A prescription for blindness. It is handed out freely and many people use it.
The prescription I am referring to here is not to cure blindness. Instead it causes blindness to certain things. It creates blind spots and sometimes these are purely mental in nature, and other times they are actually us being conditioned to ignore things we see visually.
Reality is an interesting place. It consists of things that actually happen. There can be facts about what happened that are very specific. For example: Before some event the object was at position A and now it is at position B. This would be a fact because the position did change. The term truth tends to come into play when you ask someone to tell you the truth about how the object moved from A to B. People will give you the "truth" based upon their knowledge. "It was an earthquake", "An animal moved it", "A human moved it because he didn't like where it was at". These can all be considered the TRUTH from the perspective of the person providing the information. That doesn't mean they are FACTS. The truth that the person is providing could be completely false, but they are telling you what they have interpreted it as with the limited information they have, and it will be flavored by their own personal bias. This is why you will sometimes here the phrase "Just the facts maam" because what people perceive as the truth can vary. The facts are the details that don't change.
I spoke of this as it is important to understand that someone telling you their version of the truth is not actually lying to you if they truly believe what they are saying. They simply may be ignorant of details and information.
They may also be suffering from the blindness that I wrote this article to describe.
In the late 18th and early 19th century educational reforms in Prussia became what we refer to as the Prussian Education System. It is important to know about these reforms so that we know what is going on in our own education systems. Why, you may ask? Well, that is because it is the model upon which almost every education system on the planet is now following and has been for some time.
One of the things we've come to know it for is the compulsory education. In other words, everyone of certain ages must participate in the education. We've been doing this in the U.S. since the late 18th century so this is normal to us now and being forced to attend this education is not something we even see as force, or even question. Well some of us question the motives behind this now. There are good motives, but there are also nefarious motives.
I am going to share some quotations from various websites and articles. It is relevant to building up towards my prescription for blindness. It should be noted that it did significantly increase the standards of education. There were positives. I'd direct you to my article from a couple of days ago about candy coating something that tastes bad as there is a bit of that going on in the history of this education system as well.
Source: MedClient.com
The things that are good about the approach in the education system are immediate and obvious in contrast to when it was not present. The education and learning of knowledge initially seems quite profound and near universal for the citizens. This is the candy coating. As my previous article explained this is used to make the bad taste less or not noticeable. I don't believe this is WHY these particular traits in the education system exist, but it does appear to have some of the same effect.
The Prussian Education System I have seen some places referred to as the "Factory Model of Education" [1]. By this they mean a standardized view of the world (including history) and what is acceptable and not acceptable is part of that standardization. If you recall the section I mentioned above about truth versus fact. The Prussian Education System is about standardizing and pushing an accepted version of TRUTH. Note, that doesn't mean it is the whole truth, the truth at all, or a correct representation of the facts. This model and standardization will vary depending upon the geographical environment it is being taught. In the U.S. the history will be told to show no U.S. blemishes and blame all woes upon other countries such as Russia. In Russia (and previously the Soviet Union) they will teach similar things but, it is likely often the U.S. that is the target of the woes. As far as the people teaching it who themselves came up through this particular factory of education are concerned it is the truth. They are repeating the truth that was standardized into them. Anyone with a small grasp of logic that takes the time to think about this realizes that all of these factory truths cannot be true. They generally are contradicting what is said elsewhere. What is missing from this is the facts.
It is a purposeful painting of the world in certain colors while leaving those it indoctrinates blind to others. This is why I suddenly began referring to it as a prescription for blindness. It pushes an agenda, and purposefully teaches its students how to ignore and have immediate mental guards go up when confronted with any facts that do not fit this narrative. This indeed is a form of blindness. You can hardly go a day speaking to anyone about controversial subjects or watching debates about controversial subjects without seeing this blindness in action.
It is not about the facts. It is about BELIEF and the agenda. People have been taught that it is okay for their beliefs to be more important than facts. They will react and defend their belief against all comers. A threat to their world view is the ultimate threat and their fight or flight reflexes kick in. It quickly devolves to an emotional tirade based upon total lack of familiarity with critical thinking. Ad hominem attacks to shift the discussion to the flaws of the person sharing information they don't want to hear, Red herrings designed to shift the discussion to a completely different topic so they can get away from the discomfort this one is causing to their world view. These are but a few of the common things that occur.
The Origins of the American Public Education System: Horace Mann & the Prussian Model of Obedience
For those of you that are proponents of a free market system. It should be noted that the Prussian Education System was the end of the free market education. It was changing to a one size fits all mentality.
It is also interesting that some of the traits that were admired by those that pushed for the adoption of this system was how successful it was in instilling obedience and less question of the government in the students. Think about this a bit. Does this taste bad to you? If not, then perhaps it's just me. I don't like this particular flavor.
The education was FREE and COMPULSORY. Yes it was free. Yet this is not what free market means. It was also compulsory, which means you did not have a choice not to participate. Considering it was now a factory to push a certain perspective of truth this becomes a rather nefarious tool.
I am a huge proponent of teaching critical thinking to all people and including children from an early age. That is not something that the Prussian model tends to focus on. In fact, they tend to push a different direction. Obedience, memorization, repeating what you are told, and not thinking and thus potentially questioning or doubting what you are told is what is desired in this model. Think about that. That is a pretty horrible tasting thing in my opinion.
It also means we are intentionally defining reality and blinding people to other parts of it. "Just the facts! Facts are important, and they are taught SOME in this system, yet often parts of it actually have little to do with facts.
Education Is a System of Indoctrination of the Young - Noam Chomsky
One advantage the Russian system (Soviet?) is that it focused on aptitude. Students were tested to see where their strengths and weaknesses lie... then their education was crafted around that.
The biggest problem inherent in the US model is the fallacy that "you can be whatever you want to be." Clearly a guy with an IQ of 70 wouldn't make a good brain surgeon (not mine at least) and it would be unlikely that they complete the courses necessary, thus wasting time and resources better used for a more practical course structure. I don't know a lot about the Prussian model except if it's designed to de-educate, they're doing a swell job!
It mostly seems geared towards conformity.
That's pretty much my understanding... preparing students for boring factory jobs, etc..
It was clearly motivated by self thinking soldiers questioning orders on battlefields. They wanted to decrease the chance of that happening as well. The rest grew up around that.
Maybe for the original Prussian model
IDK know about now or about other services, but when I went through Marine Corps training in 88, it was very much stressed to us that we had to make our own decisions and to be responsible for them...not just as a tactical unit but under the Rules of War and our morality
Yes, that was some of the motivations in the original prussian education system. I can also state that in 88 you had already come through K-12 and perhaps some college that was steeped in the prussian education system. They largely had tried to get you to believe and do certain things. So the goals it was praised for in the past would have already been hammered into you for many years before you even got to the marines.
You may be one of those the indoctrination didn't work on, or that you gradually began to see, as I know you can SEE. Yet, if you've already indoctrinated people for years what fear do you have in the marines from telling them to "make their own decisions and be responsible for them". These types of statements if you think about it we likely heard at various points in K-12 as well. Yet so much of the model contradicts those statements.
I have to admit to a great deal of hostility towards the educational system by the time I enlisted (including 3 semesters of college, which I considered to be a joke)
I think I did a great deal of self-education by reading military history ; as well as by contrasting what one reporter would say on air with other sources. It was easy to see even before the Internet that the media was a pack of socialist liars...IF one took the time to compare what they said against the course of events.
I think that our personalities determine a great deal of our world-view...I admit to the possibility that my tendency to view the point of a bayonet as the best response to tyranny colored my experience in service ;>
Yeah, I was a voracious self educator... I was always learning and doing new things. The bulk of that was outside of the school system. I was a pretty crappy student in the education system's point of view. I learned the absolute minimum I needed to pass and I often had Cs and other things. Meanwhile, I was generally in the back of the class filling up notebooks with my own ideas.
So yes I was a very crappy student in the "traditional" sense of the word.
So I can relate to what you are saying.
One thing I was going to say after I replied above...
"It's easy for them to feel safe in telling you to think for yourself if they are fairly confident they have conformed the way you are likely to think"
You and I it sounds like were aberrations.
Sounds akin to Tavistock Inst. They were (allegedly) formed to help WWI soldiers suffering with "shell shock." It then evolved into mind control techniques. I'm sure the Prussian model, by proximity, is linked to the Frankfurt School; they sound similar.
Excellent work, by the way- well written and definitely worthy of a RS!!!
Thanks it is appreciated. I do believe so much of these types of things are much like a rock being pushed that then leads to a rockslide. So many of these things are interrelated. How far back do we truly need to go to see the rock being pushed?
Good point... I'm ore concerned about getting out of the way of the rockslide!
@totalgyan
Learn something from this post , you can do it.
Thank you sir gor posting this wonderful article @dwinblood
Interesting read, thanks for sharing. Very thought provoking. Speaking of blindness (in a different sense), have you heard about these electronic glasses for the blind? They're great for blind accessibility and they make it easier to accomplish everyday tasks, such as reading, facial recognition, etc.--definitely worth checking out!
Yeah I heard they were doing something like that but I had never actually checked it out.
Insightful article. Thanks for the link to the video. I'll put that on my watchlist for later.
Very thoughtful artile sir
great job
@dwinblood
Awesome perspective. We see only what we want to see and we are naive enough to believe it...
Nice article keep posting =)
Baa Baa,opps sorry, was trying to say Stockholm syndrome...
Namaste!
Great quotes man and great post!
But hey, hey, this post is also "true" in the same way. =)
What I mean is that educational systems were not just created with an evil intent to zombify population. They were a response to the need for accessible and free education, and they were not necessarily conceived with an evil purpose. Rote learning was a conscious choice because it was indeed how we understood learning occurred. It was criticized a long time ago, and in my understanding, we are way past it in our thinking about education, although as is always the case, the educational system itself is slow when it comes to change. Like you said, old habits die hard, and it is not necessarily something nefarious.
Standardization also comes from the concept of equality. You need standards for assessment: you need standards to measure education against to be able to say that it is indeed provided equally to everyone. The results are not pretty, but the intentions are, again, not really evil.
I have a more positive view of education. It is indeed a mess, but it is so because of all that we thought we knew but actually didn't. And it is hard to change because it is a slow beast.
That is not to say there is not propaganda embedded in education. Governments are not stupid, and were fast to realize the potential of compulsory education for indoctrination. That aspect of education will probably never change, and it's parents' responsibility to make sure their kids are aware of that.
I'm for one fighting for a better education, and believe me, there is nothing evil about it. There is a lot of laziness, a lot of negligence, and a lot of incompetence on the part of those in power to authorize significant changes, but I personally find little intent for something evil in their actions. That is, unless you consider inaction and incompetence evil by themselves. I mean, not helping a drowning person is like killing that person anyway. =)
Which is why I said there were good motives and nefarious ones. I'm pretty anti-other human beings controlling the minds of other humans. So this is why I refer to the other motives as nefarious. Blind obedience is not a good thing IMO. :)
I have no problem with education. I love it. That doesn't mean this system is good.
I also do not believe treating people like one size fits all ultimately works very well. People are far too different. We should also not try to homogenize and conform people. It is the new ideas we need. We stifle that to a degree by treating everyone's education the same. This though is the current system. It is not attacking education itself.
There is also a woeful lack of teaching critical thinking and this very much does seem as though it is by design. The vast majority of people cannot even recognize the most common of logical fallacies. This means they are usually unaware when they themselves are using them, and when it is in turn being used against them. It is beneficial to propaganda efforts that the population remain this way as then they are much more suceptible to manipulations via logical fallacies.
So when I bash the Prussian Education System. I am not bashing education. Many forms of education existed before that system.
Well, ok)