…English teachers have been developing literature curricula to meet the needs of their culturally diverse students. However, because in most cases these educators have not had at their disposal the interpretative techniques of postcolonial literary theorists, they have been relying, instead, for their reading strategies upon traditional literary theories. Unfortunately, when teachers employ New Critical, archetypal, feminist, or reader-response methods of literary analysis in their reading of multicultural literature, they are often unaware of the Eurocentric biases contained within these perspectives. This lack of understanding of their theoretical frame of reference can then lead teachers to encourage their students to accept uncritically problematic representations of various cultural groups as they encounter these representations in their literary texts. Postcolonial literary theory, on the other hand, encourages students to problematize Eurocentric representations of imperialism’s Others.
Phantom,
“…stop FUNDIND it…”
Sounds good in theory but, then what? Not many families are either competent or financially able to do home schooling.
vole, it’s like this: for operatives like Kathleen Wynne, it’s quite OK, even de rigueur, to make her sexual orientation public knowledge. It gives her a sort of special, you know, exotic and untouchable status. (As you notice, I’ve not observed this post modern convention.)
Also, as the Minister of Education of a system which accords special status to homosexuals (who are allowed to use the system to proselytize), her sexual orientation, which hardly gives the impression of either being impartial, or being seen to be impartial, is not inconsequential.
Imagine if Wynne were an observant Christian—horrors!—and was in charge of a system promoting the traditional family. Such intelligence would certainly be used against her—by people like you, I venture—to impugn her credibility. I’d say what’s sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose!
In short, THAT’S what “Kathleen Wynne being a lesbian [has] to do with it”.
P.S. The traditional family, nature’s model—one would think the “back to nature” crowd would be more tolerant here—is, in general, the one handed down to us by our “Eurocentric [intolerant, non inclusive]” forebears.
All I can think to say is, “What a load of crap.”
The subject of MikeM’s sentence, “All I can think to say”, is vague.
Perhaps this person could be more specific.
I’m refering to the original post.
(When I refer to comments, I usually quote or use names.)
Thanks for the clarification, MikeM. (In a long thread, one does not automatically think comments refer to the original post.)
Well lookout
I don’t have a problem with Christians being in charge of anything. I don’t have a problem with lesbians or heteros making their sexual orientations public knowledge. And I still don’t see what Wynne being a lesbian has to do with anything
“*Of course, we now have the issue of what constitutes culture. The milieu we currently inhabit as a society? The mindless consumeristic frenzy hawked by Hollywood? I see little moral difference between that and cannibalistic tribalism.
My 2cents: we clean up our own mess before we deal with that of others. For the so-cons among us, that would be removing the beam from our own eye, before looking for the sawdust in our neighbours.”
Tenebris,
you have a wise perspective there, my friend.
This is just a paragraph or three from Paul Tillich’s essay “Invocation: The Lost Dimension in Religion.”
“When in this way man has deprived himself of the dimension of depth and the symbols expressing it, he then becomes a part of the horizontal plane. He loses his self and becomes a thing among things. He becomes an element in the process of manipulated production and manipulated consumption. This is now a matter of public knowledge. We have become aware of the degree to which everyone in our social structure is managed, even if one knows it and even if one belongs himself to the managing group. The influence of the gang mentality on adolescence, of the corporation’s demand on the executives, of the conditioning of everyone by public communication, by propaganda and advertising under the guidance of motivaional research, et cetera, have all been described in many books and articles.
“Under these pressures, man can hardly escape the fate of becoming a thing among the things he produces, a bundles of conditioned reflexes without a free, deciding and responsible self. The immense mechanism, set up by man to product objects for his use, transforms man himself into an object used by the same mechanism of production and consumption.
“But man has not ceased to be man. He resists this fate anxiously, desperately, courageously. He asks the question, for what? And he realizes that there is no answer. He becomes aware of the emptiness which is covered by the continuous movement ahead and the production of means for ends which becomes means again without an ultimate end. Without knowing what has happened to him, he feels that he has lost the meaning of life, the dimension of depth.”
We need to clearly distinguish between a culture based on capitalism and a culture based on consumerism. Somewhere when we were not looking, our capitalistic cultures were transformed into consumer cultures. I agree it is wise for us to remove the mote from our own eye first.
Incidentally down here I tell people that if they are thinking about having children and cannot afford to send their kids to private schools that they scrupulously approve of, not to have kids until they can do so.
Tenebris:
“A continual theme through B’s teachings is that population growth is dependent upon food production, with increases in food production leading to increases in population.
Quinn’s thinking here should not to be confused with the ideas of Thomas Malthus, who made the prediction that population would outrun food supply. In Quinn’s own words, “Malthus’s warning was about the inevitable failure of totalitarian agriculture. My warning is about its continued success.” Quinn characterizes the Malthusian problem as “How are we going to FEED all these people?” and contrasts this with his own: “How are we going to stop PRODUCING all these people?”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_B
Or with you know, chunks torn from their leg as a result of attempted cannibalism. But we insensitive Eurocentrists wouldn’t want them to think any less of their “culture” for it….
Such delicious irony that you use this reported instance of cannibalism as ammunition to mock critiques of Eurocentrism, when in fact both the LFP article’s and your own essentializing of Congolese “culture” is exactly the sort of narrow Eurocentric view of Africa that Mr Greenlaw, and any number of observers more critical than yourselves, reject.
The historic picture of slavery presented in our schools is the leftist incomplete version.
Slavery of black Africans by other black Africans and Arabs both predated European white involvement
and continued beyond it to the present day in pockets of Africa.
Arab slavers captured many more white Europeans from the Mediterranean as slaves than is commonly admitted as described in two books: “White Gold” by Giles Milton and “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters” by Robert Davis.
Many North American native tribes practiced slavery long before the advent of the white man.
The ongoing genocide by Muslim Arab militia who have killed 200 000 blacks in Darfur and displaced a million after destroying their homes receives less attention than the 150 year old sin of slavery.
Which blacks have better lives in the present day, Africans or the descendants of slaves in America who benefit from non-tribal government?
Greg – Tillich before my morning coffee is asking a bit much, but I get your point. I agree “We need to clearly distinguish between a culture based on capitalism and a culture based on consumerism.”, but do note the incipent Marxism behind your definition of capitalism. Let’s go back to Adam Smith; check out http://www.conservative-resources.com/definition-of-capitalism.html
dfdaas – Sigh. People are not “produced”, they are born.
Sanderson says “…both the LFP article’s and your own essentializing of Congolese “culture” is exactly the sort of narrow Eurocentric view … that …any number of observers more critical than yourselves, reject.”
They can reject all they want, including distort, obscure and conflate. I note, however, that such people (including thus far, yourself) do not condemn.
I agree “We need to clearly distinguish between a culture based on capitalism and a culture based on consumerism.”, but do note the incipent Marxism behind your definition of capitalism.
Capitalism is a Marxist construct (invented by Marx as a foil to his communism) and can have no other definition.
Capital is the end in capitalism, whereas capital is only a means to an end in free enterprise.
It is so true that the love of money is the root of all evil.
“How many people make themselves abstract to appear profound! The greatest part of abstract terms are shadows that hide a vacuum.”
Joubert
“When words lose their meaning, people lose their liberty.”
Confucius
“Our everyday language has become encumbered, Germanic, artificial, bureaucratic, inorganic. It may not be exaggerated to say that by now American writers face but two alternatives: write English, or write gobbledygook.”
John Lukacs.
“It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought…should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words.”
George Orwell, 1984
This type of thinking illustrates what parents are up against now. The education system has become a vehicle for many to impose their beliefs on the students and in turn society of today. This includes academia, many interest groups, politicians, commercial interests, teacher unions and individual teachers. The public school system has simply and I believe irreversibly lost its’ way.
“dfdaas – Sigh. People are not “produced”, they are born.”
Hey, you’re the one who sought *my* wisdom. Very bad form, indicative of poor lineage.
Whenever you and your tired and failed generation are ready to join us on the bleeding edge, old man, we’ll be ready.
Seriously Tenebris, your generation has failed so miserably that it’s absurd for you to cop any attitude whatsoever.
Here you are, an old man, whose generation has failed, asking for solutions to things you should have figured out as a 20 year old.
And when an intelligent person from a less failed generation brings an intelligent and new perspective to the table, one that indicts you and your generation, not incidentally, you put on airs of superiority.
You look ridiculous! Stop that!
Visit a public school under Wynne’s jurisdiction, volik, and see the homosexual friendly posters: rainbow posters that announce that gays, lesbians, and transgendered persons are very welcome. (These arrived after her tenure started. Maybe this had nothing to do with her. But, perception wise, maybe it did.) A corollary—unspoken—is that the views of a more “Eurocentic”, traditional nature are, in fact, unwelcome.
E.g., I happen to know the statistics re domestic violence: MARRIED (a tradition handed on to us from our European ancestors) women are four and a half times less likely to be victims of their husbands’ violence than are women living with a common law partner (Statistics Canada, 1993). The rate of abuse in homosexual arrangements is high: “Spousal violence was twice as common among homosexual couples compared with heterosexual couples.” Statistics Canada study on domestic violence, 2006.
To inform students, in order that they might make life choices carefully, imagine what would happen if I suggested that a traditionalist come to speak to the students about these findings. Imagine if I did it: if I weren’t fired outright, using the board’s “Equity Policy” as a Section 13-like bludgeon, I’d be “guilty as charged” and most certainly be hauled before a re-education tribunal—of probably one, left-wing activist—in camera. I’d then lose a few days’ pay or more and have a letter of reprimand placed in my file. No appeal either. (Doesn’t this sound like the HRC process?) Talk about chill.
Freedom of expression for traditionalists in our lefty public boards? No way. Their so-called devotion to equity and diversity is altogether hypocritical and their policies an unjust travesty. The policies are actually used to protect certain groups from any criticism, e.g., Aboriginals, Muslims, homosexuals are always noble, well behaved, no problem to anyone, misunderstood, and badly treated. On the other hand, the history and social science texts, as well as many trade books, are full of lies about the “bad” Europeans. BTW, like the HRCs, if a teacher’s hauled before a re-education hearing, truth is no defence. How about that?
I’ll agree that this injustice happened before Wynne became the Minister. But her proud, out-of-the-closet position is hypocritical, to say the least. Under her watch, the pro-homosexual propaganda and protectionism continue apace. At school, traditional Christians keep their mouths shut about their beliefs and public policy views, if they know what’s good for them. How does this promote “diversity, equity” and fairness?
That’s not a question Ms Wynne, in her privileged position, probably even bothers to entertain. As a protected minority, likely infected with the hubris that often accompanies such status, I’d imagine she’s not even aware of the colossal double standard going on right under her nose.
Dsfafas said: “And when an intelligent person from a less failed generation brings an intelligent and new perspective to the table, one that indicts you and your generation, not incidentally, you put on airs of superiority.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Spoken like a true 17 year old…. All of us boomers “been there, said that”, 40 years ago.
Arguably, the post-war generation has been the most successful the planet has ever seen. Therein lies the paradox.
Prior generations produced a few sterling intellects while most merely strove to survive. The egalitarian goal of intellectualism for all has largely succeeded, along with the realization that it was a futile dream. In due course, the planet will return intellectualism for a few, mere survivalism for most.
Sadly, for your generation, you may not derive the best of either.
Tenebris,
I appreciate your reference to incipient Marxism. I also am a champion of Adam Smith’s Unseen Hand.
I see the problem is in the area of taxation, not capitalism.
I prefer the idea of what I call a ‘thrift and prudence economy’ rather than an ‘exploitation consumerism.’
My preference is for all savings and investments to be tax-free. Taxes would be levied only on items of consumption.
You will recognize this as similar to the kind of taxation system discussed by Bush and also by Mike Huckabee.
If there are no taxes on savings or investment, people are encouraged to accumulate real net worth and use more prudence about the purchase of products. You would see people hanging onto things a lot longer and demanding sustainability on their purchases.
And while we’re at it, I would also exercise much more viability in the area of control of products sold to people under 21.
I won’t go any further with this, because I don’t want to try to drag the thread away from education.
Greg in Dallas, I’ve appreciated your comments on this thread.
Re the topic of “education”, I think you’d likely agree with me that, in the public systems, that word’s a euphemism for “indoctrination” (and re my posts, considering the fate of non-conformists, thuggery too).
lookout,
I absolutely agree with you.
As I was posting about economic matters, I will go on to say that I do not see how a public education system can be anything other than propaganda when it turns people out into a free market system with absolutely no knowledge about free market economics.
Down here it’s easy to understand how the subprime loan problem developed when you take into consideration the fact that no one in high school is even taught what an interest rate is.
No one is taught the meaning of even the most important two or three economic indicators. No one is even taught what an economic indicator is.
You have whole generations arguing about political economy who would not know how to look up a stock in the Wall Street Journal.
So I can only conclude that public education is specifically designed to propagandize people into the kind of ignorance that makes them easy prey for larceny.
D’accord, GiD!
You say, “. . . I can only conclude that public education is specifically designed to propagandize people into the kind of ignorance that makes them easy prey for larceny.”
And not just larceny. It propagandizes adults and students alike into mind numbing ignorance, on such a grand scale, that, as G.K. Chesterton concluded, such people will “fall for anything”, emotionally—the system’s heavily into emotional responses—politically, environmentally . . . The relentless, juvenile propaganda public education students are battered with each day dulls the intellectual and spiritual lights. Then add students’ sense of entitlement, spawned by the Charter, which is honoured by far too many of the left-wing (or just non thinking), cloned adults in the system, and one has a poisonous recipe for dim-witted tyranny.
As a public system teacher—and a damn good one!—I’m a stranger in a strange land. To keep my job—I can still do a lot of good—I know my place and keep my head below the ramparts. This may sound cowardly, but, as I outlined here, a teacher accused of political incorrectness has no chance of due process. Basically, I work in a gulag and, as the union’s part of the problem, mixing my metaphors, I’m on my own, surrounded by crocodiles on a piece of ice that gets smaller and smaller. (Perhaps I can blame that on global warming—or, better yet, on George Bush or Stephen Harper!)
lookout: As a public system teacher—and a damn good one!—I’m a stranger in a strange land.
Isn’t pride on the seven deadly sins?
But I digress. Tell me, lookout, have you ever considered the possibility that your disdainful attitudes towards students (“sense of entitlement,” etc.) might peak through in your classroom etiquette? I’d be very curious to know what your students really think of you.
Tenebris: They can reject all they want, including distort, obscure and conflate. I note, however, that such people (including thus far, yourself) do not condemn.
Obviously nobody condones cannibalism. But while I empathize with this young woman’s suffering, I would be unwilling to condemn all of Congolese (and African) culture on the basis on a tragic but rare, non-representative event. So should you.
To BatB March 9 9:34AM
While agreeing with you and bowing to your experience, there is a factual error. I think that your referencing Gladstone ( first elected 1832 at age 23, the year before the Empire abolished slavery and who, ironically, spoke in opposition to that Act (his familys’ fortune was based on a West Indies sugar plantation) but whom nontheless later exemplified the great Liberal) is that mistake and you most probably meant Wilberforce. Your error is akin to saying that it was Lord Durham who made Upper Canada the first formally and legally anti-slavery jurisdiction rather than Lieutenent Govenor Simcoe in 1791.
Incidently, eradicating slavery was more than the simple act of passing a bill limited to the Empire. The initial stage was banning the slave trade and being not only eurocentric but also British they decided that such an Act would apply throughout the world, so in the midst of a life and death struggle against Napoleon the Dead White Males insensitively and unilaterally imposed a total ban( everywhere and anywhere, anyone and any flag) on the shipping and the commerce in slaves in 1807. This job required a commitment by the Royal Navy, colonial armies, Raj and British taxpayer of more than 75 years; other DWM’s gave lip-service and signed on to this Imperialistic Hegemonic Euro-project at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and starting from the 1830’s this British effort was joined militarily ( !! war never solves anything!!) by other eurocentric DWM’s, US Navy, France, Spain etc. In 1833 it was deemed that the slave owners of 1807, who had been allowed to keep (but not market) their existing slave chattle had been adequately recompensed for the initial investment( Horrors! property rights as a serious consideration in enacting legislation smacks of capitalism) and so the actual practice of slavery was abolished in those be-nighted parts of the world unluckily under the sultifying, arrogant, intrusive, elephantine, oppressive, dominating, and unilateral subjugative yoke of the Anglo Saxons.
Some further asides:
-the last slave raid on Britain(after thousands of years of cross-channel raids and constant Muslim raids during medaeval times) took place during this period when Mohammedick’s from the Barbary Coast raided a village in Cornwall in the 1820’s, Iceland got some lovin’ in the 1840’s and parts of the Mediterranian until WW1;
-I believe that the very first reference I ever saw to Darfur was 10-11 years ago in Richard Hall’s (stupendously wonderful, can’t be praised highly enough, must-read) book “Empire of the Monsoon” where some late 18th century DWM was awe-struck at the number of slaves being brought out of “Darfur” ( Sudan referred to the whole breadth of the Sahel -Atlantic to Indian Oceans so Darfur was the Northeast portion of that) to Cairo for transshipment to the middle-east.
[ a slight irony: over millennia and certainly the last 14 centuries the number of surviving blacks ( or would it be more politically correct when referencing tragedy on this scale to say Negro? Bantu? Nilo-Saharic? (and they certainly were NOT African-American)) transplanted from sub-Saharan Africa to the ME was at least 4-5 times the total number landed in the Americas (12+ millions to 2-3 millions surviving) and the death rate during transshippment was more than 7 times higher (80+% to 10-15% (that is, after being sold to the tender mercies of the Europeans who aside from the Portugese never left the malarial coasts until the 1870’s))-( so of those freshly enslaved and setting out to their final destination we get 100 Million+ to 2-3 millions; ME vs. Americas), but there are relatively few in the ME with a high genetic quotient of black ( I suppose that you could say that Muslims lack “soul”) , why? Because of an almost universal practice in the Muslime world of castrating the XY’s and infanticide for the offspring of the concubine XX slaves of the hareem (agriculture was not the functional basis of slavery as in N or S America, it was sexual or infrastructural labour or as military fodder and it was cheaper to import replacements than grow from scratch. This applied equally whether the source of the slaves was Europe- mostly SE Europe or Africa or India or Asia; the Arab Muslims were quite ecumenical and non-racist in their treatment of non-muslim others) And where, do you ask, lays the irony? Why in the high popularity and growing numbers of the Black Muslim movement in the States and more generally in non-African blacks and blancs]
-The last national state to (reluctantly) abolish slavery in Africa was Islamic and did so in the 1980’s. Mauritania. Indeed the Janjaweed of Sudanese fame or more generally the Somalians are the direct decendants of those continent-crossing Arab slave takers and raiders who over the course of centuries moved into the Horn region; slaughtered the native males, took the more nubile native females and settled down into their new colonies ( It is not for nothing that Somalians pride themselves as behaving akin to lions), colonies whose economic basis was the export of slaves and spices. ( incidentaly that picture of Barack Obabma in Kenyan tribal costume was that of his fathers people, Somali migrants)
-The ethnic reference “Slav”, you know, Russians, Poles, Ukranians, Belorus, ex-Yugo’s etc. merely means Slave. I suppose that to be intellectually consistent we soon-to-be DWM ( please note that there are two meanings of DWM 1/ Dead White Male: pejoritive because of ethnicity and sex, and, 2/ Dead White Man- (man referring not to XY vs. XX but the primary Oxford Dictionary definition of “Thinking Being” hence including both XX and XY’s) and pejoritive only on ethnic grounds) must stop thinking of Slavs as “white”, because whites are never “victims” and only whites can be the universal and catholic oppressor. Slavs are therefore off the historic white-guilt hook.
Indeed I must be forced to regard everyone of non-British genetic heritage as being non-white ( “the wogs start at the channel” ), thus also absolving the French of culpability in white omnipotence, thereby allowing them to have their own unique aura of victimhood. So it comes to this, the only ones who historically practiced or nowadays practice World or Literary Dominion ( am I allowed by the HRC to use the word Dominion in Canada? After that day was abolished by Parliment?) are English speaking White Men ( Man here used in the OED’s fourth definition; that of a Homo Sapien Sapien adult XY) ( XX are the original and ubiquitous victims and if they don’t feel that to be the case they are merely being kept ignorant by the patriarcy).
I must go and drown my guilt.
Sincerely,
Robert Albin
Calgary
PS. But then, I am no expert
Sanderson – I could seriously answer your put downs, which are mean spirited, juvenile ad hominems. But I’m not going to bother.