Random musings
Seeing as I haven't had an intellectual discussion in recent memory (or even distant memory in fact), my brain is rusty, but following links around a few blogs I keep track of, I'm reminded of the irony I find in many of the debates that we read online. Note though, that I'm mainly talking about blogs relating to local concerns; I have no interest nor nearly enough knowledge to comment on anything else.
About elitism. This is a supremely ironic debate to my mind; elites don't think of themselves in those terms - an elite who is concerned that he is being elitist would not be an elitist, this is a contradiction in terms, because according to Answers.com, he has to believe he is superior. I am mystified as to why there was even an article in the national papers about a survey in schools asking students something along those lines. [Snark: Although I'm surprised that the elitists who were conducting the survey determined that the neighbourhood school students had sufficient commands of the language to know what "elitist" means.]
There's also this whole backlash with the relief teacher who was dismissed. There's been a lot of activity in the blogging community about this issue, but I find some of the arguments most amusing. The entire event, while unfortunate, isn't all that deep, but comments and analyses have been spinning out of control. So the guy was fired. He wanted the justification for it. Whether or not he intended to use the reply, or lack of it, from the Ministry as fodder to fuel anti-government tendencies or whether he just felt that he deserved an explanation I don't know, and I don't care to speculate, but the amusing thing for me is that the end result of all this is general confusion - so are we, the people, demanding transparency, sexual-preference-blindness in the hiring of teachers or some other end result? No one seems to be concise or focused. This is in fact why I've ever had even the slightest inclination to participate in the concerns of the local online community. Mr Brown had that entry about ministers' salaries, to which someone said that US presidents make money from book deals so have continuing income which our Prime Minister does not, and to which I rebutted that that person apparently never stepped into a local bookstore and seen the memoirs of our twice-ex-Prime Minister, and this with him earning pension and still holding a paying post as some-trumped-up-title Minister.
I just have to share my personal opinion about something I feel is related. So, back in the day, I was hoping for a scholarship (no such luck) and was applying to Brown University. So apparently I was a borderline case, because I was granted a personal interview with an alum (a friend who DID eventually get accepted was not interviewed) who asked me whether I was willing to go to all lengths to enter Brown, including taking a loan and financing my own studies there. Of course not, I replied (200k is not a loan you can take up without collateral), and he gave me the example of his ex-roommate, who apparently did exactly that. Well, I had familial obligations, to fund my siblings' educations as well, I said. His argument was that money is not important, to which I rebutted, well, he was working in a high paying job (the interview was held at the tower club) and he went on to confide: once his children were grown up he was going to retire and live the simple life. Ah-hah! I pointed out to him that if money were truly unimportant, he would not be working now at all, but would already be living the simple life. To which he didn't have a reply, except that I wasn't accepted into Brown.
About elitism. This is a supremely ironic debate to my mind; elites don't think of themselves in those terms - an elite who is concerned that he is being elitist would not be an elitist, this is a contradiction in terms, because according to Answers.com, he has to believe he is superior. I am mystified as to why there was even an article in the national papers about a survey in schools asking students something along those lines. [Snark: Although I'm surprised that the elitists who were conducting the survey determined that the neighbourhood school students had sufficient commands of the language to know what "elitist" means.]
There's also this whole backlash with the relief teacher who was dismissed. There's been a lot of activity in the blogging community about this issue, but I find some of the arguments most amusing. The entire event, while unfortunate, isn't all that deep, but comments and analyses have been spinning out of control. So the guy was fired. He wanted the justification for it. Whether or not he intended to use the reply, or lack of it, from the Ministry as fodder to fuel anti-government tendencies or whether he just felt that he deserved an explanation I don't know, and I don't care to speculate, but the amusing thing for me is that the end result of all this is general confusion - so are we, the people, demanding transparency, sexual-preference-blindness in the hiring of teachers or some other end result? No one seems to be concise or focused. This is in fact why I've ever had even the slightest inclination to participate in the concerns of the local online community. Mr Brown had that entry about ministers' salaries, to which someone said that US presidents make money from book deals so have continuing income which our Prime Minister does not, and to which I rebutted that that person apparently never stepped into a local bookstore and seen the memoirs of our twice-ex-Prime Minister, and this with him earning pension and still holding a paying post as some-trumped-up-title Minister.
I just have to share my personal opinion about something I feel is related. So, back in the day, I was hoping for a scholarship (no such luck) and was applying to Brown University. So apparently I was a borderline case, because I was granted a personal interview with an alum (a friend who DID eventually get accepted was not interviewed) who asked me whether I was willing to go to all lengths to enter Brown, including taking a loan and financing my own studies there. Of course not, I replied (200k is not a loan you can take up without collateral), and he gave me the example of his ex-roommate, who apparently did exactly that. Well, I had familial obligations, to fund my siblings' educations as well, I said. His argument was that money is not important, to which I rebutted, well, he was working in a high paying job (the interview was held at the tower club) and he went on to confide: once his children were grown up he was going to retire and live the simple life. Ah-hah! I pointed out to him that if money were truly unimportant, he would not be working now at all, but would already be living the simple life. To which he didn't have a reply, except that I wasn't accepted into Brown.