back to the 3Rs

[miriam_e]

Heard a twerp on the radio the other day rattling on about how we have to return to the 3Rs and how kids today are illiterate and know nothing about their culture. He was citing the example of how few kids know what the term "Achilles' heel" means and where it comes from. I felt like retorting that ancient Greek mythology is far less important now than understanding why carbon dioxide alters our climate, or that over-use of chelates can be lethal, or that DRM means you have to rent your own culture from corporations. I bet this fool didn't understand any of these things, yet here he was, living centuries in the past, and dictating as if he was some kind of knowledgeable authority on the present.

The only reason he had any kind of voice was because our nasty little prime minister agrees with him -- but Howard believes that poor deserve to be poor, that killing people in order to steal their resources is reasonable, that a woman's place is in the kitchen, that guilty till proven innocent is okay, and that it has all been downhill since the 1950s, the two-faced era of the double standard. That Howard agrees with him should have been the death-blow to his opinions. Instead he was broadcast nation-wide. A bad day for Australia.

Comments

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

Was this Australia Talks Back or something? Because I can't believe you would ever listen to mainstream talkback :)

The Achilles's heel thing is really trivia. No schoolchild gains from knowing where the expression comes from.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It was Big Ideas -- normally a good program. They've had some brilliant speakers on there in the past. I couldn't believe they were giving this hateful sonofabitch airtime.

I'm all in favor of learning about ancient mythology, but to give it any great priority over more relevant things is nuts. As you say, today such mythology is really just trivia. There are far more important things to learn.