Does the US even have a viable Plan A for HS education? | 48 comments (48 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: School sucks (none / 1)

yeah the whole point of deferred gratification was to get greater gratification... remove that and all that's left is just another con.

japan is a special asian case compared to the other tiger economies as they embraced modernism with such scary gusto it has even taken their sex drive away.

... or channeled it into geisha blowup anime dollette worship

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 04:30:03 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 1)

japan is a special asian case compared to the other tiger economies

Compared with South Korea and Taiwan it was pretty much the same regarding the brutal grind of preparatory schools.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 04:31:57 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

certainly, my point was it was the first asian economy to go taylorist with a vengeance, and as such is a bellwether of sorts.

or canary?

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 05:42:27 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (4.00 / 2)

There is just no gas for modernism anymore. Japan is getting grip of this reality first. Back to feudal lordship, with a turbo help from financial judgement days (whether 1991 or 2008). If you are not among the alpha circle, there is not much point in sex.

by das monde on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 06:09:26 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

das monde:

If you are not among the alpha circle, there is not much point in sex.

that worked out well for the Hapsburgs...

i guess Japan shows us where uber-modernism crashes into its gaudy limits. the once-rutting plebs self-geld with internet addiction while the power to light up tokyo so it's visible from mars plumes its untreatable waste into the biosphere non-stop.

but no fear that Cameron would be so imbecilic as to... oh wait.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 07:50:37 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

Some alphas are not like others.

Peak growth shows a lot of entropy waste indeed. But is Japanese modernism still that relatively gaudy? Just remains of the legend, I tell. The market for technological awe is shrinking, the supply as well. Internet addiction is as special as their financial bubble, and even radioactive waste is repeatable anywhere.

by das monde on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 09:18:58 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

a proper modernism is needed, but the hyper version japan demonstrates is actually entropy on steroids.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 07:52:44 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 1)

There is just no gas for modernism anymore.

Modernism that so disproportionately benefits the elites does seem to be increasingly discredited. The currently dominant 'globalization' the reducto ad absurdum of the Enlightenment value of 'univerasalism, is only being advanced by elites renting or hiring the politicians and has very little popular support. Unfortunately the only ready alternative is 'traditionalism', which throws us all back on the whims of the elite. We are left with a fruitless dichotomy which must be transcended if we are to survive. That is the test that matters.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 10:18:24 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (4.00 / 2)

I mean literally: there is not enough gas, oil, other dirty stuff to pump up the modernism with contemporary means. Big choices do depend on available resources. In the recent modernism, the elites were fluid and did not drastically differentiate themselves. Now we are probably heading back to more primate-lite societies. Do we know how else we can order more limited benefits?

by das monde on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 10:57:56 AM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

ARGeezer:

We are left with a fruitless dichotomy which must be transcended if we are to survive.

transcending it is so 60's, it worked as an escape valve, but ultimately just that...

turn on, tune in, drop out was an open invitation too political passivity, enabling the rummies and boltons and negropontes to make ground over the next three decades.

transcendence's only real function is to prepare for death, helping us to stay sane in a crazy era.

it doesn't get the legwork done.

i wish i knew what did... the closest i have seen is the 5*ers, who are writing a new book on participatory democracy.

as for the comments about japan and the rest of asia, japan was the first to take on western consumerism and then asianise it, taking it global so toyota and sony became the new coke and pepsi.

then followed malaysia, singapore, s. korea and china all racing to do to japan what japan had done to us!

so it goes... give man a brain, he'll figure out how to use it to poke himself in the eye.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 10:23:52 PM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

In this context I use 'transcend' to refer to finding a path through the dilemma so as to avoid being gored by one, the other or both of the horns. The question is not whether some individuals can do this. Some can. The question is can entire societies do this facing the current problems. I believe we can, but wonder if we will.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 10:49:46 PM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

No, Japan is not all that special when it comes to educational insanity. As mentioned, China and Korea and Taiwan all have more or less the same educational system, and the same grind-for-success mentality. It's worse in South Korea now than it ever was at the height of Japan's bubble economy.

by Zwackus on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 07:06:47 PM EST
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Re: School sucks (4.00 / 3)

And in response to the whole "giving up on sex" thing, that's a ridiculously overblown phenomenon of the Tokyo middle and upper-middle classes and their struggling spawn. The same fools who cram their life away to get into Tokyo University are the same ones who end up as broken individuals in all kinds of ways, including in their sexual health and personal life. It's commonly said that people who get into Tokyo University are strange, and it's because they are broken by the process.

There's a vibrant working class culture, especially in the areas of greater Tokyo outside the metropolis, of people connected in one way or another to the industrial economy and its associated service professions. They are not broken and lame as are too many Tokyo strivers, they have active personal lives, get married at a variety of ages, and have a good number of kids. It is from this class that Japan's small-business owners and entrepreneurs often come as well, as they've not been broken by the system.

by Zwackus on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 07:12:59 PM EST
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Re: School sucks (none / 0)

Zwackus:

The same fools who cram their life away to get into Tokyo University are the same ones who end up as broken individuals in all kinds of ways, including in their sexual health and personal life. It's commonly said that people who get into Tokyo University are strange, and it's because they are broken by the process.

residual dna from too-recent emperor-worship, a certain national superiority complex rooted in suicidal fanaticism, medieval honour codes institutionalised, all leading to blinkered thinking.

fascinating... how much of that is true also of england, that other rainy little island that morphed to a surprisingly disproportionate degree of global influence.

not that it's exclusive to islands or anything...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Jan 27th, 2014 at 10:31:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: School sucks (4.00 / 2)

Foreign media misrepresenting japan as a theme park of the strange? Say it isn't so!

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Jan 28th, 2014 at 03:00:13 AM EST
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Does the US even have a viable Plan A for HS education? | 48 comments (48 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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