Getting over it.

So I've been hearing things about this Mark Minter fellow. First from the Good Doctor, then from other sources. About how this fellow supposedly betrayed all the guys on the manosphere by doing all the wrong things.

As I've written before, leave like a goddamned gentleman. Okay, so I understand that some people, myself included, find that most modern women fail a cost-benefit analysis, and that it's probably not a good idea to hold out hope of attracting someone suited to be a life partner in this MMV. That doesn't mean you can't learn game anyway, become the most interesting man in the world, or find another avenue to improve yourself as a person.

Long ago, there were outlets for people who didn't want to or couldn't enter that reproductive building block of society known as marriage (please, no ahistorical protests on the lines of marriage is for love, thank you very much. Infertility was always a valid reason for divorce) and went on to do other things. Enter monasteries and nunneries. Become governesses and old maids and live off daddy's trust. Become a philosopher. Become a wise woman (in the eras when these weren't labelled "witch", that is). Devote your life to your craft. If gammas really are as intelligent as Vox puts them, then these might very well have been the outlets for such people.

But hey, since we're taught sex and romantic love is everything these days, might as well roll with the punches, eh?

If you do find that unspoilt dream woman and you have some sort of evidence that against all odds and countless men believing their cupcake will never do that to them, go ahead. Hey, there are people who have lucked out, I know some of them.

Leave like a gentleman. Get over it. Outcome independence. Do something else. Drop out of the playground and go over to plant your own seeds and build your sandcastle in that little plot over there. Dropping out does not mean caving in. Lift weights. Read books. Learn survival skills. Prepare for ITZ. Maybe if you do make yourself the most interesting man in the world, who knows, you might luck out and snag the most sane woman in the world.

Don't howl and hoot and scream and yell just because your idol turned out to have feet of clay.

Equalist Marriage Advice.

A leftist equalist helpfully posts his marriage relationship advice over at Vox Day's:

A) We each respect the others ambitions
B) The kid got disciplined by us both and raised by both
c) We both cooked, cleaned
D) Made big decisions together
E) We each play the games we want
f) We F*cked a lot.
G) We both work
H) We hold hands when we walk down the street
I) We are partners in everything and have each others back

Now, a commenter named Mudz has this to say to that:

 If they had only known! WHY DIDN'T THEY HOLD HANDS??

I'm sure it must be delightful for you both to return from work to a dark house, then discuss together who's going to cook dinner and do the chores, how you're going to discipline your child, who's big decision you'll fairly support. Sounds like the perfect respite from a long day of work, to repeat over and over again.

I think it's pretty dubious that 9 mostly tangential requisites is better than 6 basic ones for marriage, but you can claim it's what anchored your relationship if you like(because marriage only works if you do just everything together, whatever those things are). But I shall regard the claim with great skepticism.

Gresham's Law - it just gets worse and worse and worse...

From Wikipedia:

Gresham's law is an economic principle that states: "When a government overvalues one type of money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear from circulation into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation."[1] It is commonly stated as: "Bad money drives out good".

Aurini has written a small piece on this little law, which examines how it applies to sex and culture. He concludes:

"The result of the interplay between Cad/Dad and Lady/Slut-Bitch is a mating market that’s slightly more focused on meaningless sex, and slightly less focused on emotional bonding.

That was the first iteration: now repeat ad nauseum."

Just fine, innit? An escalating arms race where good behaviour is rapidly driven out by the bad. Just a couple of hours ago, I wander by Mr. Sturges' and see this post:

He has this to say about these "gags":

"Well isn’t that nice. How many of you guys out there when faced with a fake pregnancy test that results in a positive every time would know the difference from a real one? Definitely not me, it’s something that I never concerned myself with. Can you see the consequences of this? Some poor sclub has sex with some predatory bitch hitting the wall hard and then is confronted with one of these fake tests. Well the poor bastard just thinks he hit the jackpot, finally he thinks to himself, “I’m going to have a kid!” Not so fast bucko, what’s going to happen next is she’s going to want to get married and then when he does, all of the sudden there’s a miscarriage the response of which she’s going to fake all of the appropriate emotions that someone who’s lost an unborn child is supposed to go through. After a couple of months of grieving here come the divorce papers, she’ll tell the judge that the “trauma” of losing the unborn child was too much and there goes half his property. Notice that the person that is on the losing end of this “prank” is called the “victim“. Given the implications of what could happen with something like this it makes perfect sense.

[...]

"Well, isn’t this nice too? If it is convincing enough to fool the requisite gullible guy can you see this getting out of hand? Given that 90% of the guys out there are gullible as hell, look for sites like this to proliferate. All because these bitches know that with very little evidence they can extract the hard earned resources from men with very little evidence and by preying on the gullibility of men who just want families.

Good grief, I’m glad I got snipped 15 years ago. But I’m going to make a prediction here that you might not believe, but given what I’ve seen over the past decade, is quickly going to come to pass.

This bullshit site is just the beginning. As more women hit the wall and more women become single mothers without support, look for sites catered to these whores where if you’re a man and leave behind so much as a spent cigarette butt, a hair or your saliva on a drink glass that she can get possession of, there will be services and websites that will make sure that the bitch’s bastard spawn matches your DNA whether you even met her or not. Given the family court system these days you are going to be screwed even if you didn’t lay the cunt. And, with ubiquitous DNA testing that surrounds us these days and the faith the general public puts into the results of any test like this, look for these types of tests to be abused. Especially if resources can be extracted from a productive male."

Oh, but the men aren't going to lose out. Gone are the days of poked holes in condoms - as Mister Grumpus comments:

"On the other side of things, there are plenty of sites selling fake (but of course real-looking) sets of birth control pills, replete with fake prescription documents, etc.

Which of course reminds me of that one outfit that sells fake ATM balance receipts. The more money you want it to show that you have, the more you pay.

Try to cheat and end up surrounded by cheaters, I guess."

Commenter Earl has some other ideas:

I have a great idea.
Act like you are poor and insane.
Tell her your job is part time greeter at the Sizzler.
And that you see snakes all the time…there is even one on her face.
Demonstrate low value to every slut you encounter.
If they are going to go the route of lying to get what they want…so will I.

Wonder what the next iteration will be?

Bad money drives out the good. Bad sex drives out the good. Bad behaviour drives out the good.

I think I can say we're in a free-fall spiral right now, and from within the safety of my reinforced box, I can say I'm loving every single moment of it as a young curmudgeon.

Peering out of the box - 22/7/13.

Free Northerner - The real meaning of Zimmerman.

That was his crime. He cared about his community enough to try to keep it safe. He got out of the car.

And that is the whole point of this fiasco. It is the whole reason they rage against “stand your ground”. It’s the whole reason they fight gun freedom.

The Cathedral does not want you to get out of the car. The Cathedral does not want you to protect yourself or your community. The Cathedral does not want you to be able to trust your neighbours.

Vox Popoli - Behind the scenes.

It occurs to me, however, that there is one time when it would make very good sense to replace MEU commanders, and that is when new military action is at hand.  When one considers how the Syrian rebels appear to have failed in their bid to overthrow Assad and the recent army coup in Egypt, I find myself wondering if this might be an early sign of expanded American military intervention in the Middle East.

Stares at the world - The power of the shield.

The Magic of the Shield – that spell which turns a Peacekeeper into a Peace Officer – only works in a society of Civilized Men.  It only works when you have a population of Citizens who are willing and able to enforce Law and Order with their very own Peace Makers.  It only works when the Emperor Himself is but a servant to the Mandate of Heaven. It only works when the Truth isn’t just a label on a shelf of consumer goods.

Separation of Church and State was never about keeping religion out of governance – it was about keeping the magic in.  But we’ve killed the Magic, we’ve killed the Truth, we’ve killed God, and we’ve killed Reason.  With all of that gone, we are all of us Brutes – all we have left is is Brute Force.

Sultan Knish - The eagle has landed.

Like so many decrepit civilizations before us, the massive rotting edifice of our government has become our great work. Keeping it going, keeping it from falling apart, wiping its bottom, finding the money to prevent its latest imminent failure, fighting over the last folder while the barbarians shout "Allah Akbar" and put all the paper to the torch because the Koran makes it redundant, that is what we do now.

We no more go a-roving so late into the night. Not when our own night has come. And it is late indeed.

It is not that we have no more Neil Armstrongs or Eugene Cernans or any of the other clean cut men who look back at us from those old photographs, cool and confident, knowing that they are the messengers that a civilization at its golden apex has picked to represent it at its peak moment. It is that we no longer want them.

Zero Hedge - China warns of "overly limited forecasts".

In a wide-ranging interview with Xinhua, the Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei started from the normal fantasy-land of central-planners by noting that the topic of a Chinese hard-landing "was not discussed at the G-20," because "no participant believes in the existence of that risk." Commenting on calls for the Chinese to launch new stimulus (to save the world's economy), Lou admonished the other nations, adding "I suggest they fulfill their own due work rather than counting mainly on others." He remained adamant that China is still growing and creating jobs but fears what everyone else fears: "The global market will sustain negative impact should the Fed fail to interact properly with other components of the market." In other words, "get to work, Mr. Bernanke, and don't remove the punchbowl," because as Lou notes, "some countries are overly optimistic on their outlooks."

Ice Age Now - Chinese wheat crop ruined by cold, wet.

“Crops ruined,” says Reuters. “China may become top wheat importer.”

In related news, the Guardian quotes Tesco's CEO as mentioning the end of cheap food prices is here.

Didact's Reach - On striking women.

I need to state this very plainly: I HATE training with women. In Krav Maga, one of the most important lessons that you learn is that you NEVER fight strength against strength. The point of the art is to go from defence to offence in the shortest time possible. This means that when you pair off in a class to practice releases and blocks against various forms of chokes and attacks, you need to be fully committed to defending yourself, and your partner must be fully committed to attacking you. In order for those attacks to be effective when training, though, you need to be up against someone who is roughly at the same level of training and physical strength as you are.

Why I don't really care about local politics compared to what's going on overseas.

As a general rule, I do not care to follow local politics and issues. When it comes to considering whether I should follow complaints about dirty toilets, demands for more free shit and people complaining that free public transport in the morning still isn't enough - or whether I should follow a collapsing global economy, decay of the world from East to West and impending global calamity -

- I have the suspicion that a goodly number of Singaporeans are like my father, who somehow believe that if global finance and trade were to stop tomorrow, we would still be fine. Why? Because everything is so far away and out of sight. True, heaven is high and the Emperor far away, as the saying goes. But these days, the sky looks pretty damn close, and the Emperor's arm has grown ever-longer. Hey, the government kept us relatively safe and sheltered during the 1997 Asian currency crisis, didn't it? I'm sure it'll save us in the case of a dollar/financial collapse and trade coming to a total standstill, won't it?

While American cities file for bankruptcy, Europeans hang themselves at increasing rates out of sheer desperation and both China and Japan melt down financially, Singaporeans are enraged over how dirty the toilets at their favourite food courts are and demanding the government do something about it.

I'd make a joke about first world problems, but the problems I'm concerned about are happening in the first world.

Didact correctly points out that oddly enough, in a lot of ways, Singapore is considerably freer than the US. Recently, it seems that Old Barry has reasserted the right in his wonderful NDAA for indefinite detention without trial, and while Singapore has possessed that power (along with Malaysia) since the 1950s, it has been at least somewhat even-handed in exercising it, and we still don't do extra-judicial killings via drone.

Censorship of the media? Well, I'm no going to deny that there is certainly some governmental interference in what is said and not said in the Singaporean mass media. But compared to the massive self-censorship of the Western "free" media thanks to the Cathedral, one can only wonder if it's all as cracked up as it's supposed to be.

So for those who say one should keep one's house in order before going around criticising others': well, Singapore is already largely in order. Despite increasing decay of its own, what I'm looking out for is not so much the mildew (although it's fun to complain about), but the wrecking ball the neighbours are driving into our yard.

A few thoughts on education.

Been thinking about the way of modern education in the light of my recent commencement and why the hell it has been so much of a great failure.

Consider an apprenticeship. In the past, an apprentice left the home of his parents and went to live with his master in what was usually a one-to-one relationship, if not a one-to-a-handful relationship. In any case, the point was that numbers were small enough for master and apprentice to have a personal relationship. The apprentice would serve his master, make his way up in his master's esteem and be trusted with greater and greater tasks as his learning progressed. They would eat together, sleep together, work together. If the trade was one with high capital costs, the only way the apprentice might ever become a master in his own right would be to marry his master's daughter and inherit the proverbial forge. The master did not merely impart skills to his apprentice, but an entire way of thinking and life, but also the culture of a trade. How a tanner was supposed to behave, how a clothier was expected to treat customers, what the standing of a smith was in society.

An apprentice did not merely gain training in the trade he was being groomed for, but also a way of life. In the same way, schools for young ladies, such as finishing schools, taught them more than just how to sew doilies and be oh-so-horribly-oppressed - they were taught codes of behaviour, manners, what would be expected of them as grown women and how to conduct themselves about men -

- Compare all these with the nonsense we have today, a bunch of women with the objectively lowest-qualified major (education) following a curriculum specifically designed to churn out idiots and cogs.

As I mentioned in a previous reply to one of Aurini's comments, education used to be so much more than the 3Rs, so personally involved in the master-disciple bond. When I was matriculated into university, I was assigned a "mentor" which I never saw in person for the whole of the five years I was there and only exchanged a few emails with. At least my primary school teacher stayed with me for a year at a time and my junior college teachers for two years, but most of the professors teaching courses were gone within six weeks, and I had the impression a number of them just wanted to be rid of us so they could go back to the lab.

I don't blame them.

North-East Asians have a reverence for education. The problem is that the Prussian model is antithetical to the original Disciple-Master form of education in the period during which this reverence was formed. Neither China, Japan nor Korea seem to have realised that, alas. But such is the failure of modern education - or perhaps it's not failure, but exactly what it was intended to do.

Small hiatus.

Following my commencement, I've decided to step up my efforts in seeking employment. I'm taking a few days to a week off posting, so please bear with me.

Peering out of the box - 10/7/13.

Vox Day - The Biggest Bubble.

For those who didn't follow, what Keen is saying is that the stock market has been one giant debt-inflated bubble since 1980.  And it means that when the change of debt goes negative, asset prices are going to contract at a speed proportional to the rate of the debt contraction.  This, of course, is why the Fed has been pumping so desperately for five years, and also why it was always doomed to eventual failure.
What I find particularly significant is that Keen has reached a very similar conclusion about the stock market that Karl Denninger and I both independently reached about the economy through a different approach, which involved calculating the dollar amount of debt required to buy one dollar of economic growth.  By any of our three methods, it readily becomes apparent that there has been no genuine economic growth in the USA since 1980, give or take a year.

We're doomed. What else can I say? Mr. Beale does a much better job than my of articulating this sense of doom that hangs around the world.

Cappy Cap - You should never have to game friends.

Understand absolutely drop-dead gorgeous women are damaged goods in a certain regard.  It isn't even necessarily their fault, but rather society's.  Since they are so good looking, the vast majority of men interact with them on a sexual basis.  They want to have sex with them, they want to be around them, they simply want to look at them.  Sadly, none of them want to be their friends and therefore truly beautiful women have few, if any, platonic or non-sexual relationships with men.  This skews their experience and mental development so far to the point that by the time they're 20, maybe 22, they're INCAPABLE of having normal, healthy, non-sexual friendships with males.

Bionic Mosquito - Libertarians and Abortion.

With this in mind, I will present the case that it is the unborn child, and not the mother, that has the right of use of the womb for the term of the pregnancy.  I base this on causation, reasonable reliance, unilateral contract, and, as Block has introduced the language of landlord and tenant, a lease and the covenant of quiet enjoyment.

If anything has come out of the evictionism debate, it is my discovery of Bionic Mosquito's thoughts on the matter, and his argument, as far as I can see it, is a) solidly based in libertarian principles and b) utterly ironclad to the wailing of popular epithets such as "my body, my choice" and "slavery". He certainly is accepting challengers to his argument, but there appear to have been none so far (save one mewling about "slavery", which he has addressed to not be the case in his argument, and another deriding his argument for being "partisan"). In theory, I agree with most libertarian prescriptions, but the problem is that they require most people be rational in their decision making, long time-oriented, and capable of handling responsibilities.

Which 90% of people are not, to varying degrees, hence some form of slavery in inverse proportion to their ability to handling freedom is required for their own good and the good of society; the underclass of which is the most egregious example. Such is the reactionary position.

And before someone accuses me placing myself in the 10% capable of full autonomy, please see below for my post on being a good follower.

Sultan Knish - Wrong side of the street.

The Zimmerman case is about many things, but it isn't about George Zimmerman, an Hispanic Obama supporter who campaigned against police brutality only to find himself plucked up by the hand of Big Brother to play the villainous white racist in the latest episode of liberal political reality television.

I'm fully expecting riots to erupt over the trial when Zimmerman walks. It would be a perfect time for martial law to be declared. Or in the case he doesn't walk, we know rule of law is gone in the US (not that it wasn't already, as Aaron Hernandaz proves.)

Zero Hedge - Radioactive Tritium At Record High Levels In Fukushima Ground- And Sea-Water

The Japan Times reports that TEPCO said Sunday that 600,000 becquerels per liter of tritium has been detected in groundwater at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant - 18% higher than levels a week earlier. Furthermore, the utility also said it had measured a seawater tritium level of 2,300 becquerels per liter - the highest so far - near the water intakes of reactors 1 to 4. So it is that in a nation already suffering from a dreadfully declining demographic dilemma, the citizens are being exposed to highly cancerous substances still.

Uh-oh. "Oh, this is bad!"

The Economic Collapse - The Decline Of Breadwinner Jobs Has Resulted In The Longest Bread Lines In American History

On Friday, we learned that the U.S. economy added "195,000 jobs" last month.  But when you look deeper at the numbers, another story emerges.  Last month, the U.S. economy actually lost 240,000 full-time jobs.  Overall, the U.S. economy has only added 130,000 full-time jobs in 2013, but it takes about 90,000 full-time jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.  So we are losing quite a bit of ground as far as full-time jobs are concerned.  Meanwhile, the U.S. economy has added more than 500,000 part-time jobs so far this year.  Unfortunately, there are very, very few part-time and temp jobs that can be considered "breadwinner jobs". 

Commencement.

Just got back from the commencement ceremony.

It was vile.

Disgusting.

Abhorrent.

The opening video was one of our Dear Leader LKY receiving a honourary doctorate of law at the Istana (our equivalent of your White House) earlier this year. Why this was shown, I have no idea.

The guest speaker was a regional manager for a petroleum company. She pontificated at length about her "work-life balance", which involved outsourcing the raising of her three children to her mother and mother-in-law, as well as their nanny, of which she openly bragged that her children regarded their nanny as another mother. This was followed by exhortations for men to do more in the home (we know you ladies don't really find us sexy when we do dishes) and "support their wives' careers", while urging the women to "find the bravery" to "reach top positions in the corporate world".

The dean's speech was little better, blathering on about how climate change was threatening the world, the roles of engineers in building social justice, blah blah blah blah diversity blah blah discrimination blah blah blah -

At least the valedictorian's speech was just a teeny bit less politically charged, although he gushed and bubbled over at how university was a great experience for him and how we should follow our hearts and everything which Cappy Cap points out is a big bull of crock you should not be paying thousands of dollars a semester for.

A big portion of what's wrong with modern society, squeezed into the small space of two hours. It's enough to make a man feel ill.

I can't wait for higher education and this society to crumble to dust.

To be a good follower.

"In the end, you will always kneel." - Loki of Asgard.

"If you don't want to lead, then you must throw your lot in with a group that has a good leader with a vision and purpose in life you agree with. You must then do what you can to support that team and its leader." - Cappy Cap, Enjoy the Decline.

"If you have nothing else to give, give fealty. It is in every man to recognize righteousness, and choose to take orders from it." - Thumotic.

Hierarchy is a central tenet of the Reaction. Hierarchy, by its definition, also demands that some will be leaders, and some will be followers.

Recently, Loki of Asgard, that charming fellow, made a post pointing out quite correctly that most people, not just women, are made to follow to various degrees. Not everyone can be a leader, and please don't buy that bullshit I was spoon-fed when I was thirteen about how "everyone is a leader in their own regard" crap. Some people don't like to lead, some people don't want to lead, and others are not fit to lead.

"Everyone is a leader" is like "everyone is special": technically true, if you twist the words enough, but made meaningless in any practical, constructive measure. Much like coming in first in a footrace in which you're the only competitor.

Some people can admit they are made to be followers. There is nothing wrong with being a follower. There is nothing wrong with playing a support role. The only problem is with being sheep. The difference is between one who follows, and one who is corralled.

There are multitudes of books, speeches, pamphlets, etc on what it takes and means to be a good leader. But what does it mean to be a good follower? I don't claim to be an authority on the subject, but I've written about my personal thoughts on the matter before, so...

The most important thing a follower can do is to recognise a good leader. Recognise righteousness, and take orders from it. How does one recognise a good and righteous leader? Of course, here I'm going to be talking about earthly leaders, whom everyone will deal with, so it doesn't really matter if you're a theist and your ultimate allegiance lies with your deity.

The best way, of course, would be to play squire to the leader's knight, to observe both the private and public spheres of your leader before, and while serving him. Now, it's true that getting a clear picture of what someone's private sphere is like before being admitted into it is hard, and I'm definitely not advocating prying, but at the very least one is obligated to observe your potential leader's doings for a reasonable period of time depending on the nature and degree of your following. If this leader is someone whom you are going to trust with your life, then observe them close and hard, if it's just for a task lasting a single day, less observation and introspection is needed.

Look up what your leader stands for, how he conducts himself. Ask those close to him and those who are already part of the group, as well, as those distant from the group, of their opinions.

Ask yourself constantly: is this someone whom I can follow? This counts double in the beginning stages of your leader-follower relationship, when you are still getting a feel for each other, but should never stop. If your leader deviates from righteousness and purpose, then it is your duty as a follower to make your concerns heard, for them and the rest of the group. Your duty as a follower is to provide feedback to the leader.

What can my leader do, before I begin to feel distaste for him? What depravity will it take before I can abandon him? How well are my leader's ideals and goals aligned with mine?

All these and more must be considered.

Debating evictionism.

Debating evictionism as a justification for infanticide over at Save Capitalism. Still ongoing. Will see how it turns out; this post will be updated as the debate progresses.

Update #1 up.

Update #2 up.

Update #3 up! Idiot explodes!

Joblessness.

It's about noon. The phone rings.

It's my sister, calling from the other half of the world. She asks for my mother, but there's time to chat for a minute or so. We discuss what's happened in Egypt, and after that, she asks the following:

"Has anyone called you up for an interview yet?"

"No."

Awkward silence.

"It's all about networking, you know."

I resist the urge to tell her how much I hate "networking", and essentially how pointless and fake it is, with no relation whatsoever to how well a job is done. I resist the urge to channel Cappy Cap at her.

I pass the phone to my mother, and go and get dressed. Time to spend the afternoon with my old navy friends.

Most of my navy friends, when I go out with them on our bimonthly trips, won't talk about whether they have jobs, either. At least, those who went to college, instead of those who entered the workforce immediately after leaving the armed forces.

"Have you got a job yet?" the guys ask one another.

"No, I haven't," is the uniform reply.

"Those damned mainland Chinese," someone says not quite under their breath.

End of conversation. No one wants to continue. They sip at their beer; I sip at my tea. A few commiserations are offered by those who didn't go to college, and are waved off with forced smiles. The conversation soon turns to girls and old navy days, two topics that're always safe. We finish our time together, and I down the customary half-mug of beer.

"See you in the morning," they say with a laugh.

I catch a train home, the beer settling uneasily in my gut. Walk the rest of the way to the door, and push it open to find my mother seated in front of the televitz.

"Have you found a job yet?"

"No," I say. "I'm still looking."

"You should find one anyway."

"I know," I reply. "If I don't find something in my field by August, I'll go get a small job. Something to start the money flowing before I can find something that I'm more suited to."

My mother nods and turns back to the talking heads on TV.

Public education system designed to churn out worker drones fails to foster entrepreneurship. What a big surprise.

Youths are holding back Singapore's startup scene. Who knew?

Over the past three months, I have been matching youths to startups as the founder and director of the HUB Internship Program (an initiative under The HUB Singapore). Now that the university summer vacations are ending, I finally have the chance to reflect.

And it hit me: Singaporean youths are not accelerating nor strengthening our startup ecosystem. Instead, they are inhibiting our growth.

Our youths do not have market-relevant skills and experiences to do their job.

Given that it's more or less explicitly stated that the Singaporean education system was designed to provide worker drones for the multinational corporations which were invited to set up shop here, why is that any of a surprise? It's basically a rip-off of the Prussian model, with a few extra kinks thrown in here and there to promote subservience.

Something made to produce cogs is not going to be producing control systems in a big hurry.

The Prussian model of schooling preys upon the mania for learning that's embedded in the North-East Asian psyche, I'd argue. If you look at the culture which surrounded education in Ancient China - masters of thought and learning who had deep, personal relationships with their disciples, stories of lone scholars living on a pittance who later went on to ace the Imperial Examinations and become high officials and marry daughters of the Emperor.

You have an entire sub-culture springing up about the task of education, exclusive to those who are worthy. In that sense, the Chinese culture surrounding education had a spiritual aspect to it.  You have social strictures that govern how scholars and seekers of learning are expected to behave, what they're supposed to eschew, and what can be expected of them in exchange for their unique station in society.

This is complete anathema to the Prussian model, for it is not merely dead, but never had a soul to begin with. The problem is not so much rote learning, which is required at the beginning of all sorts of education, but whether the rote learning gives way to something else eventually. Where a teacher is not attached to a student for a lifetime, but merely a year or so, to huge classes that come and go. Where the ultimate goal is not to produce people to think, but to work and be subservient. Where the spirit in a school is divorced from the spirit of a society.

Yet North-East Asians do not see the differences. We see "education", and that triggers the Pavlovian response built from centuries of cultural conditioning without wondering if this "education" is the same as that "education".

The Analects explicitly state that those who are truly devoted to learning would be willing to relinquish material wealth to do so, yet the primary goal of education today is...the acquisition of wealth. Get a good job, earn lots of money to...well, who knows what? Sure it didn't always turn out that way, but the ostensible reason behind rewarding successful scholars with positions and power was so they could use their merits to govern effectively, was it not?

Education with an end, education without an end, or education as an end in itself?

A handful of them even had no idea what business development was, and chose it because it sounded the most lucrative amongst other categories of internships such as design or tech. And these were no average-grade-students. They were top scorers in their JCs or Polytechnics and had GPAs of 4.0+ (on a scale of 5.0).

[...]

Arguably, startup internships are accurate litmus tests for youths thinking of stepping out into the working world. Put to the test are skills like the ability to absorb knowledge, think creatively and maturely, and communicate with partners, clients and team members effectively (rather than formatting Powerpoint presentations — the new ‘coffee-making’ in today’s evolved internship scene).

During our interviews, I was taken aback at how youths thought internships were only necessary to fill up space on their CV. They prefer to focus on their academic-related but non-essential activities, and were keen to intern for 1-2 months at best.

Public schools in both the East and West are failing - for different reasons and to different ends, but the end condition is hardly desirable for anyone but those who find cogs and gears useful for their grand machines.

Peering out of the box - 3/7/13.

Vox Popoli - Teachers are Substandard.

This also serves as a fitting response to those who ask how a mother can homeschool without a degree in physics, math, or womyn's studies.  The correct answer is: why do you think your children can be adequately educated by a collection of women with a sub-normal IQs whose only education is in what is quite literally the easiest possible course of collegiate study.

Jim - Marriage, Supply and Demand.

So society tends to flip between two states, the state where males, marriage, and commitment is in high demand, and most children have fathers, and the state where most males are surplus to requirements, have no incentive to contribute to or protect society, and most children are fatherless.  Civilization only gets built in the condition where males, marriage, and commitment, are in high demand.

Nydwracu - Gay marriage isn't the problem, love is.

Romantic love cannot provide the stability necessary for a healthy marriage; but our culture holds it as the only thing that can. This must change if the institution of marriage is to survive. To ensure the health and continued existence of our society, marriage should be oriented toward establishing not formal bonds between romantic lovers, but a healthy and stable family and reproductive unit.

I have often been of the mind that modern romantic love is arguably one of the most toxic things to plague us. Romeo and Juliet was written as a cautionary tale, not a handbook.

Didact's Reach - Full throttle towards Gomorrah.

Lesbian porn might be fun to watch, but in real life, homosexuality is not "normal"- any straight man who's ever walked down Christopher Street in New York, or through SoHo in London, knows what I'm on about. It has never been accepted as normal in any human society, including ones far more tolerant of unusual sexual mores than current American society. That said, if homosexuals wish to live their lives in peace, as long as they're not bothering me, I don't particularly care who they shack up with or who they wish to spend the rest of their lives with.

What the SCOTUS did with this decision is contrary to both of these basic libertarian tenets.

Economic Collapse - 36 Hard Questions About the US Economy.

If the economy is improving, then why aren't things getting better for most average Americans?  They tell us that the unemployment rate is going down, but the percentage of Americans that are actually working is exactly the same it was three years ago.  They tell us that American families are in better financial shape now, but real disposable income is falling rapidly.  They tell us that inflation is low, but every time we go shopping at the grocery store the prices just seem to keep going up.  They tell us that the economic crisis is over, and yet poverty and government dependence continue to explode to unprecedented heights.  There seems to be a disconnect between what the government and the media are telling us and what is actually true.

Sultan Knish - The United States of Guilt.

There was once an America that built its shining cities on a hill in the name of virtue. That nation has been replaced by another nation that builds housing projects in the name of guilt. We used to elect the best men for the job, or at least we believed we did. Now we hold elections of guilt, deciding which oppressed minority has been most shamefully overlooked, before casting our vote for a more diverse and equitable society.

The End.

I will admit, I have gained a faith-based belief, if only to help assuage the damp pallor of moroseness which seems to hang about me like a cloud these days.

I call it "the end".

Now, while there are plenty of signs pointing to the distinct possibility that we are heading towards "the end", no one can tell with surety what "the end" will look like exactly, nor when it will come. That's all right, I acknowledge that my version of "the end" is merely a pleasant fantasy to keep me going and improving myself in preparation for when the real end comes. I hold no illusions that said preparations will actually carry me through whatever befalls the world in the future, but I will be as prepared as it is possible for "the end", materially, physically, and mentally.

My fantasies of "the end" are varied in nature, but generally can be summed up as such: "It's like watching a packed clown car get crushed by a train in slow motion while a blood-stained rubber shoe flies in the air and there are sad honking noises all over."

"The end" will not be pretty, but it will be hilarious in a twisted sort of way.

For those with a linear view of time, "the end" is horrifying to even consider, for what comes after that? Nay, the Machine must progress, the Machine must progress, the Machine must progress.

For those with a cyclical view of time, "the end" is merely "the beginning".