ok, so to start off with i just need to say that i think the "search for identity" is a load of bullshit. as soon as i heard that that was the topic for the world cafe thing i started mentally beating my head on the table and asking why me. Most people seem to have this idea that to be happy and complete you have to figure out "who" you are. this is retarted and limiting. "do i contradict myself? very well then i contradict myself. i am large and contain multitudes." god bless walt whitman.
now with this in mind i really liked and really disliked some of the things illich and brown said. illich's view on schools and education is amazing. the first professor i had here at evergreen was a pretty close friend of his and talked about the meetings which they mentioned. and they'd do exactly as they said. sit around a table with food and wine and talk. but back on subject.
on the one hand i think they're off on saying that being changed by the institutionalized objects is a bad thing. now i admit in some cases it is but most of that is just human stupidity and i think as far as those people are concerned they're just part of the population i'm hoping won't breed. But, on the whole, isn't that what evolution and growing up is? we are changed and shapped by our enviroments. it just so happens that our environment revolves around technology. i am blessed in that i got to grow up living right infront of a protected green belt and would like the same for my children but just because someone is raised in the city away from forests and swamps and all manner of wild life doesn't make the deficiant in any ways. it just makes them proficiant in another environment.
i do agree with the "degrading the majority of people" however. but people can also learn to have their fore-father's/-mother's strenght of character and self confidence.
i LOVED the relationship as a "quint" but also want to say lay of bach, it was just a new era of music.
k, done.
