As IF Times

Source: Prof lets students choose own grades for ‘stress reduction’

Image from Daily Mail

Now we’re getting to the root of all the vapidity that has infected society like cold sores after a party at the Playboy mansion.

The concept of education as a means of acquiring objective knowledge and enlightenment has given way to the new modern idea that it’s instead a journey of self awareness, perception and warm fuzzy feelings.   Sort of like intellectual yoga, but instead of the body being bent into unnatural shapes, it’s logic that comes out in pretzel form.

The classic joke goes that when you ask an accountant how much is the sum of 2 plus 2, a ‘good’ accountant would respond, “how much do you want it to be?”.  This idea seems to have been adopted as the model for much of today’s education as indicated in the attached link.  The notion that education is all about stress reduction and perfect rainbows is of course, personal choice.  With that being the case, the necessity of getting an education moves towards obsolescence since self actualization can be had by watching You Tube videos and segments of The View.  The problem is, these people wind up being able to vote; and when they vote in numbers, they impose their shrill and malleable fuzzy worldview upon others.

Unfortunately, the age at which people are the most impressionable are in their formative school years and during this time, the wackiest notions can be introduced as knowledge and this becomes hard wired into the students’ minds, possibly permanently.  Instead of confronting the realities of life in the search for knowledge through critical examination, a made up reality which is palatable to gentler sensibilities is instead pursued. Of course, this is a vicious cycle, because some of the newly enlightened graduates become teachers themselves; rinse and repeat.

We know instinctively that graduates from the schools of wishful thinking are likely to be only questionably competent at real life.  We can imagine the diagnoses offered by doctors educated in such a fashion.  “You are not ill sir, only bad people get ill.” Or  the work of engineers who want to build bridges spanning the Atlantic because, “it’s our right to cross the ocean by car.”  The absurdity of such examples is obvious, but the absurdity of the distortions of history are not.  There is no instant logic check on the absurdity of much of today’s worldviews as the re-writing of past events and the distortions of others attain truth status among the ‘educated’.  In fact, history is probably the most important of topics to be properly vetted because otherwise, as the saying goes, we are doomed to repeat it.

The events of the past few days in Charlottesville Virginia shows just how far down the road we are in that regard.  The entirety of the popular media has portrayed this incident as incitement by an odious racist element.  While this is notionally correct, the resulting conflagration came from bad actors on both sides of the issue.   It stretches credibility when the media characterizes the demonstrations as peaceful when attendees carried protest signs that looked remarkably like automatic weapons, bludgeons, bottles of urine, pepper spray and gas masks. Not exactly the tools of free speech.

The balkanization of society, especially by race, has been an easy target for political opportunists for a long time.  Objective studies of history will reveal this, including recent examples in Germany and China.  History tells us that statues and monuments are the beginning, not the end of cultural upheaval.  Books that aren’t in compliance with accepted thinking are the next target on the path to upending all established institutions.  When the mob supplants the rule of law, history tells us that the results are not good.  A legitimate education is supposed to move society away from those kinds of tragedies.  The kind of education that’s in vogue now only serves to produce more naïve stooges for the cultural mob.  If you listen to some of the Orwellian rhetoric coming from the product of today’s schools, you hear about immutable rights and freedoms…as long as it’s acceptable rights and freedoms.

link Kevin Smith fuels row over fat plane passengers | Reuters.

You know it had to happen eventually.  Mr. Smith was informed he was a safety hazard and would be denied boarding onto a Southwest Airlines flight.  This not because of his larger than life movies, but literally because he was  larger than life; super sized.   The “world” famous director of such classics as “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” was so annoyed with his treatment by the airline that he went all a-twitter to marshall sympathy from his rabid fans.  Apparently a “wave” of protest from angry passengers supported Mr. Smith.  Although “wave” is not defined as an absolute number, I suspect at least 2, both likely of plus size.

It doesn’t appear to be an issue of size per se: Smith himself acknowledged as much by actually purchasing tickets for 2 seats on the original flight.  On the standby flight which he wanted to board, only one seat was available and apparently the airline made the judgement call that shoe-horning him in wouldn’t do.  What’s wrong with that?  Imagine if you were the person having to be seated next to a human wall.  God forbid that in some kind of emergency, you’d have to climb over Mt. Smith to exit the aircraft. 

It looks like he was inconvenienced by having to miss the flight and so he pursued today’s popular method of retribution, trial by media.  Disregarding the fact that calling attention to his story would heap even more ridicule upon his super size, he spins the story as one of indignance and positions himself as a champion for the rights of similarly proportioned fliers.  All of a sudden, it’s his rights that are being trampled.  As if.  What if his size 14’s were on someone else’s feet and he had to be seated next to a couple of people rolled into one?  My bet is that he would be complaining about his nose being buried in someone’s armpit.  Anyone who flies knows how ridiculously small the passenger spaces are these days for even an average sized person.  Having to sit next to anyone tipping 300 pounds on a flight of any length is unbearable.  It’s like sitting in a full nelson for hours.   What if you’re claustrophobic? What if you need to see daylight?

I’ve written numerous times on encroachments on personal freedoms, but guys like Smith use their “celebrity” in order to have things their way.  For them, it’s not about personal freedoms, it’s about their personal freedoms, others don’t matter.  What if he had an afro hairstyle the size of a hula hoop?  Are people obligated to accept his individuality?  Southwest for their part were wimpy in their response, apologizing and offering a credit.  What they should have offered were tickets on Sumo Airlines.