Golden rule: It isn’t real unless it’s on Facebook.
Case in point: These passive-aggressive people who block/defriend others on Facebook to express their outrage. Ignoring their calls isn’t childish enough. Ignoring them in public doesn’t do the trick, but removing all methods of contact on a social networking site does accomplish what nothing else can: It demonstrates knowledge of clicking a mouse. Good for them.
Honestly, it’s more credit than what I would have given them. Keep up the surprises!
Other times, they will send angry messages. It has a name: e-drama. Talking through your problems might work, but then again, using the Internet strokes your ego a little softer, a little gentler and a little faster.
It’s passive-aggressive behavior in a generation raised on zero tolerance. Introduced in the mid-90s as another way to discourage free expression, it was meant to prevent school violence, and except for Columbine, Santana High School, the Red Lake High massacre and countless others, it has succeeded so well, hasn’t it?
Schools do not encourage free expression. For the most part, they don’t encourage critical thinking either. They exist to transform children into obedient members of society while pumping them full of nationalist propaganda.
Recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Recite it each morning, and if you want, go ahead and sit it out. Just remember that we will ostracize you if you do. “Land of the free” … unless of course this freedom involves thinking for yourself and making your own decisions.
Children cannot pray in schools. They have a goofy “moment of silence” each morning, but why is it just a moment? What if little Derek’s prayer lasts longer than a moment? What is he supposed to do? Cut it off and pick it back up tomorrow morning? What if his grandmother has surgery at noon that day? School administrators fail to consider all possibilities.
And what about religious symbols? If a Christian boy wants to bring a Bible and read it, if a little Muslim girl wants to wear a headscarf, and if a little Pagan boy wants to bring a live lamb to sacrifice on the merry-go-round, then what’s the problem? As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, as long as it makes them happy, then why ban it? I have no problem with religion in schools, as long as it is on an individual basis. No Big Brother necessary.
At some point in my middle school years, schools began going after clothing as well. Either uniforms to keep people from fighting over “popular clothing styles” or bans on certain types of clothing to keep weapons out, because after all, unless someone’s wearing baggy pants, there’s no way they can get a knife inside. A backpack? Not anymore — in come see-through backpacks for the save. Buried in the see-through backpack under books? They’re not that cunning. They’re public school educated.
With this and much more in mind, zero tolerance arrived as a means of further stymieing free expression in a place that wasn’t too keen on the idea to begin with. Proponents claim it promotes a safer, friendlier learning environment, but it does nothing to prevent violence.
For example, if someone is psychotic enough to come in packing and waste 20 or so classmates, then I doubt the consequences of their actions concern them. What motivates them to kill their classmates? I understand that a hefty rejection from people they demand unconditional attention from plays a part, but I believe that zero tolerance builds up years of trapped anger that ultimately manifests itself in hails of gunfire.
Bullying is a part of growing up. Thanks to zero tolerance, children no longer know how to respond. They can no longer solve their problems without fear of reprieve. Instead, they sit back and accept and accept and accept until they finally reach a breaking point.
I say give them baseball bats, instruct them to go for the crotch and watch society improve.
Zero tolerance spawns a generation of soft, weak, indecisive children who grow up to be soft, weak, indecisive adults who put more and more power in the hands of their government. Any capacity for creative thought is moot, and they are so used to obeying and placing faith in their leaders that it no longer fazes them. No smoking on airplanes became no smoking in business which extended to restaurants, and in Belmont, Calif., to individual apartment units.
No open containers. You must show proof of insurance. You must wear a seat belt. Don’t worry about taking care of yourselves. That’s our job. You just work and buy.
Your thoughts and beliefs are our thoughts and beliefs. Collective and united under a banner mislabeled “freedom.” Do not stray from the herd.
And please, punish those who do.
— Travis Lee is a senior in French. He can be reached at [email protected].
