Tue, 30 December 2008
6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss Of Formal Schooling http://www.theonion.com/content/news/6_year_old_stares_down_bottomless What if children really knew what they were being dragooned into? "Public education" is group think writ large; "This is what we're supposed to do"; adults erroneously believe it's "good for socialization" Schools as prisons, basically forced "socialization" It's HOW you're taught that does the harm The Student as Nigger: Essays and Stories by Jerry Farber http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030301studentasnigger.html "...imagine what the effect must be upon our apt and impressionable minds of a twelve-year course in servility. Think about it...What is it that they're teaching you? Twelve years pitted against your classmates in a daily Roman circus. The game is Doing What You're Told." The insanity of forcing people (either big people or little people) to learn things The Comprachicos by Ayn Rand (in "The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution", pp. 41-95. Signet, 1975); government school "socialization" leads to gang warfare and loss of conceptual thinking and objectivity http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/learning.html Choice quotations: http://www.stormy.org/edcompr.htm Ayn Rand and her thoughts on Rational Education by Michael S. Berliner http://tinyurl.com/8ylvr8 "Learning" by memorization rather than conceptual integration doesn't foster enlightened and healthy minds; it's dire and hopeless and soul-crushing "Public education" can't be rationally defended, but educators do have their rationalizations... Since "public education" is coercively funded, we can expect the aftermath--such as mass servility and obedient payment of property taxes Jerry Farber's "IF IT WEREN'T COMPULSORY..." http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030301studentasnigger.html "It would be well if we stopped lying to ourselves about what compulsory schooling does for our children. It temporarily imprisons them; it standardizes them; it intimidates them. If that's what we want, we should admit it. There's not much point in going on about this. If you've somehow missed reading A.S. Neill's Summerhill, you ought to go out and get it." http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School http://www.amazon.com/Summerhill-School-New-View-Childhood/dp/0312141378 Parents and other adults are much better able to create educational environments that cater to the varying interests and abilities of children, and kids should be free to pick and choose as they see fit Delayed adolescence courtesy of governmental schools Trashing Teens: Psychologist Robert Epstein argues in a provocative book, "The Case Against Adolescence," that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them. by Hara Estroff Marano http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20070302-000002&print=1 The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen by Robert Epstein; Ph. D. http://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Adolescence-Rediscovering-Adult/dp/188495670X Being able to conceptually integrate in an objective fashion is the hallmark of maturity (and the teenage brain has this capability) John Holt's five points on effective tutoring and learning (on page 202) http://books.google.com/books?id=oRk28eZoYNkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#PPA202,M1 Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better by John Caldwell Holt (John Holt) http://books.google.com/books?id=oRk28eZoYNkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#PPP1,M1 How individualism is stamped out by the system; one only creates resistance and problems by trying to control other human minds Successfully nurturing individual young minds via student-centered and self-directed learning is key In addition to stopping their coercive behavior, government school educators need to alter their pedagogy, particularly who's in charge Case in point: Project-based learning A choice quote from the teacher in the video below: "As long as they defended their answer, then that's what I want" Picturing the Possibilities - Project-based Learning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFt6qW0Pb4c Some choice "school sucks" videos by kids: School Sucks, Rants Rule (6:02) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlRv7Ky7bgE School Sucks! (4:48) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3SKC6zi2UA&NR=1 school sucks (2:14) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF6JfP4qJ2A Vouchers--promoting the illusion of freedom within a coercive paradigm Intrinsic motivation is key, which is impossible within a compulsory system; modern pedagogy discourages rational self-interest, as does our collectivistic culture; Dirty Dancing with The Fountainhead... Those who equate being selfish (i.e., concerned with oneself, or self-interested) with being antisocial are merely projecting their own antisocial views on those who are respectful; promoting coercive education and statism isn't social or virtuous True socialization entails independent people coming together with mutual interests, trading value for value, just like anything else in the marketplace We need to see beyond the coercive monopolies that have blinded us from amazingly beneficial possibilities in education (and the rest of the economy) bumper music "Schools Are Prisons" by the Sex Pistols http://www.sexpistolsofficial.com/ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/window/media/page/0,,1726210-4679121,00.html
to comment, please go to http://completeliberty.com/magazine/category/91697
|
|
Wed, 24 December 2008
Salting roads for the common good (and corroding vehicles) Private property owners have no interest in benefitting from commerce and trade--not! But what about the roads (and fire and police "services)! Nothing like institutionalized legalized monopolies as the best way to solve problems Bureaucratized utilities once again to the rescue; preservation of the status quo is always best, especially regarding the utility monopolies; thinking outside the statist electricity box; the genius of Nikola Tesla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_tower#Theory_of_wireless_transmission But what about the schools! Most realize the massive failure in this area Harry Browne's hypothetical of government running the computer industry http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/FreeTheSchools.htm Imagine if education worked like the computer industry; the sky's the limit So, in the spirit of Thoreau, we must strike at the root of coercive education, not merely hack at the branches http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henrydavid161709.html Future School: Reshaping Learning from the Ground Up: Alvin Toffler tells us what's wrong -- and right -- with public education by James Daly http://www.edutopia.org/future-school It's way past time to abolish governmental schools, which are designed to produce "disciplined" industrial workers but don't even accomplish that; instead, they barely inculcate rudimentary skills while fostering compliance and obedient mentalities Leave it to Marx and Lenin to promote the essentials of authoritarian education And leave it to John Dewey and Horace Mann (and Henry Barnard and Josiah Quincy and Jacob Abbott et al.) to implement their authoritarian scheme Crossing Education's Rubicon With Horace Mann http://sixthcolumn.typepad.com/cubedseducationblog/2007/05/education_is_a_.html Becoming the property of the State via compulsory education Education: Free and Compulsory by Murray N. Rothbard http://www.mises.org/story/2226 And leave it to religion to lay down a framework of blind obedience to "authority," in which "authority" is seen as benevolent Mann is seen as the father of American "public education"; in addition to being a master of phrenology;) he was also a big supporter of the temperance movement (abstinence), which led to the prohibition era championed by big Mann-fan and despot Woodrow Wilson Following the Prussian educationist model, Mann promoted the following: the debilitating "whole-language," or "look-say," reading method; a centralized educational system at the federal level; and, getting private universities to be publicly funded With governmental schools, the bad ideas and bad money (extorted via taxation) drive out the good ideas and good money (voluntarily exchanged); it's hard for the private sector to compete with "free" governmental schools The Spread of Education Before Compulsion: Britain and America in the Nineteenth Century by Edwin G. West http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=3872 Families find themselves "...caught in a choice-restricted monopoly system serving the interests not of the demanders but of the rent-seeking suppliers."--as in all things involved in government, follow the money trail... Coercive education, like coercive government, is predicated on the belief that some people know what's best for all people In order to implement his own form of arbitrary power, Horace Mann and those of his ilk gravitated toward the coercive educational models practiced in foreign countries where the cancer of statism had metastasized (i.e., the most consistent adherents to the principle of statism) The people in today's power-centers of coercive control see themselves as a cut above the rest The essence of being an authoritarian sociopath is choosing to deal with others in a disrespectful fashion, using threats and violence instead of persuasion and reason Hiding in and not taking responsibility for the system of authoritarian sociopathy is of course assuming its traits The theme promoted and modeled in the governmental schools is one of obedience The master/slave relationship is the ultimate example of racism "Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism." http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/racism.html The Student as Nigger by Jerry Farber, 1969 http://ry4an.org/readings/short/student/ Essays and Stories by Jerry Farber http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030301studentasnigger.html "Authority addicts" defer self-responsibility to others (the "authorities") A little lesson on Farber's reference to the torturous "Procrustean set-up" of education: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrustes Slavery, like statism, tends to perpetuate itself from the inside Harriet Tubman: "I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/harriettub388682.html Dealing with the psychological/social resistance to change; being attacked by fellow slaves who accept the constant theft, violence, and lies of government; such attacks reveal that they know the moral nature of the argument and they concede defeat Curiosity requires a level of emotional intelligence (respect for feelings) that most people still need to achieve It's idiotic to believe that authoritarian sociopaths have any regard whatsoever for you as an individual, or for your freedoms Just as farmers benefit from having free range chickens that produce more for them, authoritarian sociopaths benefit from giving their perceived "livestock" the illusion of being free so that they produce more for them; this is the matrix we live in True News 13: Statism is Dead - Part 3 - The Matrix by Stefan Molyneux http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P772Eb63qIY Who really are the human farmers, i.e., slave masters? Statist intellectuals who feed off others and thus justify institutionalized coercion (government) The drug war as an example of erroneous thinking about morality and law, in which breaking "the law" is equivalent to being immoral (again, following from the master/slave relationship) "The law" or "State" can never be the victim; individuals are the real victims within such a demented system--and governmental officials are the real criminals The Socialism of Public Schooling by Jacob G. Hornberger http://www.fff.org/comment/com0811c.asp Elegantly exposing the contradiction: "Advocates of government schooling claim that parents are not competent to make educational decisions for their children. That raises an obvious question: Why not? Aren’t most parents products of public schooling? If public schooling has produced a nation of adults who lack the competence to guide their children’s education, why do we want to continue a system that is likely to produce the same result?" The communistic methods of coercive funding and provision of education utilize vouchers as a trojan horse to further control non-governmental education The institution of government is based on the idea that you don't own yourself, that you are a slave to statist "authorities" Thus it's crucial to challenge the pemes (political memes) that are in our heads #TL074: PEME-THEORY - BASIC, INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED by Frederick Mann http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl074.shtml #TL075: PEMES = POLITICAL MEMES by Frederick Mann http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl075.shtml Project Abolish Stupidity & Increase Intelligence by Frederick Mann http://www.buildfreedom.com/stupidity/abolish_stupidity.html Further historical reading: The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm bumper music "School Sucks" by White Birch Home School Players (starring Robert Ryan Keech) School Sucks - Low Budget Music Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpkrWuXn2RE
to comment, please go to http://completeliberty.com/magazine/category/91697
|
|
Tue, 16 December 2008
Throwing some scraps to the slaves in Taxachusetts (mj leniency), where 70% of voters endorsed the status quo of income expropriation Education is the main component for maintaining the meme of statism; governmental schools are seen as a necessary good "Education is a weapon" said Stalin Government Education Is Broken? It Just Ain't So! by Alan Schaeffer and Marshall Fritz http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=8366 Pundits typical "solution" to the problems of "public education": more money! Dropping out as psychologically healthy The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education http://lowryhousepublishers.com/TeenageLiberationHandbook.htm No school system can be all things to all students, and no coercive school system is good for anyone Even though it's always alleged to help them, kids from poorer families suffer the worse from governmental schooling, as did their parents Governmental employees are the perfect products of governmental schooling; they've inherited the bad memes fully The nerve-touching moral question always looms large: How exactly is this system funded? Statist arguments from emotional convenience--being treated with ridicule and outrage by those who don't want to face their history of statist indoctrination and advocacy Two fallacies: that the government school system is a failure, and that government can fix it! John Dewey's perverse coercive educational goals: to make good people; to make good citizens; to make each person his or her personal best From the horse's mouth: "My Pedagogic Creed" http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/e-dew-pc.htm Link (to a link) to Rand's take on Dewey: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/education.html The true aim of governmental education is, in H.L. Mencken's words, "to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality." John Taylor Gatto - State Controlled Consciousness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ogCc8ObiwQ Stupid in America by John Stossel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw Being shackled as a governmental school employee, or even a State-regulated private school teacher Regimentation, standardization, and segregation are the mainstay of coercive "public" education Maria Montessori's key insight: "The child has a teacher within" http://www.logicallearning.net/libertyeducation.html Bad tendency of adults to interfere with kids' intrinsic motivation Alfie Kohn's insights on intrinsic motivation (versus extrinsic rewards and punishments): Punished by Rewards? A Conversation with Alfie Kohn by Ron Brandt http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/pbracwak.htm GRADING: The Issue Is Not How but Why by Alfie Kohn http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/grading.htm Understanding our natural gifts as children; being creative, imaginative, innovative, and fearless Keeping the entrepreneurial spirit and society alive with these gifts Kids are incessant question-askers, as opposed to most adults Why is it that most adults--and even libertarians--send their kids to governmental schools... Constitutional arguments against governmental education are invalid, because the Constitution itself is not a valid contract As Lysander Spooner pointed out: No Treason. No. VI, The Constitution of No Authority http://www.lysanderspooner.org/notreason.htm#no6 The false binary "choices" offered to us by the statist system To advocate coercion to provide education is beyond the pale Because "poor people" need to be educated so much, the market will quickly fill this need cheaply and effectively (sans government) The coercive "business" of governmental education, purported as being for "the common good" (which is never very common and thus never achieved) The fallacy of voting (collectivized plunder), in which people supposedly get something for nothing and extort those with supposedly more wealth If you don't want to be a standardize citizen, there's no place for you in a coercive society Obedience to "authority" is pervasive, both in and out of "school" The ending of governmental schools means the beginning of complete liberty Gatto: "Children need to know that the ultimate form of private property is full possession of one’s own mind and volition." The Alliance for the Separation of School & State http://www.schoolandstate.org/home.htm "The Alliance for the Separation of School & State has a two-fold mission: 1. Help parents and others understand the true nature and the dangers of compulsory state schooling. 2. Show parents and others how they can take back their freedom and ensure a bright future for their children and our country." All statist regimes rely on a tax-funded education system to perpetuate themselves, and to devolve into totalitarianism The American governmental school system is the perfect storm of convincing people in droves that tyranny is actually good for them, and that they are "free," relying as it does on the Founding Fathers' liberty-oriented rhetoric An alternative historical view: Voices Of A People's History Of The United States by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove (eds) http://tinyurl.com/njfch Most advocates of the governmental system deny and evade the "gun in the room," i.e., the coercive nature of their views Essentially "the system" discourages individuals from challenging "authority," despite the objective need for a mutually respectful ethics No one can make choices for you, fundamentally; objectivity demands that you open your mind A free society entails people making their own choices about education The key is to free your mind from the mythologies from childhood; remember that when you were being taught about government, it was likely by a governmental employee within a governmental school You were told to believe in and take bites out of "invisible apples," as Stefan Molyneux has astutely noted: http://www.freedomainradio.com/Traffic_Jams/how_to_control_a_human_soul.mp3 bumper music "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd http://www.pinkfloyd.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_bvT-DGcWw
to comment, please go to http://completeliberty.com/magazine/category/91697
|
|
Wed, 10 December 2008
Barack Obama pledges $700B public works plan to help economy by Peter Wallsten http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-obama-stimulus_5sdec07,0,3049287.story Drunken sailer extraordinaire Best way to make federal buildings "energy efficient" is to close them down Obama sees 2.5 million more governmental jobs in our future, for starters Your Monday Message from the Libertarian Party: The LP Goes to Harvard, posted by Andrew Davis http://www.lp.org/blogs/andrew-davis/the-lp-goes-to-harvard Digging holes and filling them back up...all via extorted wealth The MO of government: distribute the costs and concentrate the benefits In order for government to refrain from intervening in the marketplace, it must disintegrate and disappear Government is nothing other than a coercively funded and arbitrarily imposed organization Government, being a parasite on the economy, doesn't make anything; it acquires money via extortion To "stimulate" an economy through coercion is evil Government isn't fit for a society of rational and respectful people, so it must be abolished No one, including those working in "government" have the right to impose a service at the barrel of a gun World's Shortest Political Quiz by Marc Stevens http://www.adventuresinlegalland.com/index.php?/content/view/88/33/ Win Every Political Argument by Marc Stevens http://www.adventuresinlegalland.com/index.php?/content/view/89/33/ Some people disingenuously assert that governmental employees don't impose their "services" at gunpoint; compliance isn't voluntary, as innocent people thrown in governmental cages can attest As long as slaves remain obedient, their masters treat them well Keynesians (statist economists) believe in the meme of authoritarian sociopathy writ large--that the State is legitimate and all-powerful; mystical God is to the believer as mystical Government is to the statist "Public property" just invites boondoggles, among other sordid things The collectivistic term "national debt" has no validity and must be repudiated Even though persons such as Milton Friedman have tried, one can't rationally perform a "cost/benefit ratio" on the use of coercion, which is forcing people to do things against their wills http://www.logicallearning.net/libcapitalismpol.html (search for choice quote by Friedman) You wouldn't allow people to force you against your will if they didn't call themselves "government," would you? The crimes committed with impunity by those in government are the same ones that those in government prohibit private individuals from perpetrating (assault, battery, kidnapping, theft, extortion, counterfeiting, murder, etc.) Obama has chosen to be the head of a coercive organization, an organization of people who treat others in an involuntary fashion, an organization of people who rely on propaganda, pr, and widespread obedience to maintain the illusion of legitimacy There shouldn't be political parties or a republic form of government; there should just be the free market, filled with enterprising entrepreneurs who ensure people's rights if need be (justice agencies http://www.logicallearning.net/liblegalagencies.html ) We shouldn't aim for "smaller government, lower taxes, and more freedom" We should aim for no government, no taxes, and complete liberty bumper music "Highway To Hell" by ACDC http://www.acdc.com/
to comment, please go to http://completeliberty.com/magazine/category/91697
|
|
Wed, 3 December 2008
Evil Concealed by Money by Walter E. Williams http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/EvilConcealedByMoney.htm Williams' new book: http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-versus-Tyranny-Socialism-Controversial/dp/0817949127 Let's talk about socialism, in America..."The forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another" The perceived virtuous coercion to get people to do things is the essence of government The doctrine of self-sacrifice fits perfectly with statism The glaring contradiction of "people are selfish and greedy," so they must be coerced The irrational greediness of governmental bureaucrats knows no bounds The alleged virtue and "good intentions" of government versus allegedly lessor others in the marketplace Most people sense the wrongness of government, but they don't know what to do to fix it; they're not organized, for one thing The nature of integrity in relation to immoral, unjust edicts Feeling isolated by the repercussions for not complying with statists--and fearing being attacked by one's fellow slaves People are really ambivalent about freedom and government Freedom activist Lauren Canario's courageous and independent-minded civil disobedience http://www.youtube.com/tackletheworld http://www.newhampshirefreepress.com/NHFreePress/?q=node/238 Lauren Canario was released from CT Prison yesterday http://www.keenefreepress.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=377&Itemid=36 or http://tinyurl.com/y58xuo FTL did an in depth interview with Lauren: http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2006-12-22.mp3 NH: Lauren Canario returns from jail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZTm-Hiz6Xs The most disturbing documentary about statism, imo: "Taxi To The Dark Side" - Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0MPcN08Zc (full film, though link may become defunct at some point) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2987535946644608661 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_to_the_Dark_Side Five detainees ordered released "forthwith" after seven years at Guantanamo http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/20/guantanamo/index.html Goes to show that authoritarian sociopaths have no qualms about putting innocent people in cages for indefinite periods--and torturing them This is why we must strike at the root, at the meme of government itself; people really need to change their perspective about tyranny No good end ever justifies using coercion against innocent people; government actions are never virtuous on account of this "Compensatory justice" (i.e., getting one's "fair share" of the stolen loot) is a non sequitur "Congress" is another widespread term of slavespeak While the Founding Fathers were seemingly more aware of the principles of liberty than today's goons, they still sold out and used coercion Case in point: James Madison, the architect of the Constitution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_madison JM was instrumental in this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bank_of_the_United_States The Constitution authorizes the initiation of force against individuals (e.g., the "power to lay an collect taxes"); therefore it's corrupt and contradictory to the core No 'right person' can be in politics, because he or she refuses in principle to be involved in a coercive institution A Dollar in Peril by Jim Davies http://www.strike-the-root.com/82/davies/davies8.html Creating cognitive dissonance by challenging individuals' statism memes (like voting); voting is violence, plain and simple JD "Voting is one of the most immoral things one can do," because it's all about laying obligations on people STR's powerful non-voting archive: http://www.strike-the-root.com/vote.html The collectivistic meme of the tribal premise http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/tribalism.html & http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/tribalpremise.html What is life if you lose your curiosity?!? A good question to ask others: Are there any aspects of your life that you'd like someone else to govern? Anarchy simply means freedom to make your own choices The youth are the main hope for a better world What if government imploded and collapsed...would people really want it back?...would they miss it?--especially when entrepreneurs would quickly, cheaply, and competently provide any and all desired services If you're getting a shoddy service and you don't like it, you shouldn't have to pay for it What would we do without a communized police force! Police Statism, Arizona style... License-plate scanning catching crooks, raising privacy concerns http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/11/23/20081123autotheft1123.html Contribute to the cause--buy the print edition of Complete Liberty (http://completeliberty.com) http://www.lulu.com/content/687618 bumper music "First They Brand You" (or "dodo-1") by friend and Free Stater Roger Grant http://www.politicalgraffiti.com; couldn't find exact link
to comment, please go to http://completeliberty.com/magazine/category/91697
|
|