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My Inner Monster The current

My Inner Monster

The current system of British education emphasizes the inculcation of prepackaged attitudes and opinion over the Platonic goal of cultivating the ability to think for oneself, according to this interesting spiked column, which is also the springboard to a characteristically perceptive sermon on the pseudo-religious excesses of enviro-extremism by the illustrious Steven Chapman:

There's a kind of neatness about modern environmentalism that might be worthy of a chuckle if it wasn't so worryingly influential: the Third World must not industralise for the sake of the environment, hence its economy is destined to remain predominantly agrarian and hence at the mercy of seasonality. Even when crops are good tariff barriers and subsidies to Western farmers precludes profitable export of their produce. Why are there subsidies? Partly to protect farmers' jobs but also because - at least in the UK - farmers are no longer seen as farmers, i.e. people working primarily to grow food for our consumption, but are seen as much as 'custodians of the countryside'. To drop subsidies might mean a switch to larger-scale, less environmentally-friendly types of farming. So - to all the poor brown people of the world: don't blame us! Blame Gaia, our new goddess!

As Chapman says, he is fortunate to have had a proper education in New Zealand "back in the days when teachers were teachers rather than propagandists," adding that he can still remember some of the things he learned in secondary school geography classes. Amazing. At the California public schools I attended, Geography meant little more than sampling Foods of the World.

I fear, however, that, despite his enviable education, he's wrong about the Age of Aquarius: the ability to add syllables to words in order to make them fit a tune is one of the few things that separates us from the lower beasts. Though, for all I know, there may indeed be a totalitarian monster inside me trying to get out. More on this as It develops. Scan on, ba-ay-by...

Posted by Dr. Frank at November 15, 2002 11:39 AM | TrackBack