I occasionally rant about the loss of American jobs to Third-World countries via outsourcing. I mean, when was the last time you saw a label on a doll, clothing or other manufactured item that didn’t say “Made in China” or “Made in Mexico” or “Made in [Anywhere-But-America]”? When was the last time you called for technical support and didn’t have trouble with the Indian accent?
Occasionally, my complaint is that I end up with inferior goods or services, but when I think about it, what upsets me more is simply watching the deterioration of the United States and our way of life. Although most Americans don’t agree, I see where we’re headed. This pattern has presented itself before in the history of the world. (We called it “the Dark Ages.” The workers were known as “serfs” and the corporate bigwigs were “nobles.”)
Unfortunately, Americans aren’t really taught history in any significant way anymore. And when they are, they don’t pay attention.
History isn’t the only thing Americans either aren’t taught or ignore when they encounter it.
The way they used to teach the origin of the species to high school students in this sleepy town of 1,800 people in southern Pennsylvania, said local school board member Angie Yingling disapprovingly, was that “we come from chimpanzees and apes.”
Not anymore. Anna Badkhen, Anti-evolution teachings gain foothold in U.S. schools
Evangelicals see flaws in Darwinism (November 30, 2004) San Francisco Chronicle via SFGate.com
It’s ironic that the Dover area school board thinks the way “they used to” teach was that we came from “chimpanzees and apes.” The decision to include the “theory” of “intelligent design” in the curriculum was made by a 6-to-3 board vote, giving them a stronger mandate than the one that put a chimpanzee in the White House. (And, of course, we’ll ignore the irony that the school board members are so ill-informed about Darwinian theory that they believe we are descended from either chimpanzees or apes, rather than potentially from a common ancestor.)
Their mandate is further cemented by the fact that two of the three board members who opposed the decision have resigned. It’s starting to look like the Bush cabinet in miniature — do we call this marching lockstep? Goose step? Or is it both at the same time?
“There’s only one creator, and it has to be God,” said Rebecca Cashman, 16, a sophomore at Dover High. She frowned when asked to recollect what she learned about evolution at school last year.
“Evolution — is that the Darwin theory?” Cashman shook her head. “I don’t know just what he was thinking!”
Clearly this gal is a thinker. She’s rejected “the Darwin theory” without even knowing what it is. And the board thought they used to teach evolution in the schools! (Maybe Rebecca was absent that day.)
This is what happens when pinheaded inbred Christians believe they have control of the country because the other 80% of Americans sit silently by and watch the decimation of the nation. And people wondered how the Holocaust was possible. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” This quote, often erroneously ascribed to Edmund Burke, an English philosopher who was the first to refer to the Dover area school board as “the great unwashed masses of humanity” — okay, okay, he meant the hoi polloi, and not just the Doverians — sums up what happened then, with the near-annihilation of the Jews, and what is happening today with the near-annihilation of America’s traditional status as the leader in progressive scientific, political and cultural revolutions.
But the biggest irony of this all is that this trend virtually ensures that whatever the Force-We-Pretend-We’re-Not-Teaching-About is behind this new theory, Americans will soon not be intelligently designing anything.
That means — since so-called “Third World” countries are quickly learning the benefits of science and educating their populations — we will eventually get back all those call centers and manufacturing jobs currently being outsourced.
And — who knows? — maybe one day, Americans will hold their heads high as they trudge to their company home in their company town after their 18-hour workday (no overtime pay, by the way) knowing that all the dolls they made that day have labels saying “Made (but not Designed) in America.”
5 responses so far ↓
1 Chepooka // Dec 1, 2004 at 10:39 am
Yeah, what you said.
I am not sure about the trackbacks — I see a summary on my end.
?
2 abi // Dec 2, 2004 at 4:45 pm
Rick, I thought you weren’t a barbarian (in that you have learned Greek). How can you use a phrase like “the hoi polloi?
3 Rick Horowitz // Dec 2, 2004 at 4:49 pm
Because, while technically that’s saying “the ‘the populace'” or “the ‘the masses'” or whichever interpretation you wish to use, the phrase “the hoi polloi” is an English idiomatic expression.
At least, that’s how the hoi polloi use it. 😉
4 abi // Dec 6, 2004 at 12:45 pm
All I can say is that the use of “the hoi polloi” is, as a rule, the surest mark of membership in hoi polloi…
5 Rick Horowitz // Dec 6, 2004 at 1:26 pm
Hmmm…well, I don’t know if that’s true or, if it is, what the ramifications of it might be. This is, of course, one of the sort of (almost pointless) arguments that can only occur amongst the well-read, nu? Oh, with one modification: I think I’ll grant that you’re essentially right and I’m essentially wrong.
Reminds me of something I was reading today from an interview with Steven Pinker (cogsci/philosophy of language type):
Attitudes about what’s right and what’s wrong with language don’t take into account the changes over time, let alone importations from one language into another.
I’m not so sure about the argument — I already hear it coming — “yes, but the phrase ‘hoi polloi’ MEANS ‘the populace’ or ‘the common people,'” so the “the” is already there.
That’s (theoretically) the translation. Hoi is supposed to be the definite article, translated into English as “the.” And polloi? Hmmm…people, common people, population, masses….
Anyway, that’s how you get from Greek to English. What it means “in English,” isn’t necessarily the same thing. In English the sound pattern generated by the tokens “hoi polloi” mean “the common people” or “the great unwashed masses” or whatever other “meaning” you give them in the same way that “feline” means “cat.”
And I think I could make an argument that (grammatical) form follows function.
Of course, I’ve always found it odd that British people I’ve met say things like “But the French striker admitted he expects to cop the fall-out if Arsenal fail to beat the Norwegian part-timers and suffer an embarrassing exit” instead of “if Arsenal fails . . ..”
Neverthless, I get your point. And I don’t even deny that it’s a valid argument. But hoi polloi often don’t even know they’ve encountered a foreign phrase when they say or read “the ‘hoi polloi.” (And, btw, would I say “many of ‘hoi polloi’ don’t even…” and throw them even further off???) I imagine I’ll likely continue to say “the ‘hoi polloi’” when it “sounds right.”
It’s all just Greek to “them.”
Leave a Comment