A rant about science class

[otherlander]

Our science class is watching a video about the dangers of overpopulation. It discusses the lack of affordable birth control/ information about birth control in certain countries. Also the sexist attitudes that keep women from being educated about what they can do with their lives, and keep couples having children until they have sons. Typical reasons for high birth rates, interviews with people, etc.

They weren't just showing interviews, though. This also included videos of people getting operations to stop them from having kids, and people getting surgery to remove (surgically implanted) birth control devices that were put in wrong and caused infection, in countries where the governments are really trying to slow down population growth. And I wondered, why would people consent to have these things video taped? I wouldn't voluntarily let people film me if I was getting some operation like that... But maybe that's just me. Maybe the people in the video don't mind videos of them being mass produced and shipped out to be shown to groups of teenagers across America. Whatever. I'm not going to start making paranoid accusations of voyeurism here.

So here I am, sitting in my chair in a room with twenty or so other students, most of whom are laughing in a rather annoying tone at some guy being interviewed who's got about three teeth. They might be getting a bit bored, though, because they don't seem to find him quite as funny as they found the kid with hardly any clothes.

And I find myself looking at this classroom full of people in a kind of detached way. Not detached as in not caring, but as if I'm watching them from a long distance away, or a long time away. I think to myself, What I'm seeing here is the Ancient Empire of America. It was a very long time ago, all the way back in the year 2007. The army was overextended and unable to win any military victories, a major city was flooded, the infrastructure was starting to crumble, bla bla bla we've heard it all before.

So here there was a group of students whose families were still living pretty well, even though more and more of the people in Ancient America weren't. A bunch of kids in some mostly-white American suburb vaguely amused at the guy with three teeth, but getting bored, and getting annoyed at the people in the video for not doing anything more interesting than being toothless. Here we are, the children of the empire. Aren't we wonderful?

I wonder if it's possible to opt out of civilization.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. You are wise! Good words.

Good words indeed!

My heart is embiggened to know that there are teenagers of your caliber of thought, empathy, and insight.

:thumbsup:

[otherlander]

2. My classmates would not describe me as empathetic.

Mostly because I'm not very good at telling how people are feeling, and I don't make eye contact very much.

I know society says that eye contact is polite, but there's still that primal instinct that says that looking someone in the eyes is a challenge, and whoever looks away first loses the challenge.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Did the guy with three teeth say something funny?

:shrug:

[otherlander]

5. No.

He just had three teeth.

I don't really get why that's funny, though. :shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Did he slip on a banana?

Was he wearing a funny hat?

[otherlander]

7. No.

He was wearing a brown sweater. He didn't do anything funny.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Then he wasn't doing this?

[otherlander]

9. Oh my god...

Bornaginhooligan, what the hell is that?
:rofl:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Why, that's Conrad Poohs and his Dancing Teeth.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3IvXNo_5LMk

[otherlander]

11. I think that's the best thing that's ever happened anywhere ever.

[otherlander]

15. Except possibly for this:

(35% more squeaky and annoying than the original!)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RVbqG6f2yZQ&mode=related&search=

[trof]

4. At first I thought you were the teacher.

But you're one of the 'children of the empire'.
How did somebody so young get to be so smart?
I'm a geezer, probably old enough to be your grandfather, and you give me hope for the younger generation.
Good post and cogent observations.
Keep up the good work.
:thumbsup:

[otherlander]

12. The teacher...

A lot of the people don't like the science teacher, who's overenthusiastic and really smart but kind of disorganized, and talks to us as if we're all WAY smarter than we actually are, which often leads to us not understanding what the hell she's talking about. I think she's nice, though.

[Kali]

13. Read "Beyond Civilization" by Daniel Quinn

Might give you some more to think about. Good observations, BTW.:thumbsup:

[otherlander]

14. I've read some of his other stuff

Ishmael, and the sequel to Ishmael. I think some of the things he says are very true: We may have developed a civilization unlike that of any other species, but we still have to follow the laws of nature and live sustainably. We have the means to produce more food indefinitely, even in times of drought, so we have the means to expand our population indefinitely, and the only way we can go on living as a species, if we are going to keep controlling our food source like that, is to also control our population, or we'll just wind up with more and more people starving in each generation.

He's right about that, I think, but he also comes across to me as a bit stuck up. He says things that are true, yes, but he says them as if they've never been said before, and everything he's about to tell us will completely blow our minds. And then all that stuff about the "children's rebellion" failing because they knew something was wrong but didn't have a plan for how things should be. What is he talking about? There were lots of plans.