Too short.
Too weak.
Too weird.
Too geeky.
Too queer.
Too nonconformist.
Too much of a problem with positional authority.
Calling for kids to be sent to the same schools earlier in their lives, and confined there - exposed to the abuses of bullies - for longer, is only going to mean more kids killing themselves, and sooner, and more kids scarred for life. Essays like Legend's are asinine at best and callous at worse. To link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lege
Let's remember that positional authority is false authority. Authority does not come from positions, and morality does no come from laws. Bakunin said it well:
"In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or engineer. For such or such special knowledge I apply to such or such a savant. But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism censure. I do not content myself with consulting authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, and choose that which seems to me the soundest."
I may disagree with much of the remainder of the essay. It does not matter. I agree with the above passage, among others, not because of Bakunin's authority, but because of that of my own reason and experience. To link:
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Ar
2010-10-11 12:05 am (UTC)
2010-10-11 12:38 am (UTC)
Bullying sows the seeds for misogyny, for exploitation, for racism, for militarism, and so on. And the school system is very much an engine of bullying.
2010-10-12 05:59 am (UTC)
The consequences were while home schooling kind of saved me, I was brainwashed by everything the students said. Which took years of internet research to reverse. And yes the nightmares of being back in that school again continued to haunt me for about a year or two. Oh and also I couldn't even visit my fifth grade graduation party cause I got threatened out of it. Oh and there was that large rock one of the jocks tried to throw towards me but it missed me by about 8 feet, which they just laughed manically after.
And then don't forget the two "friends" who said they would protect me from the other students, but then ended up betraying me. Consequently it also ruined my grades, and a lot of other stuff. And there's more but I could go on forever. I can only imagine what horrors are beyond fifth grade in public schools. It's incredibly stupid that so many people are forced through this torture. It's truly sickening that the school systems are seen as some "morally upstanding" and "safe" place. It's even more sickening that it's viewed as an "obligation" that people are forced to go through that.
just so you know
2010-10-15 12:24 am (UTC)
He would likely stop linking if you asked him to.
Re: just so you know
2010-10-15 01:42 am (UTC)
It would also save lives.
Re: just so you know
2010-10-15 01:43 am (UTC)
2010-10-15 04:10 am (UTC)
Institutions which teach bullying teach kyriarchy: hierarchy, domination, obedience, force-worship, misogyny, and state-worship.
It's not a side issue. I am skeptical of any effort to prioritize one cause [abolishing capitalism, ending the state, shattering patriarchy, etc.] over all other causes, and to dismiss something like anti-bullying as a distraction from the One Cause to Rule Them All.
2010-10-15 07:50 am (UTC)
Those who keep their hands entirely clean of power are vanishingly rare and become only powerless and unenviable. These saints- Chris Hedges, for instance, who is not happy- have only delusionary heavens or delusionary intrinsic values with which to console themselves, and this compared to the things human beings truly desire is noisome straw. No cat is made happier or healthier by vegetarianism, and no human being can draw life or substance from morality alone. St. Anthony died in the desert for nothing, except the further pain of those whose brief lives were wasted by following his example.
I did everything I told you I would and regret none of it, given the bloody classpile of a world we inhabit. I like my ring.
Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.
You have a brilliant mind and poetic spirit. I shan't write again, and shouldn't be writing now.
Everything is rent.
2010-10-15 04:16 pm (UTC)
Of course, someone deeply unhappy could write the same thing. Words are such blunt instruments. Maps are better... ;)