At 6:17 PM 7/6/96, Alan Olsen wrote:
With these sort of tools, we are conditioning our children that it is OK if someone filters their information before they see it. (Without even knowing the *KIND* of information being filtered, because even *THAT* level of knowledge is harmful and/or proprietary.) That it is OK for some parental figure to eliminate all the "nasty" and "awful" information before someone can hurt themselves with it. That itt is OK to prevent others from viewing information to complex for their childlike minds.
We are becoming a nation of the babysat. Anything that our nannys deem harmful is hidden away in the bedrooms of the parental units. And maybe it is harmful. They have to scan through it all day long and look what kind of self-righous pricks they have become!
The doublethink and hypocrisy of modern society is astounding. A friend of mine has an 8-year-old son, whom he has custody of on weekends. Sometimes his son wants to have his friend stay over Saturday, as kids like to do. When the mother (a single mother, as this is California) drops her son off with my friend (also single, of course), she includes several "Ritalin" capsules with instructions on how to dose her son with this depressant/behavior modification drug. My friend ignores these Ritalins, which upsets the Mom greatly the next day when she realizes her son has not been given the tranks that are also known as "Mother's little helpers." I've been over visiting my friend to see some of this. The Ritalin-sodden kid arrives like a zombie. When the Ritalin wears off, he's rambunctuous, but all kids are. My friend Paul has had to discipline him a bit to keep him from--as the psychobabbles would say--"acting out." This discipline sets him straight, but it's not something his New Age "supermom" would ever think of doing. Hence the kid throws temper tantrums, acts out, calls her "You fucking asshole" (remember, he's only 8 or so), and so on. So she cranks up his dose of Ritalin and he's zoned out for a while. Frankly, I think telling the kid that if throws a tantrum he'll get punished for it is a whole lot more normal--ever notice that a dog smacks her puppies when they get out of line, or that a cat swats her kittens the same way? It establishes the rules of the game. (No, I'm not talking about "child abuse," the sadistic beltings and lashings which some parents give. However, here in Kalifornia it is essentially illegal for parents to use corporal punishment. Heavy doses of drugs are, after all, the California way!) "Just say no to drugs!" is the mantra of these doublethinkers, as they dose their kids at school and at home with tranquilizers and behavior modification drugs. The kids grow up thinking pills are the answer to everything. Also in California, the public schools dispense these mind control drugs to a growing fraction of the school population. Apparently this has become the largest part of the job of "school nurses." I believe parents are involved in this dosing regimen, but I would not be surprised if this changes. After all, such medical procedures as abortion are now handled "discreetly" by the school nurses, without any requirement that the parent be notified. Whatever one thinks of abortion, this is surely a strange state of affairs, where the public school system is taking on such a role and is actively deceiving a parent. The connection with the themes of our list is that this linguistic doublethink is what allows Big Brother's control of our communications and private files to be called by the relatively benign name of "escrow." --Tim Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."