[Winona Online Democracy]
On Jan 6, 2005, at 06:12, Dwayne Voegeli wrote:
[Winona Online Democracy]
Thank you Vicki for sending the Star Tribune article.
You have hit upon a passion of mine.
My first response is to send a long rambling e-mail but no one will read it
anyway.
;->
A few questions instead...starting with low and moving up to high intensity
junk culture healing...
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1. What do others think about the iniative to ban all advertising to children under the age of 12?
Good luck convincing a judge that this is not a a massive violation of the First Amendment.
2. What do you think about publicly funded elections so democracy could be
freed from the corruption of big money and then we could elect people who
would actually be interested in true media reform?
3. What improvements in local print, radio, and television media could we
see if they were not such advertising machines at their cores?
Show me a business model that would work and I would gladly invest. However, I do not see that as likely. It has long been an established fact that it is not possible to make money with print without advertising because consumers are simply unwilling to front the cost of a publication if there would be no advertising.
Further, I find advertising in magazines (and even newspapers) useful. These show the products out there and often times makes it easier to complete a transaction. This is especially so with newer products that I am unlikely to be familiar with (and thus more likely to be advertised). This concept has a limit to more specialised publications such as Sky & Telescope.
4. How would our kids (and adults!) be different if we all gave up television for 10 years?
So... I have to give up the History Channel?
I bet people complained about Radio just as much as people complain about TV and video games today.
Biting my :p.
Comments scattered throughout and below.
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Trying to keep it short and biting my tongue...
:->
Dwayne Voegeli
Jan. 6, 2005
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Elizabeth Rock: Let's return to a belief in the power of the mind By Elizabeth Rock January 2, 2005 ROCK0102
When education and intelligence have become a cause for suspicion, not
respect; when we prize aggression over thought; when Salinas County is
closing its libraries, but there is always funding for sports stadiums;
when our scientists and engineers are coming from other countries
because our students find those subjects too "hard";
Perhaps it not that the subjects are too hard, but made to seem unimportant. Further, it is hard to gain entrance into college for science when local school districts, notably this godforsaken district, make a habit of cutting math and science sections. By doing this it flat out says math and science are not important. This leads to declining enrolment and then more sections cut in future years.
It is becoming more and more expensive for anyone to undertake a long and detailed science programme that may not result in certain employment. It is not like one could go out and start their own business easily like one could in another field because science work is extremely capital intensive.
when we give the same weight to unproven ideas as we do to hard science;
Wow... talk about diplomacy. If you ask me that flat out says religion is not very important. I bet it would hard to make any needed reforms by alienating those who are religious. Then again, I have yet to hear a good argument for or against religion, so both ideas remain unproven.
when we tolerate mediocrity and errors, thinking "it's good enough..."; I say it's time for a huge resurgence in the power of the mind.
This is exactly the problem. An unwillingness to accept mistake that will inevitably happen. This causes people to avoid the risk of making a mistake.
It's time to put a premium on intellect again. I want all of us to aspire to greater brainpower. I want us, and especially our kids, to want to be smart -- really, really smart -- again; to admire smart people they way they admire rich people. I want kids to want to be smart the way they want to be professional athletes and rap artists.
I really do not like the insinuation of this entire article that repeatedly stresses athletics bad, intellect good. It seems to suggest that athletes and hip-hop artists are intellectually inept without drawing a connection. One could point out that Oklahoma State University's football programme graduates less than fifty percent and cite this as evidence, but the problem there would be not the sport, but the increasingly competitive and perfective nature that requires massive practise that removes time that could be devoted to minimal studying. It also does not ask why people are willing to devote themselves to such a regiment. The problem is not sports but rather a perfective nature that causes a monopolisation of the athlete's time and makes graduation difficult.
I want young people to devote the kind of energy to their brains that
they devote to eating worms on "Fear Factor." I want young women who
can't be bothered to read, but will devote months to pretending to love
someone for his money, to want to find the cure for ovarian cancer just
that much. I want us to spend as much time on the strange shadings of
Thomas Jefferson's complex world as they do on the slightly
less-nuanced world of Nick and Jessica.
High School is the reason why I stopped reading for the longest time... hmm...
I want us to innovate again. I want us to export something besides the concept of bling and "Wife Swap." I want Shakespeare to be the new hot sex talk. I want brains to be the next bling.
I wish to know where this columnist has been for the last three years? Innovation did not end when the .com bubble broke. Even the most mundane things like clothing have been getting improvements since the bubble broke. Has she heard of the iPod or all the other hardware and software innovations over the last three years? Has she heard of the Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft ( <http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm> )?. Innovation never died it just took a momentary backseat when capital became scarce.
We need to be critical thinkers again. Because once we wake up, kick our brains into overdrive and stomp on the gas again, everything else will fall into line.
Elizabeth Rock is a freelance illustrator.
Dwayne Voegeli
Winona County Commissioner
(507) 453-9012
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
359 Pleasant Hill Dr. Winona, MN 55987
********************************************
David Dittmann
Those that point out to others that, "Those that do not learn from history are condemned to repeat history," are themselves repeating the mistakes of history by failing to realise that by pointing out to others that the potential exists to repeat the mistakes from history, will only cause the mistake from history to repeat.
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