on the job

a free period in my day has been taken from me. it is the first period of the day on tuesdays and thursdays. worst of all, it is a u.s. history course, ie brainwashing 101. i once thought i wanted to be a history teacher, but i had to stop studying for the teacher's exam when i saw the bullshit that passed for correct answers. for example, it was explained that the vietnam war was between "democratic" south vietnam and "communist" north vietnam. in any case, history is taught by mc. believe me, i would love to hammer him. he knows next to nothing, or at least, teaches as if he knows next to nothing.
today, i arrive at work at 8:30 to take notes in his class for d. mind you, if not for this new placement, i would have been free until 11. i get there in the knick of time to find him lecturing on the earl monroe doctrine. in a new york minute, i have a piece of paper out, and am writing as if my life depended on it. mc explains that "monroe wanted to protect the newly independent countries in the americas. monroe cared about these countries, who were too weak to defend themselves from the european powers." the lessen is "we love our neighbors, and care for them as if we were one big happy clan." mc did not mention that these countries were also too weak to defend themselves from the u.s. he did not hint that the u.s. would shortly begin a project of neo-imperialism in the americas, rapidly taking over land and resources. no, monroe just wanted to protect the poor little americas from big bad europe.
the day before, mc had justified u.s. entry into the war of 1812 by saying that the british were capturing american sailors and using them in their war against france. where were these american sailors? he never said. were they capturing them from their homes? were they riding around on horseback and randomly grabbing every available sailor they could find? a question in the textbook asked if the u.s. was justified in fighting the british in 1812. the correct answer, according to mc, was yes, because of the whole situation on the high seas. this would be a reason for me, or you, to risk your life? i suppose later in the class a question in the textbook will ask if the u.s. was justified in destroying southeast asia (of course, they would never use a truthful word like destroy) because of the gulf of tonkin incident. and i'm sure, mc will be there, insisting that the correct answer to that question is also yes. or perhaps, they will ask us about the lusitania and ww1. and the answer will be yes, 10 million times yes, one for each dead body. or maybe they will ask about the blowing up of the maine, and the answer will again be yes. they will learn of incidents and dates and the names of generals and treaties and battles. less studied will be terms and places like napalm and cluster bombs and depleted uranium and saturation bombing and shock and awe and my lai and ben tre and "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" and fallujah and cambodia and dresden and fire bombs and atom bombs and skin falling off faces and burned babies and genocide.
in this class, it will be taught that we are noble. we defend the defenseless. we never provoke but we do stand up to the beast like actions of our enemies. we are always the good guys. we heroically fight fascism with a segregated army and an interned japanese american population. we free poor asians from atheistic communism, sending liberty their way courtesy of napalm and agent orange. a token mention of martin luther king will be made, with his anti-war and radical class analysis left out. malcolm x, huey newton, george jackson, mumia abu jamal and fred hampton will not be mentioned at all, which is likely for the best, as mc would certainly blast them for resorting to "violence" while praising the military for its massive use of said violence.
for you see, mc is going through the curriculum. he is "teaching," as i'm sure teachers were teaching in hitler's germany and in allende's chile and in mobutu's zaire and in somoza's nicaragua. perhaps certain names will even stick in the heads of his students, and maybe, some day in the future, they will get a question right on jeopardy because of it. maybe they will remember who aaron burr was, or lewis and clark, or the token native who helped lewis and clark. this will mean nothing however. it will bring them no closer to a true understanding of the power structure and foreign policy of their government.
which i suppose is the whole idea, for when the next lie is told, and the next set of bombs need to be dropped, mc's students, or the students of another faceless, brain dead mc, will be ready to drop them.

i thought of making this comment today.

but the rent is due in 10 days.

maturity sucks.

peace.