On the Tentacles of Leviathan...

I had an art professor tell me once that our harshest critics would be those closest to us. He was right, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Those who truly love you will be honest with you, instead of bullshitting around. Anyhow, my last post was about when I first began to understand that the "system" we live in is major-leage FUBAR.

A friend of mine read it, and I'm still not exactly certain what he got out of it. His criticism appears to be that I "lack perspective", when dealing with issues regarding my childhood. I guess this is somewhat my fault, as reading that post did kinda seem as if I were blaming the public school system for things that happened in my youth.

While I would love to be able to honestly say "Yeah, they're the reason I'm all fucked up!", that's not really the case. Like any government program, they couldn't even do that if they tried.

Seriously though, I'll say this. I love my father dearly, and I honestly believe that the majority of those involved with my public-school education had my best interests at heart. That's not to say that I didn't have some of our "educators" who were some seriously sadistic malevolent pieces of excrement, but I digress. Right now, I'll repeat a favorite quote of my father, with "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions".

So, what was the meaning of that post? Well, it wasn't to point out the misdeeds of our public school system. Any rational and reasonable person knows that public education is beyond fucked, period. It isn't necessary to point out its failures any more. It wasn't to dog out my dad, either. You cannot find guilt with a man who has honest intentions, as intent is one of the two elements of a "crime".

The point, of course, was merely to show that public school is a mechanism of conditioning. Consider it an annealing process that stock must go through, before it can be properly machined, formed, and used.

Occasionally, you get stock that happens to be abnormal. You heat it and cool it like normal stock, but it doesn't behave the same way. It's either going to become brittle and easily broken, or it becomes harder than a whore's heart. Some of us were broken, some of us pissed off the guy swinging the hammer when we dented his anvil.

Regardless, our public school system is a machine of The State. It is of The State, by The State, and for The State. The State exists solely by means of force, as it has no other possible recourse for dealing with those who do not consent to it. If it is evil to use force against someone in an aggressive manner, and such an action is the only manner in which The State may operate, The State can only be logically described as inherently evil. By extension, all mechanisms of The State can only logically be described as also being inherently evil.

Back to what I was saying, my experiences at Northside Elementary were just a brutal learning experience for me. I didn't understand what was happening. All I knew was that it sucked, because I was of abnormal stock and the machinists didn't know what to do with me. I was beaten, both literally and figuratively, but I would not be forged into the desired piece. The metallurgist grew weary of not being able to shape me, and he also grew angry over the way I marred his anvil. I became bent out of shape, my temper was lost, and I became cracked in a few places. Welds were made in some faults, others were left as they were. In these unrepaired faults, there were burrs that had a tendency to cut when handled without caution.

What will never be denied, however, is that I would could not be forged into the intended mold.

The State may swing its hammers a million times and succeed in forging their stock in the intended manner...but this will never change the fact that they did, in fact, use force to alter something that existed prior to the hammer's blow. The fact that a particular piece of stock did not become forged as intended does not change the fact that the stock existed prior to the hammer's blow, or that its resilience with regard to the hammer and anvil was not a defect in the stock.

It matters not what forge The State chose to initiate its attempt to mold the stock, nor what blacksmith attempted the forging. There are many hammers, many anvils, and many forges...but they are all owned by The State. Sometimes, the stock just will not bend the way The State desires it to bend.

The stock was deformed, twisted out of its initial shape, cut upon and beaten...but it would not be molded. You added coal and air, but it could not be properly annealed. You tried more heat, more pressure, but you still could not forge it into what you wished it to become.

The stock still has the markings and the hardness first given by the initial hammer and anvil. Some of us are just made of different stock, and we won't bend the way you want...but we didn't forget the first time you tried.

What saddens me the most is that those who swing the heaviest hammers often do not realize who or what they swing those hammers for. They do not understand the damage the anvils inflict upon the stock. No matter what forge the hammer is swung in, no matter what the anvil, there is but one desired outcome for The State.

To finish this post, I'll quote the Metric/SAE/Fraction conversion chart given to my machine shop by a supplier, which reads "Every new machine tool was built on a rebuilt machine."

Something to think about...