I looked it up this morning, and verified that, in Scouting, "WEBELOS" is the Cub Scout transition rank just before the child enters the lowest rank of Boy Scouting.
Notice that word "rank", which I do not believe is consistent with participation as an individual in a democracy, i.e., the sociality of self-govenment by peers.
But rank is consistent with the ideology of command-and-obedience, which structures forms of social organization in which some individuals command and other individuals obey (fascism, etc. -- someone once tried to shame me for making this association -- shaming being a way persons try to influence others' opnions when they can't adduce good *reasons*...).
Now listen to that word: "WEBELOS", which scouting literature says means: "WE will BE LOyal Scouts". Doesn't it also sound like: "We belows"? Is this so obvious that nobody notices it? Or have I just not found the chapter-and-verse reference which specifies this in Scouting literature?
Why don't we have a new form of Scouting, in which young persons get trained in tracking down [scouting...] citation (audit trail) information for everything they hear, see, read, etc.
Let our young persons be "led" in this endeavor by those true (German: "echt", I think...) even though somewhat improbable defenders of freedom: our librarians, instead of by "scout leaders". (Why are librarians improbable defenders of freedom? Because, at least from my childrearing, they had the image of being "spinsters" AKA prudes.)
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
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