SAFE - A direct challenge to an age old system of 'Social Order'

This a very long video at 5 1/2 hours…but can be treated as a podcast…it’s pretty shocking stuff actually and reflects the ruling classes recognition of how dangerous an informed and inquisitive population is to their status.


The SAFEnetwork, surely offers hope to level the playing field of opportunity for all.


Main thesis from Wikipedia
What does the school do to children? Gatto asserts the following in “Dumbing Us Down”:
It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, it fills almost all the “free” time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.

  • It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
  • It makes them indifferent.
  • It makes them emotionally dependent.
  • It makes them intellectually dependent.
  • It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant
    confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).

It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.

He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with the former being healthy, and schools being examples of the latter; in the United States, networks have become an unhealthy substitute for community


His blog and YouTube channel


Gatto:

We are in this radical social experiment…where ‘human powers’ were traded in exchange, for security and predictability. People who are well schooled…do not make revolutions, they are predictable.


6 basic functions of school

  1. The adjustive or adaptive function.
    Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority. This, of course, precludes critical judgment completely. It also pretty much destroys the idea that useful or interesting material should be taught, because you can’t test for reflexive obedience until you know whether you can make kids learn, and do, foolish and boring things.
  1. The integrating function.
    This might well be called “the conformity function,” because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force.
  1. The diagnostic and directive function.
    School is meant to determine each student’s proper social role. This is done by logging evidence mathematically and anecdotally on cumulative records. As in “your permanent record.” Yes, you do have one.
  1. The differentiating function.
    Once their social role has been “diagnosed,” children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best.
  1. The selective function.
    This refers not to human choice at all but to Darwin’s theory of natural selection as applied to what he called “the favored races.” In short, the idea is to help things along by consciously attempting to improve the breeding stock. Schools are meant to tag the unfit - with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments - clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior and effectively bar them from the reproductive sweepstakes. That’s what all those little humiliations from first grade onward were intended to do: wash the dirt down the drain.
  1. The propaedeutic function.
    The societal system implied by these rules will require an elite group of caretakers. To that end, a small fraction of the kids will quietly be taught how to manage this continuing project, how to watch over and control a population deliberately dumbed down and declawed in order that government might proceed unchallenged and corporations might never want for obedient labor.

John Taylor Gatto’s 14 Themes of the Elite Private School Curriculum

  1. A theory of human nature (as embodied in history, philosophy, theology, literature and law).
  1. Skill in the active literacies (writing, public speaking).
  1. Insight into the major institutional forms (courts, corporations, military, education).
  1. Repeated exercises in the forms of good manners and politeness; based on the truth that politeness and civility are the foundation of all future relationships, all future alliances, and access to places that you might want to go.
  1. Independent work.
  1. Energetic physical sports are not a luxury, or a way to “blow off steam,” but they are absolutely the only way to confer grace on the human presence, and that that grace translates into power and money later on. Also, sports teach you practice in handling pain, and in dealing with emergencies.
  1. A complete theory of access to any place and any person.
  1. Responsibility as an utterly essential part of the curriculum; always to grab responsibility when it is offered and always to deliver more than is asked for.
  1. Arrival at a personal code of standards (in production, behavior and morality).
  1. To have a familiarity with, and to be at ease with, the fine arts. (cultural capital)
  1. The power of accurate observation and recording. For example, sharpen the perception by being able to draw accurately.
  1. The ability to deal with challenges of all sorts.
  1. A habit of caution in reasoning to conclusions.
  1. The constant development and testing of prior judgements: you make judgements, you discriminate value, and then you follow up and “keep an eye” on your predictions to see how far skewed, or how consistent, your predictions were.


Another really good read along the same lines is:

Secrets of Our Educational System - parts 1 2 3 4

The strength of America is in the First Amendment guarantee of argument, the right to free speech and the ability to vote of the majority of the citizenry. The Prussian connection shifts the focus to one of cooperation. The working class becomes the watched puppet of the professional classes under the control of law and order.

…and the best explanation of the Fasces I’ve encountered:

An image that represents the binding of government and corporation together in one unit.

Check out your local government buildings, your sure to see it:

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@chrisfostertv I often appreciate your links/resources, do you have certain outlets or sites you go to to obtain a lot of these things that you would be willing to share?

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RSS feeds, YouTube Subscriptions and Twitter lists mainly. I’m using Digg reader these days and their ‘Digg Deeper’ feature is a step in the right direction I think…it takes your twitter feed and highlights tweets that have reached some consensus by those you follow.

This Gatto fellow has some fascinating insights (a great curator)…and I think he’d approve of what SAFE is trying to achieve ala "Global Brain’ and offering a level playing field to some extent.

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I like this guy. Read his work a long time ago on his beliefs about public education. And he has room to talk. He was awarded as the top teacher for his state I believe…and then wrote this scathing criticism of his workplace. Dude knows what’s up.

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Well as long as you didn’t feel outed in some way I’d subscribe to a feed of yours on the SAFEnetwork. You seem to be a good aggregator. Thank you

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The very best.