Today’s Image: Olive Branches and Smoke – Peace or War.
Will the collapse of civilisation be caused by an explosion from political extremists or by an insidious erosion of reality via social media?
Or have the two melded in a cauldron that has been steadily evaporating truth, honour and biblical values?
The Political
During the last summer we spent at the farm in Tarragona I agreed to be a volunteer at a local holiday camp. Alas, my idealistic ideas of keen environmentalists and future defenders of the rural lifestyle were to crash like a Windows experimental computer program.
I took the task on at the request of a Catalan Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organisation working for the preservation of all things Catalan.
Subliminal political isolationism? Perhaps – though that did not prove the greatest challenge.
Catalan Cultural Identity
Their manifest covers areas from the history and repair of dry stone walls and civil war battle sites, to the promotion of the catalan language; from exhibitions of artifacts to traditional pueblo fiestas.
I was asked to share conversational English with the catalan-speaking children of the pueblo. Despite the increasing undercurrent that led to the Sept 27th referendum, this was not the contradiction in terms it may seem to be: even the most dyed-in-the-catalan-flag fanatics recognise that english is a commercial necessity.
No problem, I thought . .
- I have taught plenty of groups in the past.
- I know my subject.
- I can zip around a computer and create PowerPoint presentations with the best of the geeks.
. . so what could be difficult?
Don’t even ask!!
The Digital
I was not there to talk politics, and had no intention of touching on culturally touchy subjects. But that did not even arise.
Instead, I had a crash course in pre-puberty digital addiction.
Trying to separate this bunch from their pads, phones, game-boxes and whatever other electronic devices they could bring along was about parallel to getting a politician out of his fat-cat money schemes.
Freedom of Thought?
I am all for freedom of thought. But let it be independent thought, exercised as the word implies. The alternative, that of google-thought, is an oxymoron.
Led like an ox to the slaughter, following moronic group-think.
The Challenge
Together with the digital obsession, I was faced with the products of an educational policy that elevates idealism and ignores reality.
In this line of social thinking the idea of discipline is considered repressive. The ‘newly enlightened’ propound their theories of human rights – theories which include encouraging a child to express him/herself regardless of the antiquated idea of respect for others.
It was an . . . interesting . . .experience.
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