... and therefore God does not exist

no, i have not embraced aethism, or anarchism, etc etc. this is a quote from the conclusion of a theory of knowledge presentation (part of the international baccalaureate programme) that was passed down to me (or up, considering the author is a junior colleague of mine). the major complaint that was brought to my attention (from one of the teaching staff) was not the issue of religious controversy, in the setting of a predominantly 'if-you're-not-with-us-then-you're-against-us-(and-hence-screwed)' society. do note that in this country, any form of independent thinking (be it religious, cultural, or political. especially political) is constantly under cynical scrutiny but any form of authority, and could end a person up in jail, or even worse, ostracism. in any case, the issue that was discussed (briefly, but which i can hopefully elaborate and extrapolate upon in this post) is the fact that the students have become dreary in thought. mundane, stereotyping and rigid. zombies of a cultural brainwash machine, in which goes the flesh of innocents, and out is churned the mindless throngs of black-and-white thinkers we know as 'adults'.

this is unsurprising to me. before you launch a crusade against me as a pompous, self-presuming person who thinks i'm better than these people and that i may perceive myself as the only intellectual amongst the drones of robot colleagues, calm. the. eff. down. this has nothing to do with my perception of the current state of students. it is in fact, what has been relayed to me by said teacher, and i happen to find it only too normal, considering how things have panned out for many people.

i digress. i'm not about to write my views on politics, education or religion, but about the thought process involved (as explained to me) in this title-conclusion. apparently, the definition of a well thought TOK presentation is :

1. pick a controversial issue.
2. discuss some pros.
3. discuss some cons.
4. conclude with a bang
5. ???
6. profit.

i realise that by stereotyping people into this algorithm of thought, i am being hypocritically that which i criticise. but bear with the argument for a second, my ostentation is to bring to your attention that 'original thought' cannot be stereotyped into a pre-formatted flowchart. it is by definition, unoriginal. sure, you can keep to your comfort zones. sure you can pick out a general set of beliefs and objectives for your now and future arguments. it is what makes us human, opinionated and assertive (as well as obtrusive and unmoving). i admit i have not read the entirety of this student's TOK essay and neither was i there for his/her presentation which ended in this unsultry conclusion, but the lack of coherence, as explained to me, and the audacity of making such a conclusion, from a half hour presentation, rivals such terrible works such as this entry!

philosophers have thought for lifetimes, mathematicians have written textbooks and theses on the subject, and have doubted their own works. and yet this person concludes such. amazing. the optimist in me would like to acknowledge this person as a genius of stellar proportions, but the cynic (as well as the statistician) in me says otherwise. (to digress again: need to remind myself to write on mathematics and proof of God's existence in a future post - subject of personal interest)

this is not a personal attack on the student, as much is it a criticism of how skewed a bold and sincere pursuit of education has been raped and desecrated, and integrated into this hive mind to emerge as another tool of uningenuity. how the mighty have fallen, so to quote. as fall out boy would testify, folie a deux, indeed.

i digress. as i have (un)thoroughly stated above, in my 8 minute entry, the exhausting pros and cons of an elaborate, and thought-provoking subject. i conclude that: sweet baby jewish jesus, please get the mind-control chips out of our childrens' brains and let them think for themselves (where the fault lies, even be it in the students themselves, i implore the readers to enlighten me, as i myself, as you can see from the above am highly biased).

???

profit