Chiseling out more cogs in the machine?

I would like to thank my sister, Ceilon (http://ceilon.blogspot.com/), for getting me going this morning ;-) The following was taken from my comment to her blog, but I revised it as necessary and added a bit more:

Amen, Ceilon!

National media is dictated by the dollar - American newspapers and magazines are funded by the food, entertainment, pharmaceutical, etc. industries, so any potential threat to their profit is simply not allowed to be printed, or sponsors will extract their financial support. Newspapers and magazines have evolved into glorified marketing schemes with a few interesting articles between the ads just to keep our attention. This is why we don't see many of the scientific breakthroughs that are occuring behind the scenes.

For example, as revealed in the bonus material in the documentary, Supersize Me! (Morgan Spurlock), daily physical education for kids in middle and high school raised their overall math and science scores - Spurlock's highlighted school outperformed China in both math and science scores (on an international scale) as a result of requiring kids to partake in daily phys ed. Also highlighted was an alternative school (in or near Appleton, WI) for kids who had been expelled from the public school system for bad behavior. The alternative school provided organic food for the kids, sometimes grown by the kids themselves, which resulted in not only drastically improving their behavior (which, relatively quickly, became better than the behavior of many kids attending the public schools), but also significantly improving their grades.


As a homeschooling mother (homeschooling 3 with 3 in the public school system, whom I also continue to educate) who has studied sociology, I can tell you without a doubt that our "education" system is really bureaucratic basic-traning for chiseling out replacement cogs for the machine. (they teach, from kindergarten on, how to "line up," avoid questioning authority...) Schools don't teach what is vital for kids to grow up to become well-rounded, critically thinking adults, they train children in the status quo... in how to become cookie-cutter Americans. Only a "chosen" few are singled out and put on the fast track, like my daughter, for instance. Her intelligence and creativity were recognized as being untamable, so they stopped trying to make her conform, and put her in "accellerated" classes. Even in those classes, she doesn't learn what I teach her at home. Just basic stuff, people, like how to manage/budget their money (not taught in schools - but, now get this, schools do teach what a check is and how to write one properly), how to respect, but question authority, and know when the time is right to ask questions.... etc.


Wake up, America!

My anti-fascist alter-ego is about to sport a 'tude:

America is not a democracy, it is a well-disguised totalitarian oligarcy. It is controlled by big business, which perpetuates the illusion of democracy by instituting a virtually impotent congress, senate and presidency, and ensuring its control by making it possible for only the extraordinarily rich 5% of the population to run for "public" office (because it takes millions to run for the Senate, and scores of millions to run for the presidency), many of whom are extraordinarily rich because their money is invested in the food, pharmaceutical, oil, etc. industries. Therefore, our country will never produce adequately educated or healthy citizens. (Our only hope lies in the House of Representatives, where "average" Americans still have a chance to run for office. Even then, not many who make it there have the balls to stand against the big dogs. - The Supreme Court, however, ROCKS, really doesn't put up with anyone's shit.)

Controlling as many aspects of the average American's life as possible is an ongoing trend: I have no doubt that profit also drives insurance companies away from supporting the practices of natural medicine like chiropractic, holistic, orthomolecular, etc. It is more profitable to keep Americans sick than it is to promote the maintenance of good health.

I read an article in the associated press not very long ago (that somehow made it past the big business sponsors - thank God for small towns who are not yet locked within the vise grip of the -ahem - sovereign dollar) in my local paper, the Statesboro Herald. It reported on a survey posted in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA - find the article in a Sept, Oct, Nov volume, can't remember which) - It reported quite significant results from a survey sent to administrators of 125 medical schools and other continuing education avenues for physicians - approximately 2/3 of administrators responded, and 2/3 of those who responded reported having a financial stake in the pharmaceutical and medical supply industries. They admit leaning in the direction of their heaviest pocket when they decide what medical students should study. - Hello! No wonder we're always sick. The sicker we are, the more meds doctors are compelled to prescribe, and the more meds they can prescribe in order to counter the effects of the meds that are making us sicker than we were in the first place (!), and the more ridiculous "procedures" they insist we need to undergo - in order to ensure an increase in their dividends. The hipocratic oath to "first, do no harm," seems to have been abandoned a long time ago. (I'm not an absolute antagonist, I do believe there is a vital place for pharmaceuticals, but not the way many doctors rely on them - it seems they're relying on meds to take care of business than they relying on them to take care of people).


I could go on and on.... Stay tuned, I think I'm going to get out some of my old papers and let it stir me a little more .... >;-)

Thanks for the jumpstart, Ceilon!