. The state has no business regulating sex in any way other than to prevent forced encounters and to protect children from adults who know better. The reason why this country will eventually fester and explode, like Rome before it, is because America refuses to evolve. Its people stagnate with an apalling apathy. No one is innocent. Politicians and public alike don't care.
We want to win wars, as long as our lives aren't impacted and all our sons and daughters return. We want everyone to be "normal," and we vigorously fight to keep America this way, pretending no one gets hurt in the process. And we never stop to question why people are in jail, instead content to put them away for years at a time, simply because then we don't have to deal with that person, all the while ignoring that the same causes that put that person in that situation will put another person in that same situation, leading to the same result.
And so it is, because our courts refuse to strike down laws that are not actively enforced, that we still have laws governing who can do what with their personal lives. What, in particular, has raised my ire, is the fact that the state of Georgia feels justified in mercilessly prosecuting a promising young man, aged 17, for having oral sex with a 15-year-old, in a situation where everyone agrees she was the instigator. Read the full story here.
This young man, who was a 3.2 gpa student, an athletic success, and homecoming king, was put away for 10 years without a possibility of parole. We say today that girl was too young to consent. Bullshit. Girls were married before then in those "good ole days" that laws like these are meant to preserve. It's an illusion of morality wrapped in righteousness that is grating on this country.
But that' s right. We have a war going on. We have gays getting married y'all. And, gasp, illegal immigrants. As if we don't have enough people to get concerned about anything else. It's all smoke and mirrors and people make deals out of a lot of things, because at the end of the day people just want to feel okay about themselves and they don't care at what expense it costs others. It's depressing.
We want to win wars, as long as our lives aren't impacted and all our sons and daughters return. We want everyone to be "normal," and we vigorously fight to keep America this way, pretending no one gets hurt in the process. And we never stop to question why people are in jail, instead content to put them away for years at a time, simply because then we don't have to deal with that person, all the while ignoring that the same causes that put that person in that situation will put another person in that same situation, leading to the same result.
And so it is, because our courts refuse to strike down laws that are not actively enforced, that we still have laws governing who can do what with their personal lives. What, in particular, has raised my ire, is the fact that the state of Georgia feels justified in mercilessly prosecuting a promising young man, aged 17, for having oral sex with a 15-year-old, in a situation where everyone agrees she was the instigator. Read the full story here.
This young man, who was a 3.2 gpa student, an athletic success, and homecoming king, was put away for 10 years without a possibility of parole. We say today that girl was too young to consent. Bullshit. Girls were married before then in those "good ole days" that laws like these are meant to preserve. It's an illusion of morality wrapped in righteousness that is grating on this country.
But that' s right. We have a war going on. We have gays getting married y'all. And, gasp, illegal immigrants. As if we don't have enough people to get concerned about anything else. It's all smoke and mirrors and people make deals out of a lot of things, because at the end of the day people just want to feel okay about themselves and they don't care at what expense it costs others. It's depressing.
Labels: laws, morals, prison, sex
|| posted by mW @ 10:34 AM[top]
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