Declines and Falls

Greetings, gentle readers.
I’ve decided to spice this article up a bit with links, so that if anything seems vaguely interesting or intriguing, you can always find out more. Or you could end up with a happy “easter egg” which not only provides substantiation and evidence, but also an interesting perspective that may change the way in which you view the topic or subject at hand. Have more fun than you would ordinarily enjoy whilst reading my vapid and anodyne prose.
A friend of mine recently commented that she has uncovered written, solid and empirical evidence that her current students are unable to hold a proverbial candle to her students of a decade ago in terms of critical and analytical thought. Producing papers and essays which her students have produced in response to identical questions relating to identical course content, she is able to substantively advance the argument that the youth of today have a pronounced tendency to slip downward in terms of the hierarchical levels described by Bloom’s Taxonomy.
The knowledge level hasn’t actually deteriorated, and neither have the abilities to retain, remember and regurgitate bits of factual information. The rot that has afflicted this generation’s cognitive skills becomes evident when examining the capacity of secondary-school students to construct and defend arguments, as well as the ability to apply abstract concepts to practical scenarios.
It seems as though there is an intellectual sea-change afoot. Are there cultural forces at work which celebrate and promote the lower levels of intellectual sophistication? If one looks at recent cinema, the Academy Awards are replete with plaudits, kudos and Oscars for such films as “I Am Sam”, “Forrest Gump”, “The Other Sister”, “Rain Man”, and “Switchblade.” The concept that one can function with a reduced intellectual capacity and still be celebrated as an honourable and decent individual is a commendable one when dealing with the handicapped/differently-abled/politically-correct-euphemism-du-jour.
For further cinematic discussion along those lines, you may want to visit Ann Althouse’s Blog HERE.
The problem which emerges is that when the concept of simpleton as hero or heroine or source of a humble and pure clarity of purpose becomes allied with a basic sense of political impact, the repercussions can be severe. The elevation of the intellectually disadvantaged to the status of “society’s repositories of honest virtue” also implies that the intelligentsia and the folks with all that fancy book-learnin’ are duplicitous and subversive slime using their mysterious and elitist powers for selfish, anti-patriotic, and manipulative purposes.
Democracy is all about Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality, isn’t it? The game isn’t fair if some people are able to understand the system more readily. Justice would seem to indicate that those members of the herd which can’t keep up intellectually with the rest of us should get an extra helping hand so that we can all contribute equally to our society and community. The flip side of that is argued (although from two very different perspectives) by both Kurt Vonnegut’s story (and later film) “Harrison Bergeron”, and the Pixar film “The Incredibles”. If the objective is to make everyone equal, and we can’t make people any MORE intelligent, the only way to level the playing field is to LESSEN the intelligence of the gifted,
It is not merely idealism that leads us to the ideal of the homogeneously mediocre population, but also political expedience. William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” indicates that an unintelligent and unquestioning populace is a great boon to the maintenance of power by the powerful. Caesar pointedly opines:
“Let me have men about me that are fat;Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”
(Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene ii)
Tyrants and despots despise critical thinkers, and with good reason. The construction of a logical and reasonable opposition to the regime requires a concerted analysis, followed by a structured criticism and a creatively synthesised alternative, as well as a fully conceived methodology for the transition of power. Caesar’s fat and satisfied people are less likely to find the motivation or the intellectual wherewithal to criticise the powers that be, and thus unlikely to effect any sort of political change.
In the same way that Hamlet preceded and to some measure inspired existential thought, Julius Caesar preceded G. W. F. Hegel’s concept of the “Last Man.” Francis Fukuyama argued this quite eloquently in his book “The End of History and the Last Man.” Hegel posited that when all of the essential needs of humanity were met, eventually the value systems held by individuals and society would atrophy into decadent and materialistic ones, and the desire to improve and innovate would fade into the mists of history.
So if the indicators are that middle-class torpor has begun to stunt the growth or influence of thymotic factors of student behaviours, then we have begun the decline into self-indulgent decadence. Amongst other endeavours, poetry will transform from transcendent reflection and incisive commentary into cliché tripe and insipid, saccharine-sweet sentimentality. We have already begun the slide from poignant to pointed, and it appears that the slope leads to the realm of the pointless. That’s tragic.
Are we doomed? Are we destined to fall inexorably into the same problem as the Roman Empire of antiquity — once all of those in power and with vested interests in the status quo have established a situation to their benefit wherein the remainder of the populace cannot stir themselves to even the vaguest of discontent, the status quo becomes the objective, not the platform for a greater edifice. It’s panem et circensis until the Vandals come.
I won’t be so melodramatic as to suggest that a penchant for factoids has superseded the necessity for critical and interpretive thought, or that there is some form of sinister conspiracy to mould a tepid, yielding, and unquestioning electorate by some secret government agency. I’ll leave such paranoid ramblings to Noam Chomsky.
What I can surmise is that popular culture as we know it celebrates banality, linear thinking, obedience, patriotism, and conformity. Initiative and independent thought are implicitly relegated to the level of aggravated child molestation. The practical upshot of reality TV and amateur talent shows pervading our popular media is something akin to Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.”
The protagonist becomes a tragic figure because he has based his system of values on what he thought society demanded for success. Ultimately, what Willy Loman has adopted as his core values prove to leave him adrift, and isolated from the world of others.
In short, if one is told the rules of the game, and one plays it according to those instructions, it is not unreasonable to expect some modicum of success. The current rules of the game as they are dictated by the mouthpieces of cultural authority — television, film, music, etc. are that the only ingredients necessary for meaningful achievement and accomplishment are stick-to-it-tiveness and the blind, mindless adoption of a common moral and ethical system. Shut up, wave your flag, listen to Britney Spears, trust in the judgement of established authority, and the system will reward you appropriately. Follow, consume, obey, and the powers that be will grant you your desires.
Children are impressionable almost by definition. People like Tipper Gore would like to extend and expand that definition to dictate that things as simple as rock music lyrics are powerful enough psychological conditioning agents to transform middle-class urchins into shrieking serial killers. Let’s not go to that extent. Instead, we can confidently assert that in a cultural milieu wherein the influences of parents and the family unit as a whole are waning, other influences may assert themselves, particularly in the area of value formation. Cultural icons become more than just role models, but teachers. Advertising and commercial interests have had more than a little influence on the body image problems rampant today amongst young people and old, with thin waists and huge breasts for women and abdomen six-packs and rippling pectorals for men acting as motivation for an enormous sector of the population to emulate the feats of Sisyphos. As a society, we are being told whom we ought to be and what we ought to value in order to place some money in the hands of those who already have much, and whose only motivation is to accrue more.
In the vacuum used by the disintegration of the concept of the nuclear family, capital “M” media has become not just the message, to use Marshall McLuhan’s turn of phrase, but the instructor.
So there we go — divorces, single-parent households and generally poor family relations at a child’s formative state, coupled with the pervasive nature of multi-media culture has created an institutionalised incubator which produces blinkered cubicle monkeys. Children aren’t getting increasingly stupid, they’re responding adaptively to their environment. That environment indicates that not only is critical intelligence undesirable, but actually counterproductive to a safe and harmonious society.
A prime example is the film “Spider-Man 2.” Peter Parker throws away his moral obligation (“With great power comes great responsibility”) to society for the love of a woman after being told by a Grateful Dead T-shirt wearing hippie doctor that he always has a choice. He validates the “shut-up-and-do-your-duty” ethos by eventually realizing that in the situation of the bad guy grabbing the leading lady, his interests temporarily coincide. There are a number of speeches about giving up dreams in order to do what’s right. Looked at in this light, the film is virtually indoctrination in the form of entertainment. The individual is nothing. Conform. Obey. Listen to authority.
Is society going down the proverbial toilet? My first instinct would be to answer in the affirmative. The trend lines of any chart would seem to indicate a decline.
There is hope. As long as there are people who continue to examine their lives and to strive for authenticity, there is always hope. It’s just difficult to inspire young people when the real bodhisattvas have been replaced by vacuous spokesmodels and pseudo celebrities. Dharmas, enlightenment, and inner peace are wonderful things, but they’re not sexy, don’t earn much money, and won’t get you the adulation of the thronging crowd.
Willy Loman thought that being a personable and charming guy was the most important thing in life. Everything was about contacts and networking and building an impregnable fortress of friendships. He dies a miserable failure, having lost the respect of his son, the love of his wife, and with not a single footnote in the annals of history to commemorate his existence.
So question. Doubt. Verify. Consider the middle three letters of the word “Believe.” Read Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling.” Existence is lived between states, not at static points of reference. Here endeth the lesson.
And with that, I bid you adieu. Footy news coming soon — watch this space.
Good night England and the colonies,

-mARKUS
¥Justice for the 96¥

Sony are a Shower of Bastards

Greetings, gentle readers.
I may not have a great deal of time here, so I'll be brief, and hope to provide a more extended monologue later. The news of the week involves Sony-BMG.
Here's the deal: their new "Copy-Protected" CDs are supposed to be a great move forward to restrict the free distribution of music and thus provide more revenues for corporations and greater royalties for artists. Huzzah.
The theory goes like this - if placed in a computer, the CD will autoload its own player, and then give the user an option of making 3 back-up CDs. Once those have been made, the CD content will be no longer burnable, and therefore, no mass black-market distribution can begin.
Here's what actually happens - the CD will load up a player program, and also install a "cloaked" program in your computer's system registry which does a number of potentially harmful things, and is exceedingly difficult to remove.

1. Sony didn't ask permission or tell anyone that these discs do these things. This is a bit of a sticky legal issue.


2. The "rootkit" which installs itself has no uninstall program.


3. The software causes some system instability and can affect performance as well as creating a number of opportunities for Blue-Screens of Death. See below.


4. The cloaking system that the rootkit uses to hide itself can be used by other malicious software to avoid detection by virus scanners. This is a big security issue.


5. The software in your computer “calls home”, which is to say that when you play a CD, it reads your computer hardware configuration, and the information about the CD and transmits that data to Sony. This is somewhat of a privacy issue.

This sinister tale of corporate insanity was discovered by Mark Russinovich just a couple of weeks ago on Halloween. The offending MalWare was written by a UK company which has been operating at a loss for the past little while, and has a CEO who was formerly an executive at Sony.
I’m not going to tell anyone to avoid buying Sony-BMG compact discs, but if you’ve already accidentally infected your computer, see the below link for instructions on uninstallation/disinfection.
People who doubt my veracity or who want to see the full information on the specifications and technical analysis of the software should also visit the aforementioned below link.
Mark Russinovich’s blog is located at http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/ and the whole sordid affair is detailed there. Those of my treasured readers who are also fans of ancient Scandinavian literature might find much there to astound and amaze. Or at least pleasantly divert.
Until then, good night England and the colonies.
Cheers and take care everyone.

-mARKUS
¥Justice for the 96¥