Ah, how I long for the days in which I was so bright eyed and naive to think that voting mattered. Hell before I could even vote legally I was lobbying friends on behalf of Nader, crusading against Proposition 22 in California and generally trying to express my feelings, my hopes, my desires, my opinions and my public self through a system which valued me for none of these. Most of the issues I fought for I was eventually on the losing side of. And I think I had a sympathetic ear from my friends because they were apathetic about their own vote, and because they knew it did not matter to them, all they needed was a person to push them and guilt them into voting.
But no longer. I will discuss issues, movements, ideas and the like, but when some chump asks me about "Who ya gonna vote for in '08" I will calmly say, "No one". I am through voting. I am through with abdicating my responsibility. I am over with giving other people power over my life. I will turn away from the system and work towards making something else. Of course in the mean time I will not be able to break all the bonds, but over time the chains will crumble. So don't vote, it just legitimizes authority.
16 February 2007
06 February 2007
Gavin Newsom and how to blame alcohol
Now I am a resident of the bay area, no specific place but I reside all around and the big news story these days is how such a wonderful mayor could do something so aweful as sleep with his campaign manager's wife. Well other than the predicable response I am getting from a lot of folks, which is either anger that he cheated on his best friend's girl (implying ownership and reinforcing the 'bros before hos' doctrine) or that monogamy is crap and we should destroy any institution which fosters such delusuional thinking. I disagree, and the only thing I really have to say about it is that it is just another reason the dude is scum. But the real issue for me here is the way in which politicians are gettting their outs these days from sexual indiscretion is by blaming the booze. Somehow these crisis of personal behavior can all be blamed on the liquid devil. Newsom is seeking help, Mark Foley of Congressional page scandal fame did the same thing, and we all remember Ted Haggard and his struggles with sin and the blame on alcohol. Now alcohol can effect people's judgements, lord knows I have said some shit drunk, but I have also said some shit sober. Basically people need to stop blaming other things, need to take personal responibility, and seek help from those around them.
29 January 2007
So I am running my classroom as an anarchy and ....
So I am a high school social science teacher and this year while teaching government i decided to do something i thought would be interesting. I decided to have one class operate as an anarchy, where the students as well as I are responsible for creation of content, decisions on how and what we learn and share in the responsibilities of teaching. My other two classes I decided to set up as a republic, either presidential or parliamentary, that was their decision and already a week into class I can tell what the trajectories of the classes are.
First my anarchist class is thriving, opening themselves up the the project, understanding what is going on and taking responsibility for the class. They are beginning to encourage each other and even analyzing the class based on power. They have been working on how to equalize knowledge the class so I, the teacher, do not have more power based on the information that I supposedly possess. It is wonderful and honestly natural. They aren't marching against anything, but are constructing something. It reminds me a lot about of how the popular neighborhood assemblies in Argentina are working.
My other class are complete crap and will most likely be taken over by a dictator, me, because they are thinking that they have no responsibility to create a democracy/republic and so are just letting someone else do it which will ultimately lead to failure. But is this what 'democracies' and republics thrive on, the people giving up power and letting things be run by others. Lucky for them I am a benevolent dictator.
First my anarchist class is thriving, opening themselves up the the project, understanding what is going on and taking responsibility for the class. They are beginning to encourage each other and even analyzing the class based on power. They have been working on how to equalize knowledge the class so I, the teacher, do not have more power based on the information that I supposedly possess. It is wonderful and honestly natural. They aren't marching against anything, but are constructing something. It reminds me a lot about of how the popular neighborhood assemblies in Argentina are working.
My other class are complete crap and will most likely be taken over by a dictator, me, because they are thinking that they have no responsibility to create a democracy/republic and so are just letting someone else do it which will ultimately lead to failure. But is this what 'democracies' and republics thrive on, the people giving up power and letting things be run by others. Lucky for them I am a benevolent dictator.
12 January 2007
Tried of Predictable Responses
So with this whole Iraq war thing, if you are stumbling upon this blog is is probably for a reason, and so I do not need to go into detail on why war is bad in general, or especially why THIS war is one of the most ridiculous of all time. But a quick summary of the position would include something about imperialistic power changing the governments of other countries then forcing a government in its place, usurping the power and responsibility of the Iraqi people (there is a current of this criticism in the main stream media, see "the Iraqi's need to start taking responsibility for their government"), that most of the people dying in Iraq and civilians and do not wish to participate in the violence, and the same can be said about many soldiers, who did not sign up for THIS sort of war.
The greater debate in anarchism though, that involves war in general, is the one of violence. I spent the past year reading tons of anarchist literature about violence. Often i sway back and forth between two simple positions:
1. That violence is the tool of the oppressor, of unwilling coercion, and thus must be avoided in order to prevent the replication and further use of such violence in our own lives.
2. Violence is the only language in which the state speaks and the position of non-violence only allows the government to continue its program of oppression and power over us, and thus violence in the aim of overthrowing and combating oppressive forces is justified.
Like I said, I sway between these points, but I find that alternating causes inaction rather than action in either way and it is beginning to get frustrating.
The greater debate in anarchism though, that involves war in general, is the one of violence. I spent the past year reading tons of anarchist literature about violence. Often i sway back and forth between two simple positions:
1. That violence is the tool of the oppressor, of unwilling coercion, and thus must be avoided in order to prevent the replication and further use of such violence in our own lives.
2. Violence is the only language in which the state speaks and the position of non-violence only allows the government to continue its program of oppression and power over us, and thus violence in the aim of overthrowing and combating oppressive forces is justified.
Like I said, I sway between these points, but I find that alternating causes inaction rather than action in either way and it is beginning to get frustrating.
10 January 2007
Cognitive Masturbation
So I read a lot naturally, lots of news from all sources, I try and think a lot, but sometimes it is overwhelming. When it is I seek the cool comfort of familiar thought that helps me feel better about myself, better about what I think and who I am. It is the same motivation that causes my dad to read the national review, what moves most of us to just read the newspaper or some others of us who hide away in our corners, delving deeper and deeper into the world which is self contained and perfect. I advocate of being able to argue against as well as being able to argue for, but not from the vantage point of a distance, but up close. So you hate globalization? Put your nose right up to it and smell the stench. Describe it, touch it, then react. And don't just go back to those who you know will concur, but approach those you find the most offensive. Jesus never performed his miracles for the long term faithful. He did it for the people who were most unlike him. This is because the phrase, "preaching to the choir", holds some truth. Confrontation leads to progress, or as Eugene V. Debs said, "Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is either agitation or stagnation." And I know no one who is so content with the status quo as to advocate for stagnation. Well I guess I know no business leader, or millionaire.
05 January 2007
Another inconsequential event
So while I observe so many in this country rejoice that FINALLY the democrats have taken control of the legislative branch, I sit back and shake my head at the absurd play which we watch play out in Washington DC and in the media. So many are banking on this congress to really change things, to right the wrongs done by 4 years of tyrannical rule by the government wholly owned by the republicans. I see so many who are so optimistic that things are going to get better. But what they do not realize is that the whole process is bankrupt. The congress does not represent us. My main points can be summarized as such:
- Districts are often drawn up to reduce competitiveness.
- Thousands are disenfranchised by legal and illegal methods every election.
- The two party system forces us to often vote for the lesser of two evils.
- Money controls the process, automatically creating a system of inequity.
- There is unequal representation on the national level. One person does not equal one vote. The House representative for Wyoming for example represents the states population of 493,782. So you could say that one person represents 493,782 people. Now if we take the population of California, 33,871,648 and divide it by the number of Representatives in the House, then we get a number of 639,087. This means that there about 150,000 people for each seat in the California delegation who have lost power to cause of limiting the number of house seats to 435. Plus this is from the census in 2000, so does not accurately reflect the true population of California, with substantially more positive growth than Wyoming. I am not arguing that something needs to be done about it, just pointing out the absurdity,and falsity of equal representation pushed by advocates of the republic.
- Washington DC residents do not have voting representation on the federal level, essentially putting the capitol in a state of colonialism.
- Oh yeah and representing someone is usurping their power to make decisions and take actions by imposing morality and legality on actions. It always amazes me that people consent to give up power and rights to others.
All this is just at the federal level. Voting is false, only giving us the illusion of participation and is more important in creating compliance and complacency then actually giving power to the people. Remember as the immortal Emma Goldman said;
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal"
- Districts are often drawn up to reduce competitiveness.
- Thousands are disenfranchised by legal and illegal methods every election.
- The two party system forces us to often vote for the lesser of two evils.
- Money controls the process, automatically creating a system of inequity.
- There is unequal representation on the national level. One person does not equal one vote. The House representative for Wyoming for example represents the states population of 493,782. So you could say that one person represents 493,782 people. Now if we take the population of California, 33,871,648 and divide it by the number of Representatives in the House, then we get a number of 639,087. This means that there about 150,000 people for each seat in the California delegation who have lost power to cause of limiting the number of house seats to 435. Plus this is from the census in 2000, so does not accurately reflect the true population of California, with substantially more positive growth than Wyoming. I am not arguing that something needs to be done about it, just pointing out the absurdity,and falsity of equal representation pushed by advocates of the republic.
- Washington DC residents do not have voting representation on the federal level, essentially putting the capitol in a state of colonialism.
- Oh yeah and representing someone is usurping their power to make decisions and take actions by imposing morality and legality on actions. It always amazes me that people consent to give up power and rights to others.
All this is just at the federal level. Voting is false, only giving us the illusion of participation and is more important in creating compliance and complacency then actually giving power to the people. Remember as the immortal Emma Goldman said;
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal"
17 December 2006
Education
Right now a huge struggle for myself is how to integrate anarchist ideals in to education, which as a teacher is of course close to my heart. How does one respond to something like No Child Left Behind from an anarchist perspective. NCLB is huge in every educators concious and and the law is fundamentally changing education. It is replicating the corporate structure in the public domain. Now first of all education as it exists and has been moving for 50 years is towards more centralization, more federal and state control and less control by the students, teachers and community members, and now with NCLB, it is getting even worse as administrators are feeling the heat from officials thousands of miles away. But why is education replicating the corporate structure. Well of course one can simply look to the people who are in government, as public servents are more and more 'business people' who do not understand the special space that public goods and services hold. Imagine if the police or fire department were help to the same rediculous performance accountability standards. What if they consitently tested fire fighters, what if they put more and more responsibily on to departments all ready stretched thin, and then left all the mandates to be unfunded? First the fire, police and their unions would create such a stink that it would not happen, and then if the government pushed, then the public would come to their aid with outrage and the government would back down. So the state is looking at education as a place where they look as if they are doing something productive, something that is good for the people. But is there perhaps a more sinister aim at corporatizing education.
The enforcement of NCLB is similar to all the other states failed attempts a regualtion and control. It seeks to use the stick in order to force someone to do as they say. These punishments are simple. They start with state and federal administrators sticking their noses in and forcing schools into improvement plans that often require extra money, but everyone knows that school districts are so strapped and that the state does not provide any more money to help them. So failing schools continue to fail. The next step in the process is for the state to take control of the school, replace administration and make staff reapply for their jobs, which creates hostility, fear, and uncertainty; all not good conditions for teaching. After this, because nothing has fundamentally changed, infact perhaps things have gotten worse as more fuel is added to the fire, the school continues to fail the standards that the state has set. These standards by the way, while comendable for their idealism, are wholly unrealistic. For instance all children in every school in the US will be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Now just think if all countries held themselves to this standard. All nations would be failing. Besides all argument about which students can and can not achieve, one basic fact is that one group will always be at an disadvantage. This is english language learners, who are required like everyone else to be profiicient on their first test. In California, this means the first time they take the California High School Exit Exam. Now a senario that is all to common happens like this. A student comes to this country when they are 13. They are placed in 9th grade and 1 and a half years later they are expected to be as proficient as all other students in the state. This is insane. Imagine if you were to do the same to a US citizen by sending them to Denmark or France where they must take test similar to this to get into university at a similar age. It would not, could not happen. Now I am not saying that immigrants can not learn, because most of them can by their senior year and graduate high school but all that matters is that 10th grade test.
SO the conclusion to this is that eventually it becomes the responsibilty of the feds to come in and run the school. Of course an anarchist woudl deplore this, but even worse is that the chance of the federal government to actually create more beaurocracy to run this so what is likely, especially under a Republican administration is privitization of the school systems, except in the rich areas who can fund their school systems into compliance with high property values and school fundraisers, and these are the people who could be paying for private school themselves. So the circle becomes full, the current corpratizing of school will simply prepare us for what the feds see as inevitable, greasing up their cocks before the rape public education in this country. Unless the people rise up and take back their schools. More will be written about how an anarchist school room/whole school would be run soon.
The enforcement of NCLB is similar to all the other states failed attempts a regualtion and control. It seeks to use the stick in order to force someone to do as they say. These punishments are simple. They start with state and federal administrators sticking their noses in and forcing schools into improvement plans that often require extra money, but everyone knows that school districts are so strapped and that the state does not provide any more money to help them. So failing schools continue to fail. The next step in the process is for the state to take control of the school, replace administration and make staff reapply for their jobs, which creates hostility, fear, and uncertainty; all not good conditions for teaching. After this, because nothing has fundamentally changed, infact perhaps things have gotten worse as more fuel is added to the fire, the school continues to fail the standards that the state has set. These standards by the way, while comendable for their idealism, are wholly unrealistic. For instance all children in every school in the US will be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Now just think if all countries held themselves to this standard. All nations would be failing. Besides all argument about which students can and can not achieve, one basic fact is that one group will always be at an disadvantage. This is english language learners, who are required like everyone else to be profiicient on their first test. In California, this means the first time they take the California High School Exit Exam. Now a senario that is all to common happens like this. A student comes to this country when they are 13. They are placed in 9th grade and 1 and a half years later they are expected to be as proficient as all other students in the state. This is insane. Imagine if you were to do the same to a US citizen by sending them to Denmark or France where they must take test similar to this to get into university at a similar age. It would not, could not happen. Now I am not saying that immigrants can not learn, because most of them can by their senior year and graduate high school but all that matters is that 10th grade test.
SO the conclusion to this is that eventually it becomes the responsibilty of the feds to come in and run the school. Of course an anarchist woudl deplore this, but even worse is that the chance of the federal government to actually create more beaurocracy to run this so what is likely, especially under a Republican administration is privitization of the school systems, except in the rich areas who can fund their school systems into compliance with high property values and school fundraisers, and these are the people who could be paying for private school themselves. So the circle becomes full, the current corpratizing of school will simply prepare us for what the feds see as inevitable, greasing up their cocks before the rape public education in this country. Unless the people rise up and take back their schools. More will be written about how an anarchist school room/whole school would be run soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
