The Simulacra

Have you ever fallen in love with a made-up world? Some fantasy in a book or a film that engrossed you so completely, resonated so deeply within you, that you ached to think it would never be real as it is within your own heart and mind?

I've fallen for many such worlds, lived whole lives within stacks of pages, series of images within a screen that felt more real even that my own so-called reality, chaotic and clumsy as it can be. I have shed some very real tears, spent innumerable hours trying and failing to summon into existence the figures and forms of these alternate realities: the inconjurable scent of cherry blossoms wafting over Kyoto; the burn of absinthe in a Parisian cafe; a place beyond the stars.

All the while knowing that such things have never truly existed as I imagine them, and that my only access to their reality is through the limited conduits of symbols: lines scratched out on a sheet of paper, captured light projected upon a screen, markings that bear no meaning but what I give to them.

Roland Barthes spoke of the difference between "readerly" and "writerly" texts. Some stories are uni-directional and simply offer themselves up to us with their meanings naked and fully-formed, while others require us to fill in the blanks and come to our own conclusions, to inject something of ourselves into them to create a synthesis of meaning.

I believe all texts are writerly texts. All texts demand something of us; no narrative exists independently of our interpretation of it. And though every reader drinks in the same set of symbols from a text, is it not filtered through a unique lens: a completely distinct set of experiences shaped by a singular set of experiences and personality?

If you and I watched the same movie, or read the same book, how often would our experience of it be the same? How often would we agree as to what it all means?

And is our world not another text, another set of symbols that we must navigate, the meaning we draw from it inseparable from the lens through which it is viewed? Is our experience not mediated by eyes that can be fooled, to be filtered through minds that can be flawed and perceptions that are tinted by our own neurosis and biases?

And in our interpretation of this world we must all share, are we not each fully alone within the bubbles of these bodies, the prison that is our discrete existence as separate Selves, able to interact with our reality only through symbols, building maps in our minds of a thing we can never truly quantify?

For the map is not the territory, the symbol is not the reality, and in our age of mass-media that gives us more streams of conflicting information than ever, diluted through yet another degree of separation from its source, we are left with a simulation of a simulation, a copy of a copy of a copy. Shadows dancing on the cave wall, from which we cannot look away.

It would seem that we are bound to this one reality at least: that there is no true means of knowledge available to us, nothing that is not tainted by the faulty lenses of our perceptions. That we are forever chained within this Platonic cave, watching the shadows upon the wall, never seeing the fire that casts their flickering forms, nevermind the true light that lay beyond the doorway to the cave.

Or is that assessment just another shadow on the wall?

The Entrance to the Maze

It has been seven years since I last posted on this blog. I doubt any of my original audience will read this, but I figure it is as good a place as any to pick up the train of thought that has taken me to the center of the labyrinth and back in the time that has passed since my last post.

IASC 1F00 was where my journey began. I found myself sitting in that classroom at Brock University because I had always felt that there was an ocean of knowledge waiting for me just around the riverbend, and I was so excited to venture out and dive into it. I was wide-eyed, innocent, and so excited to sink my teeth into this big beautiful world we are all a part of, to learn all of its secrets and contribute to the Great Work of making it even better.

I was standing at the gates of the maze, unaware of the true scope of the twists and turns contained within.

Sitting in our circle of desks, student and professor alike as equals, we were encouraged to ask "so what?" Whatever question you've asked, whatever answer you think you've arrived at, what does it mean? Why is it important? What difference does it make?

This is the concept that consumed me: the idea that knowing for its own sake is not enough. What is the purpose of knowing? What does knowledge mean for us as human beings?

I began to wonder about the nature of knowledge itself. How do we KNOW anything? Descartes famously said, "I think, therefore I am," but that seemed myopic to me. How do we know that we are what we think we are? Does our perception of consciousness provide proof of concept? If we were simply a brain in a vat being stimulated electrically, or advanced artificial intelligence in a Matrix-type simulation, who had been programmed to be absolutely convinced of our reality, would we ever know the difference?

At worst, I concluded, the captial 'T' truth was inaccessible to us, and at best, it was a very convincing illusion.

After all, as we discussed in class, we are quickly moving towards a world that is post-reality, a simulacra, where it is near impossible to distinguish fact from fiction. Each of us try our best to assemble a model of reality that works, but when our sources of information all conflict, when they are simulations of a simulation, a map based on no real territory, what is there for any of us but a void without meaning or purpose? What orientation is possible?

Wherein lies the exit to the maze?

"I Have Been The Best Slave"

A speech by high school valedictorian Erica Goldson




Here I stand

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast -- How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?" Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, "We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that." Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not "to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States."

To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of "critical thinking." Is there really such a thing as "uncritically thinking?" To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don't have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can't run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, "You have to learn this for the test" is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.

For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn't have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a "see you later" when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!





Source: http://blog.swiftkickonline.com/2010/07/valedictorian-speaks-out-against-schooling-in-graduation-speech.html

Private Service Announcement

As cliche as it is, people really are their own worst enemies. So often the only barriers blocking our path to happiness are those of our own design. We need to learn to love a little more unconditionally; conditions only prevent us from getting close to people and allowing them to make us happy.

Love your parents, your siblings, your friends-the people who love you. Appreciate that they love you in the same way. Accept them for exactly who they are; don't resent them for not being what you want them to be.

The way the world is, we could all do to love a little more freely, and allow ourselves to be loved in return.

I find myself thinking again and again about that huge argument that kept coming up in class, about whether or not the teacher has a responsibility to 'make' their students learn. There was a heated debate about the degree to which a student is responsible for their own learning.

After thinking about it a great deal, I feel I've figure out where I stand. I feel like there are two kinds of students. There is the student who, while reading, encounters an unfamiliar word, and immediately asks their teacher 'what does this word mean?' There is also the student who, upon encountering this same unfamiliar word, will open up a dictionary and look it up themselves.

Either way, the student is going to get an answer, but who will remember that answer better? I think that my suppositions are clear :D.

P.S. I am trying out a new reductionist style of blog posting in response to criticism of my general verbosity. How is it working?

I'm Not Dead

The last two days have just been just horrific. Possibly the worst, like, ever. And it made me miss our last 1F00 classes too.

If anyone needs me, I will be curled up in the fetal position watching the Discovery Channel.

The Human Condition

My friend and I had the following conversation tonight:

Them: I have come to the realization that truth is choice.

Me: Both truth and choice, I would argue, are illusions :).

Them: Normally, I would agree, but I've since decided that if choice isn't a part of the game, somehow, then I'm unwilling to continue playing.

This, I think, sums up the human condition quite nicely.

I'm reading (and enjoying) a book by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From the Underground, and it explores this idea in greater detail. In the first few chapters, the narrator talks about something similar; he says that nothing drives him more insane, as a thinking man, than the laws of nature. He says that anyone with a brain will come to the conclusion that we have no choices, that free will is an illusion, because the path of our lives are dictated by things completely outside of our control - biology, gods or greater powers (if you're into that sort of thing), the laws of physics, our culture - in short, all of the external influences that shape who we are, and determine the courses of our lives. All of the things that put life outside of our control. This idea drives him insane.

He goes on to explain that man needs the illusion that he has choice, that he has a say in what he does and what will happen to him. He needs to feel like he matters as an individual. And this, he says, is what causes people to defy logic in every possible way and do things that make absolutely no sense at all, even to them! He says that sometimes, our best interests don't interest us at all, and that sometimes we will do the exact opposite of what we know is best for us, simply so that we can have a choice. Just so we can regain some measure of control.

And this, I think, is totally true. I've done it, lots and lots of times. Put off an important homework assignment that I knew I ought to do, avoided making an important appointment, or perhaps made a stupid, stupid purchase on impulse despite knowing that I needed money to pay for groceries. And after the fact, I often ask myself 'why on earth did I do that? I know better!'

But now it makes a bit more sense.

Human beings are magnificently stupid creatures, aren't they?