Like a carpet being swept underneath our feet by a trained magician, the dynamics the world once thrived on has been brought upside down along with it and yet our society still functions as if nothing has changed. This new world we live in is not only scary but also unfamiliar to those still asleep and clueless. These cogs on the hamster wheel, we’ll call them, are just like you and I, except they are completely oblivious to the new paradigm we now face. With their music still inside of them, the cogs (status quo) will eventually die this way if they don’t wake up soon and realize that they are being diminished one by one and rendered obsolete.
What the status quo doesn’t realize is that we no longer live in a world dominated by a “manufacturing ideology.” Of course, it is not their fault. Americas big factory jobs have been assigned to cheap overseas labor and we’ve become a nation of hyper consumers living in a digital information age. One hundred years ago, the average teenager barely had her own room, let alone a closet full of clothing and a cosmetics kit. Back then, it was a few pairs of dresses and 2-3 pairs of shoes worn depending on weather conditions to keep warm and dry. Only the wealthiest had luxuries but even then, it wasn’t anything like we have now.
Todays public schools are riddled with bureaucracy and our teachers are forced to become less than average cogs on hamster wheels because the system designed it this way. Why is our society trying so hard to kill our natural born artists and great teachers? Ten or fifteen years ago, when GM introduced robots to assemble the cars we drive today, they figured that the best way to increase profits is to create robots that obey specific timed computer instructions, thus eliminating any wasteful time and money that a human which is completely inefficient could perform.
Todays teacher no longer has creative expression because she must follow bureaucratic systems put in place to suppress her abilities and make her feel under-appreciated. Instead, she is a highly qualified baby sitter because it was designed this way. Not much has changed in our public schools since the early 1900’s. Much like GM who built robots to work more efficiently, our school system is continuing to build efficient, obedient human robots to become average and easily replaceable.
Seth Godin, one of my favorite authors points out that the old American dream was to:
- Keep your head down
- Follow instructions
- Show up on time
- Work hard
- Suck it up
Don’t worry, you will be rewarded if you follow the principles above but honestly, you and I know that dream is over. The new American dream the markets are embracing around the world as fast as they can, is this:
- Be remarkable
- Be generous
- Create art
- Make judgement calls
- Connect people and ideas
Todays education system is completely obsolete – to be completely frank, it is not education, it is a SCAM! This scam suppresses our children right into adulthood with their music still inside of them. Everyone has a talent, a gift yet they are afraid to try because they’ve been taught to obey. We no longer have factories, we no longer live in the industrial age – why are we suppressing the gifts our children are born with? Everyone is an artist, yet no one is brave enough to exploit their talents.
Keep your head down and suck it up – this is not what you were taught! Obey.
Thanks for reading part one of this three part series. Part two is coming tomorrow. This is a powerful article series – stay tuned! Comments? Love um!
