Let's see...the Press Democrat featured two front-page articles, two negative editorials, two negative "letters to the editor". At last count, I submitted one 200-word rebuttal, yet Mr. Gullixson says I'm just not "willing to let this drop".
If the Press Democrat, subsidiary of the New York Times, doesn't have an agenda of its own, why all the attention? Even with today's PD front page piece, we get a double-dose of Dr. Agrella's caustic and brutal vitriol. I'm just a lowly, vulnerable, part-time teacher. Well, dear readers, when you see things like this happening, rest assured my little contribution to American political culture is symbolic of something much greater.
You say that the exercise was more than "wacky", it was "just creepy". Don't you see that the phrase "kill the president" itself was instrumental, but incidental to the object lesson? I've done this exercise for probably about seven years. That's well over 1,000 students with no incident or confusion of content or context. So why now? What started as an object lesson about police-state dynamics has morphed into something far different. And as is often the case, the reaction is far more telling than the exercise itself. I've stumbled into what is essentially political performance art. I wish I could take credit for crafting the exercise for us all, but I can't.
The short answer to "Why now?" is surely because we've whipped ourselves up into a state of tension and frenzy. And who's responsible for that? As I tell my students "You can't have a National Security State without a National
Insecurity state". People are sick and tired of the constant alerts and
alarms. In the face of this growing stress and tension caused in the main by
the media and forces within our own government, I think one student fed into
the fear and the other acted defiantly.
And it's not about protecting the safety of the President. Nope, if the concern here is the physical safety of the President in that tracking the words "kill the president" somehow makes this possible, this is the worst way to achieve the goal. This is just another example of “blow back” that our intelligence services have been experiencing of late. They made a big deal of it. Now there’s a reaction and “kill the president” is all over the place. Didn't they just make their job more difficult?
Mr. Gullixson equates it with yelling "fire" in a crowded theater or joking about a bomb on a plane. Well, I didn't tell my students to email anybody nor did I even give them an email address. They had to go out of their way to do that. Again, over 1,000 students have been through this with no incident or confusion of content or context. So why now?
But I disagree with the "fire in a crowded theater" analysis and this is why: It's underlying premise is that we are in a state of emergency and that endangering the position of our team captain is unthinkable.
Okay, so let me get this straight: George W. knowingly lied to the country about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. Thousands of people have died, are dying and will die because of his lies and American stupidity. The middle class is paying for this war, while our lower classes pay the price in their blood. The current deficit is projected to be $450 trillion dollars and $470 trillion next year. Our ruling class is poised to cut social spending left and right to pay for these deficits. Our election process is a sham. Republicans control all three branches of government; corporate media controls "official" reality.
Could this one of the sources of elite over-reaction to the phrase "kill the president"? Is it somehow symbolic of a system rotten to the core? Do they sense that the crowd is waking up and just about ready to turn on them? Is this what you mean by yelling "fire"?
Maybe you're concerned about my influence over young, impressionable minds?
I’m at a community college where my students are mainly adults. I don’t know what a fourteen-year-old was doing in my college class, but you’d think he or his parents would check in with me before notifying the FBI. The person who actually sent the email was a 37 year-old woman. Nope, you can't force me to drink hemlock for corrupting Athen's youth. If the context doesn't fit, you must acquit.
Could it be that merely saying the words in a semi-public location by a semi-public figure is the sin? Social scientists and psychologists can have a field day with that one. So let's turn it over to one:
[insert analysis by Dr..... This part under construction. I decided to publish my response anyway since the good Doctor's analysis is in addition to my comments]
It may surprise you, but as a Social Scientist, I'm much more sympathetic to the plight of our rulers and our President. I try to keep my eyes on the big picture and away from team sports between Republicans and Democrats. I've noticed, for example, that whether it is an extremely intelligent man like Bill Clinton or George W., a “legacy” student with C grades from Yale, he gets excoriated by the system. I've concldued that no one can fulfill the requirements of the job. Like the pace of media, or our growing fears and paranoia, the demands of the Presidency have spun out of control and are crashing. That’s how Ritalin works, by the way; it speeds you up to slow you down.
Also, let’s face it – we’ve been at war with someone someplace for the better part of a century. Our institutions, particularly the Presidency, are built around it. It’s going to take some time to change the face of those institutions and what informed people call their “raison d’etre”. What we can change today, however, is our personal attitude toward those institutions.
In short, we put too much into our Presidents.
So I say, instead of “kill the president”, let’s kill the Presidency...in our hearts and in our minds. No more team captains, or “Sun Kings” or celebrity culture. Putting this man as the apex of our society is a projection of our own elitist attitudes anyway which wouldn’t happen in a truly democratic society.
It’s clear to me now that boring presidents who don’t appear on the evening news very often is probably a good indicator of the degree of democracy in a society.
Send mail to mbsrjc@comcast.net
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