Sunday, July 12, 2009

PARBOILING THE FROGS

Back to the example of the frolicking frog, oblivious to the gradual increase in the temperature of the water of his pond (in reality a pot of water over metered flame), becoming the centerpiece of the main course for eaters of boiled bufos. This time I would like to use this perfect metaphor for the inculcation of the myth of human exceptionality as it contributes to the formation of the big mistake of western civilization.

I remember the fifties when news reels gave us pictures of Suzie Spotless pushing buttons and pulling out food and stuff from the precursor to the replicator, of assembly lines devoid of human beings turning out infinite copies of the stuff just to show the secrets of the replicator, of the ultramodern living room of Bob puffing his leisurely pipe while meditating on the meaning of words he’d read in the weighty tome lying in his lap in his mind in its smoke amidst the rest of the happy, leisurely Dobbs family eating the automatic food and playing with all the replicated stuff at once. Hally Loo Yah, ain’t gwinna woik no mo. It was just a matter of time until the five day work week would shrink to four, perhaps three not too far down the line. This is the period of my life I consider the parboiling of the frog.

Parboiling is a process of conquoco interuptus discovered in an area of China where the humans heated their rice slightly loosening the husks leaving the seed soft enough to be slightly edible and particularly facile in being made into a traditionally more digestible boiled meal. I consider public education a parboiling process artificially ridding budding question marks of the natural protection offered by the sublime guidance of their genetic memory, intuition and instinct by burying such sensitivity to the big picture beneath a landfill of brand new concerns about existing in a world demanding it be seen correctly as soon as possible — period.

Instead of boiling them directly onto the edible condition of slavery or indentured servitude, later versions of those-who-would-be-master found there’s less uprising, less spoilage if one parboils the product and leaves it to feel free to turn up its own heat and choose what variety of meal it cares to be for them. Public education, the first hit’s free.

So sixty years after the relief from whatever oppression the grown ups were feeling then lit the fire with the promise of more leisure, stuff and trouble free food that parboiled the entire industrialized world, the softened product is left to choose to fill its promised leisure with more work to satisfy a developing dependence on all that stuff as the dog adjusts his leash of choice about his bloated neck in the mirror of his well appointed home cage, drives his overburdened transportation cage to his work cage lined with paper through which he must chew to earn such a cush set up as his own kennel and the society of so many other like minded, willing kennelmates.

The choice seems to be that we awaken or die in an induced coma. Waiting until qualified to retire to begin thinking about it is the carrot on a stick program of the great Amurkyan dream.

19 comments:

the walking man said...

A finely well crafted essay. Pointed and critical in the observation of the way society has been eased into middle class slavery while them below dream of that same slavery and them above are ever finding new ways to increase their control of the plantation.

So...conclude the point and offer a way, a path, for the slave to become free? Even if one finds their way (unlikely) into the ruling class they would find a slavery of another kind there as well.

Yodood said...

The point, the way, the path down which I left crumbs to follow and walk to the freedom of which you speak is contained, obviously concealed, at the begining with the words "the myth of human exceptionality." There is no pat solution to unbelieving the bullshit we swallow to bloat our undeserved opinions of our part in the nature of our planet.

Garth said...

Sometimes all we can do is be aware of the water temperature - an uncomfortable situation when all around you are floating on their backs and commenting on the beautiful weather we've been having lately.
Word verification (I kid you not) "curingit"

the walking man said...

Nature of the planet or the nature of the evolved dominant species upon it?

Evolution can be directed by condition, change the condition you change the bend in the evolutionary path.

Crumb trails are for fairy tales, information and road signs are much better for learning new roads. Or have you given up on finding a new way?

Yodood said...

Pisces,
You live where "all around you are floating on their backs and commenting on the beautiful weather we've been having lately."???
So where did you find your dark material?

Walking Man, Only a sufferer of the myth of human exceptionality can believe evolution can be directed by the evolved, like the mythical act of lifting oneself by one's own bootstraps I suppose?

You want someone to pave a road lined with informative billboards for you? How terminally civilized your alternative fairy tale seems to be.

Anonymous said...

The trouble with crumb trails is that the birds eat them and then you get lost...

Yodood said...

Welcome Cinnamon,
are you calling Walking Man a bird?

Anonymous said...

No, no, no! I am not calling anyone anything! I love WM!Just being mischievous.

Just returned to say that I agreed with some of what you say about public education. Unfortunately as a sufferer of the myth of human exceptionality, I put my 2 boys through that system (it's called 'state' education over here)and I am now wondering if I have done them a huge disservice.

I am watching with interest my sister home-tutor her children and wishing I had had her insight and conviction.

the walking man said...

ain't worth the effort.

Yodood said...

Walking man, how pedestrian of you to throw a hissy fit demanding that I elaborate on ideas you seem not to grasp while simultaneously decrying their lack of originality. Which is it?

I received your previous comment via email twenty minutes before you reread and deleted your childish rant defending the dumbassery that cannot recognize that beholding one's own digestion of the common myths for the lies they tell IS the key to unraveling one's own unique knots.

Not only was it not worth your effort, it convinced me mine is wasted on you as well. Oh well.

Garth said...

Dood: my dark material comes from having to listen to boiling frogs proudly proclaim their ignorance :)

Yodood said...

Pisces, are you calling Walking Man a frog?

Garth said...

Hahaha - now don't be dragging me into this one - I don't want to end up a "collateral damage statistic"

the walking man said...

Pseudo intellectual rave without point or purpose makes you appear that you have been in the pot overlong tadpole, steeping in the juices of your own claimed worth. A value which means little to me as it is self professed.

Throwing concepts around that you do not understand only make you "sound intelligent" thorough your exaggerated verbosity. But like most of the rest of the humanity you say you hate; you have found your herd and, you dear child, follow it religiously.

Do yourself a favor and try, although I know it would be a strain, to think for yourself.

Yodood said...

Walking man,
Thanks for returning with a milder repeat of your earlier, redacted, inane rant against your reflection in the mirror. I was afraid folks would think I was judging the one who began this spate of comments with "A finely well crafted essay." too harshly.

Yodood said...

Pisces, Ho ho, I wouldn't drag you into anything so childish, just thought you were volunteering ;)

Garth said...

haha - two years in the military taught me never volunteer

the walking man said...

My pleasure to return to give you even more opportunity to make my point as to your character and skill with every word you post.

Yodood said...

Walking Man,
Other than demanding I give you some kind of 12 step program, life-coach road map out of any problems you perceive in your own personal version of "education" and turning a tantrum on me when I refused to give you fish instead of the the crumby pole I offered and you scoffed at, I didn't realize you were even making a point.

BTW If I, as you laid on me, "hated humanity" I'd let the sleeping dogs lie there and to each other.