Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Social (in)Security
There’s a long history of weasels trying to get their hands on our Social Security money. They rely on people finding something reasonable in their completely specious arguments. People look for reason because it’s inconceivable that anyone could be so greedy and cruel.
Posted by Harry on from 01/06 at 08:34 AMA fascinating sidebar to your point involves the general public swallowing such lies yet demanding to see voluminous endnotes for everyone someone like me writes or says.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 01/06 at 09:03 AMYes, the plan to privatize Social Social Security is the greatest scam of our life time. How can people be so gullible ? I have been calling for an elimination of the cap, so that ALL income is subject to the SS tax. Maybe you should print up some t-shirts with the message “Eliminate the cap”.
Posted by rosemarie jackowski on from 01/06 at 11:12 AMStop the crap and eliminate the cap.
Hehe.Posted by Jay Vos on from Burlington, VT, USA 01/06 at 11:42 AMThe general public gets snowed under with volumes of bullshit. There are also all kinds of basic fallacies promulgated in K-12 education. If my bad idea “wins” over your good idea, the perversion of winner take all democratic discourse gives it respectability.
It’s also difficult for people to accept that a fundamentally bad idea can form policy for years or that treachery is a success strategy. To buck that, your case has to be perfect down to last dot over the least important “i”.
Ultimately, successfully defending against an ad hominem attack on you determines whether facts plain as the nose on my face get accepted.
Posted by Harry on from 01/06 at 11:43 AMBasically, I believe, it all comes down to a general population that lacks critical thinking skills. And it is unlikely that you will become a critically thinking adult unless you first had some critical thinking training/education in your youth. Socrates knew this all too well, which is why he was removed. Endeavor to train/educate our children to think critically, and you will incur the full wrath of the authoritarian idealogues. But it is, nonetheless, the most effective way to drastically change our future, I also believe.
Posted by Nader Rider on from 01/06 at 07:57 PMP.S. What kind of electorate would you have, if they experienced something like this in the course of their formal schooling:
http://www.middleweb.com/Socratic.html
Posted by Nader Rider on from 01/06 at 08:09 PMJohn Taylor Gatto says:
“I’ve come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us... I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children’s power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to *prevent* children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior."
More John Taylor Gatto:
http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Gatto.htmlPosted by Mickey Z. on from 01/06 at 08:49 PMI competely agree with Mr. Gatto, and have for the longest of time; and, it’s part of the reason why my daughter is being homeschooled too. Yet, and if this is true, then any socio-political, progressive changes that adults may succeed in effecting… will only be met by a new generation of automatons… as long as our educational system continues to cookie cut ‘em out. Which causes me to wonder why radicals and/or progressives don’t spend a lot more time addressing the breeding ground of automatons, our educational system.
Posted by Nader Rider on from 01/06 at 10:51 PMYes, that would be an appropriate link in the chain to be targeted.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 01/07 at 05:24 AM“...I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down...” I like that comment from John so much that it should be said again and again.
Posted by rosemarie jackowski on from 01/07 at 08:52 AMSorry if this may be misplaced here, but I just wanted to get the message out. Thanks for your indulgence.
“Dear Friend,
Ralph Nader joins Tim Russert this Saturday, January 8 on CNBC’s “The Tim Russert Show” at 7 p.m., 10 p.m., and 1 a.m. EST.
Tune in to hear Ralph for one hour on the Campaign, Corporate Power and Exploitation, the War in Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Corporate Globalization, Political Self-Censorship, and other topics!
The Team at Nader/Camejo”
Posted by Nader Rider on from 01/07 at 05:10 PMNot out of place, NR as I’m sure Ralph will talk about Social Security. Thanks for the head’s up.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 01/07 at 05:16 PM
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