Maher pisses me off sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy, but...he's a little cutesy for me.
I'm not a big fan of blaming the victim. Kids are making perfectly logical conclusions, given the way information is presented to them. He also says this as if there's ever been a period in our country's history where dissent was truly considered "American." I'd love to hear about that time in our history. None of these themes are new. They're just exaggerated by the wratcheting up of a war machine.
The only reason Maher's generation raged was because political issues hit close to home...and when I say close to home, I'm talking about white middle class kids. They were no different than young kids today. That's why the inevitable draft is being so painstakingly avoided.
I hate when people blame kids for being lazy or uncritical, when that's exactly what our system gears them to be. I've been studying the way textbooks are made, the way "scientific" research gets approved for education, the themes that are espoused in standardized testing. Fucking scary!
The '60s movement was fueled by 2 things...desegregation and the draft. If not for those two things, white middle and upper class families would've been able to continue living in a bubble. Instead, "their problems" became "our problems."
The fact is that Maher's generation is particularly capable of co-opting revolutions and marginalizing dissenters before they accumulate any momentum. It comes from experience.
you make some really good points, peter. i'm going to have to think about it for awhile. how do we break in? and then, how does one reeducate america without becoming another system vying for control of their consciousness, or worse, a boring lecture? if kids grew up learning to think for themselves, would they come to the same conclusions? would they care?
I'm not a big fan of blaming the victim. Kids are making perfectly logical conclusions, given the way information is presented to them. He also says this as if there's ever been a period in our country's history where dissent was truly considered "American." I'd love to hear about that time in our history. None of these themes are new. They're just exaggerated by the wratcheting up of a war machine.
The only reason Maher's generation raged was because political issues hit close to home...and when I say close to home, I'm talking about white middle class kids. They were no different than young kids today. That's why the inevitable draft is being so painstakingly avoided.
I hate when people blame kids for being lazy or uncritical, when that's exactly what our system gears them to be. I've been studying the way textbooks are made, the way "scientific" research gets approved for education, the themes that are espoused in standardized testing. Fucking scary!
The '60s movement was fueled by 2 things...desegregation and the draft. If not for those two things, white middle and upper class families would've been able to continue living in a bubble. Instead, "their problems" became "our problems."
The fact is that Maher's generation is particularly capable of co-opting revolutions and marginalizing dissenters before they accumulate any momentum. It comes from experience.
I do like Bill, though.
That was a bit of a rant, wasn't it?
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