AOM - V - EDUCATING THE SHOOTERS

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Education is not a book but the words held within
words have meaning, they are powerful, they will change your life
they are the greatest of tools and the most formidable of weapons
the words we speak, and the words our children hear
it is only you that can decide how they are used

Education is not an exam but an examination
of the world and the life that surrounds us all
a journey of discovery to experience all of the wonders
the reality of the whys, the what is and the how could that be?
to the contemplation of the what-ifs and what could be, the what should be

Education is not about the teachers but about the teachings
what is necessary to become that which we were meant to be
happy in heart, comfortable in mind, peaceful in soul
always questing, always searching, always listening, always learning
never forgetting that others are following a similar path

Education will never be just about knowledge but about understanding and wisdom
the ability to contemplate an infinite universe and a finite lifetime
to discern the meanings of right and wrong and love and hate
and create a philosophy that allows us all to live together
with integrity, compassion, empathy, character, and honor

~ ki ~

AOM - V - EDUCATING THE SHOOTERS

Education is a fundamental aspect of the development of a stable personality. It is a prerequisite to confidence as well as competence. It is an absolute necessity in the formation of a strong personal character, a considered ethical behavior and a deep-rooted sense of integrity. Unfortunately, that is NOT what is being taught to our children across this great land as we speak today. Education is supposed to be based on independent thought, not a rigid ideological theory. The whole idea of education is to present to our students, of whatever age, objective and verifiable information and strive to create critical thinkers that will surpass that which they learn, and result in an advancement of knowledge and progress in the human condition. There is no place in our institutions for bias and prejudice and propaganda. None for partisanship, not really for any politics at all. And yet, with each passing year, those things that are cherished and instrumental to the students’ development are being phased out and replaced by what can only be described as inferior indoctrination, aiding no one, and a huge detriment to us all, or almost all.

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society

~ Theodore Roosevelt ~

This has been going on for decades now. The changes that are being made are arbitrary and troublesome. I hear of no discussion or debate. No comment from Congress. No information from the media. If the changes were appropriate and beneficial you would think they would be proud to show examples of the new directions and changes implemented. They should want validation. You would think that 'transparency' would be their goal. But they make changes in the shadows and in meetings behind closed doors. Subject matter was fairly consistent for quite some time. They now replace traditional subjects with progressive substitutes. When I talk to parents they are normally unaware these things are even happening. But I read articles and talk to people who own businesses and they are bewildered and troubled. The quality of the applicants for jobs are inferior to anything they have ever seen. They are apathetic and unmotivated, unsophisticated and woefully uninformed on some of the most basic principles of business and life in general. They possess limited social skills and their abilities to read and write are mediocre at best. Most have difficulty with the simplest tasks. At least if the results were evident we could give them the benefit of the doubt. But they do not really care and it is reflected in the final product.

We teach our children today that we are all equal, and yet there is no truth to the claim. They are not stupid, at least most of them. They know when someone else can answer all the questions when they cannot is a poignant reminder there is no equality. We can stop keeping score when they play games, and give everyone a participation trophy, but when you lose 20 to 0, even if no score is kept, you can't but realize there again is no equality on the field. America has always been a meritorious system. We know this has changed. Who authorized it? Did you? I certainly didn't. We live in a democratic republic in this country, and yet only a small percentage of our COLLEGE graduates know this. Less than half can name the three branches of government. They have no idea what each one does. Many cannot name the vice-president or any of their local representatives. They cannot name Supreme Court justices. We are not talking about elementary school children here. We are talking about college students! They do not understand how the electoral system works but they want to overturn it. They talk of fairness and equality but fail to understand that most of the citizens of this country would have their votes negated and made worthless. They don't care. They don't understand. They don't know. They don't think. How do they make these decisions? Who taught them to 'unthink' like this? Our education system did.

We do not teach civics in our educational system anymore. The working of government, both federal and local. The way it works and why it works that way. Your rights within the system, and more importantly, your responsibilities and obligations. They are given no framework from which to make decisions. And as always, there is no discussion, and there is no debate. There are no questions, and that ensures there can be no answers. Therefore there is no information on which to make life-changing decisions. There was no education. There exists no knowledge about the subject. What the hell have they been doing? They do not learn about the constitution and the lives and efforts that went into the creation of this country. They think they know their rights, but they have no context and no background. They are taught no American history anymore so there is nothing but ignorance when it comes to the foundation of their country and their ancestors and their common heritage. The reality is that they know next to nothing at all. They despise America. They hate everything about it. They believe that everyone involved with the creation of our nation was a racist and a slave owner. They may never know the truth for what it was, and they really don't give a damn. Most of their information is false, or at least grossly out of context. Where is the learning experience? Where is the discussion and the 'education' of these poor children? If the whole system did not believe this very same misinformation they could counteract the atrocity taking place. But they do not. They believe it as well. THEY are the ones that have indoctrinated the children in these beliefs in the first place.

Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination

~ Thomas Sowell ~

And these horrendous acts of abdication of duty and total lack of integrity and character pale compared to those things that are not even political and purely 'uneducational'. We do not teach our children any system of standards or ethics or morals either in the home and certainly not in the schools. Morals are a thing of the past and highly frowned upon. That would be discrimination to 'judge' someone else as to their actions. No one is better than anyone else under any circumstance. Who are you to think that your way is superior to anyone else’s? It is racist and homophobic to even question the actions of anyone. We have completely removed the standards of right and wrong. We do not teach the difference because we have decided that there is no objective way to decide. It would be 'unfair'. Who are we to know? Who is John Galt?

We do not speak of the subject of personal character or integrity. We completely reject the concept of philosophy since that would be a comprehensive culmination of the relationships between all of these things that I mention into a sensible and reasonable system of cause and effect that could be used to make sense of all this chaos and anarchy we see all around us. We refuse to give our students the chance to decide for themselves. Self-determination is anathema to our educational system. We are not looking to create critical thinkers to save us from ourselves. We are looking to create obedient sycophants, worse than any religion that has ever been released upon this tortured planet. We are getting exactly what we should expect. I guess everything that we deserve. Everything is going according to plan. It is only a matter of time. And yet they are still frustrated. When do they want it? They want it NOW!

Please do not cry when our children are gunned down in school hallways. This should come as no surprise. This is completely expected. And you should expect more. Many more. It is not only expected, but it is also inevitable. It is going to happen again. It has already happened twice more since parkland while I try to put these articles to paper. The protests, our political discourse, the blatant hatred on every broadcast on each and every channel every single day! Hatred. Pure and simple. Total disrespect for country and flag. They have no respect for authority whatsoever, whether police or parents or teachers, it really doesn't matter. No respect for people in general, be they friend or foe. No respect even for themselves. No self-control, no true self-esteem. No understanding what any of this means. Disrespect for life itself.

Do you really think the kids do not see this? Do you think this is not affecting them? Infecting them is closer to the truth. They become what we teach them to be. They are becoming what we want them to be. We created them. We have damaged them, and some of them are beyond repair. We are creating our own demons and now we must pay the price. It has taken decades to get to this point. It is not going away anytime soon. What the hell have we done? And we continue to blame a gun? Isis is one of the worst kind of enemy we have ever had to face. Someone willing to die for their cause is a formidable foe. We have created an enemy very similar, in the guise of our shooters, that do not care, about anyone or anything. They don't believe there is a future for them. They are willing to die and they have no real cause. How do you fight such a thing? You better sit down and think about it. They're coming and there is nothing you can do about it. We've created a monster, and the monster is us! Get used to it. It is the new norm.

Our schools have created a culture based not on knowledge and reality, but a world where only a specific, liberal ideology is allowed to exist, and even then they cannot decide exactly what that means. They attempt to rewrite history. They distort and negate facts until it is impossible to discern fact from fiction. The whole concept of education and learning has been perverted. The list is endless. The dissolution of truth so as to not being able to tell right from wrong. Being taught there IS no right or wrong. All things are equal. No one is better than anyone else. This is not ethics, it is anarchy. And anarchists tend to be little if not completely self-absorbed. They do whatever makes them happy. They do whatever they want. They have only self-created boundaries. They end up having no standards so they evolve no feelings. They potentially have the ability to walk into a school or a mall or a McDonalds and gun down 17 innocent people. Simply because they felt like it. Or they wanted to see how it feels. Or their little feelings were hurt. Or just because they ceased to care. Because they could.

They vow this will never happen again! They are wrong. It will happen again. It's going to happen more often, and it's going to get worse. Wait until they start hunting in packs. Wait until they get bored and only torture gets them off. Wait until they learn to be patient and create bigger and better ways to kill. Wait until they evolve into something even more destructive than what they manifest themselves today. The professional terrorists are working on it. We are ignoring that also, at least most of us. Our domestic terrorists have not yet come to fruition. But they will. You can bet on it. If you don't do something about it, it will happen. If you hide your head in the sand, they will kill you where you stand.

If you never even understand the problem, how can you ever even think of combatting it much less resolving it? This is not a matter of gun control. Remember that 3000 people died on 911 and not one shot was fired. Their choice of weapons were box cutters and an airplane. This is not a gun issue. It is a hate issue. It cannot be legislated, and certainly not with the pathetic measures our illustrious representatives present. Even our president is being lured by the need to look like he is doing something, talking of banning 'bump-stocks" after the shooting in a Florida school EVEN THOUGH it was not used in the incident. The ONLY time a device such as a bump stock was ever used in an attack was in Las Vegas.

Why are we talking about this now? Because there is nothing that will stop this kind of thing from happening short of a totalitarian confiscation of every gun in America. That is over 200 million guns and trillions of rounds of ammunition. And thousands of people will die if this is ever attempted. They ask us to give up only a single freedom. A lot of people could gladly live with that. For what? Do you really think that will solve the problem? The drug cartels, already transferring money and drugs and people through the borders, basically 'at-will' will be happy to oblige those that wish to obtain illegal guns. They will sleep each night, not with thoughts of sugar plum fairies in their heads, but with overflowing cash registers spewing thousand dollar bills.

We cannot stop any of this. We cannot stop illegal immigrants. What makes you think you will stop illegal guns? The criminals and the crazies will be waiting in lines like the opening to a Hollywood gala or the release of a new iPhone to buy new and exotic items that today are not even available within our borders. If it’s gonna be illegal, it might as well be one of the baddest ass weapons money can buy. And they WILL be expensive, to be sure, but there will be no one to shoot back except for police, so getting the money will only be a matter of logistics. No sense holding up people on the streets. They will now be able to enter homes without restriction, safe in the knowledge that there can be no resistance. How nice. The bad guys will find security while the rest of us will find only chaos.

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. If you think this is going to work, you are certifiably insane. We banned automatic weapons. It did NOTHING to lower shooting crime statistics. We run background checks, and the shooters pass with flying colors because they haven’t shown their disease yet, or they are simply criminals and the guns are not registered. Most of our school shootings are with completely legal and registered weapons. You know that, don't you? You should. Try to know something before you give up our future before you protest for changes you do not comprehend. Will you please? We have so many gun-free zones now it's getting hard to navigate. How's that working out for us? Most of the shootings are taking place in gun-free zones. Do you think more will make a difference? Maybe a double-gun-free zone will do the trick. I would laugh if it weren't so tragic. You people are pathetic and ignorant. You don't have a clue.

The education in our homes is even less effective. All of the problems outlined above in spades. And when the frustrations reach the boiling point? Do we attempt to instill discipline? We 'punish' them by sending them to their rooms, replete with iPhone, televisions, and computers. They smoke and they drink. They do whatever they want. The punishment is complete. Justice has been handed down. They have been put in their place. The parents can release a huge sigh of relief. Their job is done. They can relax and have a drink, read a paper or watch the news. Our younger ones can even get back to their own particular video games. Another successful foray into parenting. We don't talk to our children. There is little or no personal example. We do not exhibit integrity or ethics or tolerance. Or even love. We do not understand them. They do not understand us. I am not sure that is anything new.

The question is are we trying hard enough?

Are we trying at all?

The answer?

Parkland.

Tomorrow?

Who knows?

Anywhere, U.S.A.

Lone Cypress Workshop  

Anatomy Of A Massacre - V - Educating The Shooters