I don 't want this to sound like a religious rant, but where in God's name did some of these people come from? Are they ignorant, cowardly, or even worse.....evil???
Laurel, I feel for you.
I am a 75 year old white guy ( and a veteran) who over- enjoyed his 4 years in a southern university. None of what you are describing sounds like the America we both know and love.
Blessings, Noel.
And, Brava, Maya!!!! Integrity IS worth the sacrifice !!!!!
It is often the 'easy' path that traps us and the difficult ones that are the means by which we attain true freedom of the self and with that the community. Covid and mass formation are a negative confirmation of that: the unthinking followers have brought themselves, their personal, local and broad communities into a state of self imposed enslavement. We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us! Hmmm. Of course, the covid sleepers aren't actually seeing and so the awake are looking at the zombies who are threatening them. LOL! Such an interesting challenge. And I have a feeling that the recent popularity of the zombie genre in 'entertainment' was artistic intuitive awareness of the age of covid.
The point of the 'reality' that duvet covers choices are empty is so on point. And is, of course, the simple extension of the proffered consumer fake choice masking as freedom as supplied by the monopolies of product who have been inculcating consumerism since our their birth. "I have freedom because I can choose from 20 different flavours of toothpaste!"
I recently listened to Jordan Peterson's interview with the refugee from North Korea, Yeonmi Park. Eventually she went to Columbia University. He asks her how was it, to be free to learn. "It was a waste of time in money." "Why?" Paraphrased. In North Korea the oppression was so deep I didn't know I wasn't free to think. In America, I learned that here I can think freely. At Columbia, I learned that I was supposed to only think woke ideology and so had to keep my mouth shut. In North Korea I didn't know I wasn't free. In American, I know about freedom and was imprisoned by ideology. He as saddened, and disappointed to a large extent. "Not even one class?" There was silence. Paraphrased "Well, I took music history, and the great white male composers were discarded as symbols of male patriarchy." He cried at the death of the once great American Universities.
Several years earlier Peterson talks with Camille Paglia about the impending death of the Universities because the cancer of woke same-think-speak ideology had metastasised everywhere:
For years I kept an inspiring quotation from the ancient philosophical and prognosticative book, the *I Ching* on my walls that helped me as I struggled with the pressure for sameness I saw outside the school system in the work place as it became increasingly tyrannical.
This is my edited version:
Weakness and impatience can do nothing. Only strong people can stand up to their destiny, for their inner fortitude enables them to endure to the end. This strength shows itself in uncompromising truthfulness. When individuals are faced with obstacles to be overcome, weakness and impatience can do nothing. Only strong individuals can stand up to their fate, for their inner security enables them to endure to the end. This strength shows itself in uncompromising truthfulness with themselves. It is only when individuals have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any sort of self deception or illusion, that the light will develop out of events by which the path to success may be recognised.
What a great article, thanks for this. I will make this required reading for my 15 year old daughter. And i'm especially glad that you recognize the "blob".
There are different blobs but in reality they are all the same blob.
The green blob demands you conform to their thought process on climate. The CRT blob tells you how to think about race.
At bottom, what they are really telling you is you are not actually allowed to think.
You appear to be one of the smartest people in the current universe, or at least this dimension.
Hopefully you survive what's coming as we desperately need you.
We need to clone you, pump you through the Star Trek transporter dozens of times and splitting you into 2 then 4 etc, like a pernicious amoeba.
My daughter (16) is taking classes at our local community college while still in high school. Our state offers this program and pays for it (OH). She is already experiencing the pressure to conform to her professor’s ideas. She wrote a paper for class that she wouldn’t even let me read because she knew I would dislike the content. We are not woke people and she knows it, but she says I have to write this paper a certain way so the professor will give me an A.
Good grief. When I went to college in the 80s, college was a place you went to learn things. Now it’s all politics and posturing, griping about “I don’t get health benefits” and basically demanding that everyone bend over backwards to give you more stuff. The idea that students would not share review notes with their peers out of solidarity with striking Teaching Assistants is ludicrous.
News flash: College is not the real world. Your going “on strike” for benefits is stupid and meaningless; you’re young adults, you still don’t know anything about life yet. You’re paying for an education. Get it and get out, get a job like the rest of us. Pay your taxes and mind your business.
Good for you! What a world we find ourselves in right now. My younger 70’s self can hardly grasp how far we went forward and then how far we fell backwards. Stay True North. May we all stay True North, whatever that may mean for each of us.
Way to go Maya! We need more people like you standing up for what they believe in. That takes real courage. I've enjoyed all of your essays for Common Sense and look forward to the next one!
Laurel,
I don 't want this to sound like a religious rant, but where in God's name did some of these people come from? Are they ignorant, cowardly, or even worse.....evil???
Laurel, I feel for you.
I am a 75 year old white guy ( and a veteran) who over- enjoyed his 4 years in a southern university. None of what you are describing sounds like the America we both know and love.
Blessings, Noel.
And, Brava, Maya!!!! Integrity IS worth the sacrifice !!!!!
Yes.
It is often the 'easy' path that traps us and the difficult ones that are the means by which we attain true freedom of the self and with that the community. Covid and mass formation are a negative confirmation of that: the unthinking followers have brought themselves, their personal, local and broad communities into a state of self imposed enslavement. We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us! Hmmm. Of course, the covid sleepers aren't actually seeing and so the awake are looking at the zombies who are threatening them. LOL! Such an interesting challenge. And I have a feeling that the recent popularity of the zombie genre in 'entertainment' was artistic intuitive awareness of the age of covid.
The point of the 'reality' that duvet covers choices are empty is so on point. And is, of course, the simple extension of the proffered consumer fake choice masking as freedom as supplied by the monopolies of product who have been inculcating consumerism since our their birth. "I have freedom because I can choose from 20 different flavours of toothpaste!"
I recently listened to Jordan Peterson's interview with the refugee from North Korea, Yeonmi Park. Eventually she went to Columbia University. He asks her how was it, to be free to learn. "It was a waste of time in money." "Why?" Paraphrased. In North Korea the oppression was so deep I didn't know I wasn't free to think. In America, I learned that here I can think freely. At Columbia, I learned that I was supposed to only think woke ideology and so had to keep my mouth shut. In North Korea I didn't know I wasn't free. In American, I know about freedom and was imprisoned by ideology. He as saddened, and disappointed to a large extent. "Not even one class?" There was silence. Paraphrased "Well, I took music history, and the great white male composers were discarded as symbols of male patriarchy." He cried at the death of the once great American Universities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yqa-SdJtT4&list=LL&index=11&t=20s
Several years earlier Peterson talks with Camille Paglia about the impending death of the Universities because the cancer of woke same-think-speak ideology had metastasised everywhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-hIVnmUdXM&t=16s
For years I kept an inspiring quotation from the ancient philosophical and prognosticative book, the *I Ching* on my walls that helped me as I struggled with the pressure for sameness I saw outside the school system in the work place as it became increasingly tyrannical.
This is my edited version:
Weakness and impatience can do nothing. Only strong people can stand up to their destiny, for their inner fortitude enables them to endure to the end. This strength shows itself in uncompromising truthfulness. When individuals are faced with obstacles to be overcome, weakness and impatience can do nothing. Only strong individuals can stand up to their fate, for their inner security enables them to endure to the end. This strength shows itself in uncompromising truthfulness with themselves. It is only when individuals have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any sort of self deception or illusion, that the light will develop out of events by which the path to success may be recognised.
*I Ching* 5 Hsu p.25 Baynes/Wilhelm.
Thank you for your courage Maya.
Thank you Maya for your strength and thoughtful response to sameness. Be an outlier. It is way more fun.
What a great article, thanks for this. I will make this required reading for my 15 year old daughter. And i'm especially glad that you recognize the "blob".
There are different blobs but in reality they are all the same blob.
The green blob demands you conform to their thought process on climate. The CRT blob tells you how to think about race.
At bottom, what they are really telling you is you are not actually allowed to think.
You appear to be one of the smartest people in the current universe, or at least this dimension.
Hopefully you survive what's coming as we desperately need you.
We need to clone you, pump you through the Star Trek transporter dozens of times and splitting you into 2 then 4 etc, like a pernicious amoeba.
Bravo.
My daughter (16) is taking classes at our local community college while still in high school. Our state offers this program and pays for it (OH). She is already experiencing the pressure to conform to her professor’s ideas. She wrote a paper for class that she wouldn’t even let me read because she knew I would dislike the content. We are not woke people and she knows it, but she says I have to write this paper a certain way so the professor will give me an A.
The professor should be tossed into the ocean and made to swim to china, they do not belong here.
This is leadership. Thank you
Good grief. When I went to college in the 80s, college was a place you went to learn things. Now it’s all politics and posturing, griping about “I don’t get health benefits” and basically demanding that everyone bend over backwards to give you more stuff. The idea that students would not share review notes with their peers out of solidarity with striking Teaching Assistants is ludicrous.
News flash: College is not the real world. Your going “on strike” for benefits is stupid and meaningless; you’re young adults, you still don’t know anything about life yet. You’re paying for an education. Get it and get out, get a job like the rest of us. Pay your taxes and mind your business.
Good for you! What a world we find ourselves in right now. My younger 70’s self can hardly grasp how far we went forward and then how far we fell backwards. Stay True North. May we all stay True North, whatever that may mean for each of us.
Way to go Maya! We need more people like you standing up for what they believe in. That takes real courage. I've enjoyed all of your essays for Common Sense and look forward to the next one!
The students who boycotted the lecture are by definition know-nothings. They don't even know what they so dramatically oppose. How could they?
So well-written, Maya.
Not an endorsement, but the freshman resilient enough to show up at Barnard with a MAGA Duvet — that person is going places!
Excellent piece. Well done, Maya, and good for you in sticking with that class!
Maya, you give me hope for the coming generation.
Bravo Maya!
Gives me hope. ❤️🔥