procmail
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: OT: plagiarism

2003-03-05 15:13:34
As the Subject-line implies, this isn't about procmail.  Delete now if
that bothers you.  I do expect this to me be my last OT post on this
topic.  Apologies to all in advance for my lack of public restraint.


On Mon, Mar 03, 2003 at 09:17:37AM -0500, Jefferis Peterson wrote:

Dman, 

My old private, prep high school is now facing a crisis. It always
ran on the 'honor code.' Given honor that we would be honest and not
cheat, we lived up to that standard. We may have done a lot of things
in our generation [drugs/alcohol, etc.] that were illegal, but by and
large, cheating was 'beneath us.'  Some residue of integrity was left
in us, however marred by the 'lusts of the flesh.' :-)

The crisis?  Up to a third of the senior class now faces expulsion
because of a massive cheating scandal. The fabric of the integrity
seems to have been shredded by the climate of moral and ethical
relativism that pervades our social ethics. I mean, after all, what
does the word "is" really mean.

:-) If all is really relative then is is a relative term as well.

A few years ago, I wrote a piece that points to the philosophy
of modern education as a root cause. It's called, "Why Johnny
Can't Think."  Using values clarification and self esteem, we've
gutted ourselves of the need for accountability, responsibility and
integrity.  My wife is a teacher in the school system, and often
her hands are tied. One of her co-teachers said of the self-esteem
program's end results: "Now the kids are dumb as doorknobs and PROUD
OF IT!"  I.e., they don't need or want the teachers to tell them
what to do, and say that the teachers have no right to tell them
what's right or wrong. All authority is gone. What makes me feel good
is right, anything that makes me feel uncomfortable or unhappy is
wrong. Therefore, video games, good; homework, bad.

Here's an excerpt from the article:  "The problem with a steady
diet of this type of literature [fantasy lit. vs. classical lit.]
is that it does not teach a child to distinguish between his own
impulses and right and wrong. Without guidelines in social morality,
the child is left to decide for himself right and wrong based upon
what he feels like inside. [. . .]

If I'd stopped at reading just what you sent to the list, I'd think
maybe we were reading from the same sheet of music.  However, I didn't
stop: I clicked on the link you provided to your pages.  So now I have
to assert that we are as far away from each other as oil and water.  I
am going to say this only once.  I apologize again that it has nothing
to do with this list.  (But I can't let things lay as you left them.)

The problems with culture today in general, and young people today in
particular, have nothing whatsoever to do with a need to return to
"our biblical foundations," as you put it in your rantings on your
web page[1]; or with a need to bring the Kingdom of God into the public
schools.  Moreover, the evils of the modern world were not caused by
secular humanism or contemporary liberalism.  Indeed, I would argue
that Johnny can't think because of mindless adherence to the yoke of
rote religiosity as much as for any other reason.

Here is a short quote from a philosophical lexicon:

    Salvation from rule by the mob and the destruction of
    the existing social order can be effected only by . . .
    [a] leader who embodies the highest ideals of the
    nation. This concept of the leader as hero . . . ,
    borrowed in part from the romanticism of Friedrich
    Nietzsche, Thomas Carlyle, and Richard Wagner, is
    closely linked with . . . [an] emphasis on vision,
    creativeness, and "the will."

Does that resonate with you?  It is from _The Columbia Electronic
Encyclopedia_, copyright 1999, Columbia University Press.  You can
find the full quote online at atomica.com, using either the site's
interactive reference look-up or the free, downloadable Atomica
Slingshot desktop client.  The quote is part of a description of
fascism.

Another facet of fascism is a "rejection of reason and intelligence"
(that quoted matter belongs within one of the ellipses from the indented
quote above).  If there is one best hope for modernity, it is for us
to drag ourselves out of the mud by way of our gifts of reason and
intelligence.  (Hey: procmail can help shove us in that direction, wot?)
:-)  Critical thinking is what we need; not blind obeisance.

Our social problems are varied and complex.  They do not emanate
from fantasy literature in apposition to classical.  (Anyway, true
"classical" literature was written by, as you call them, heathens, in
pre-biblical times.)  I say this as someone who earned a degree in
comparative literature from a top university.  Literature is, indeed,
grand; but its dearth is not the boo-man for any modern social crisis.

You scare me, Mr. Peterson.


[1] I'm not going to reprint the link here.  Anyone curious enough
can go find it in last week's list archives.

---
W. Dallman Ross, J.D.
Lecturer in English
American Studies Division
School of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies
University of Mainz, Germersheim, Germany

_______________________________________________
procmail mailing list
procmail(_at_)lists(_dot_)RWTH-Aachen(_dot_)DE
http://MailMan.RWTH-Aachen.DE/mailman/listinfo/procmail

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>