TODAY’S EDGYKAYSHUN RANT, BUT THIS TIME IT’S NOT THE ...

It's been a long time since I've ranted about the state of edgykayshun in Amairikuh, and today I wish I could, but the trouble is, today's rant concerns a commonwealth comedy that Ms. K.F. was kind enough to send along.  And it will occasion a little anecdote from one of my most hated activities: Grocery Shopping (for the millennials, that means when you go to one of those stores that has lots of food in it, and shop for and buy food).  So why are my knickers in a twist?

Because in Great Britain, it seems, young people cannot tell time by reading an analogue clock! But wait, there's more!

Schools are removing analogue clocks from exam halls as teenagers 'cannot tell the time'

And just in case you didn't click on the link, here's the basics:

Schools are removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, a head teachers’ union has said.

Teachers are now installing digital devices after pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained that they were struggling to read the correct time on an analogue clock.

Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said youngsters have become accustomed to using digital devices.

“The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations,” he told The Telegraph.

“They are used to seeing a digital representation of time on their phone, on their computer. Nearly everything they’ve got is digital so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.”

Mr Trobe, a former headmaster, said that teachers want their students to feel as relaxed as possible during exams. Having a traditional clock in the room could be a cause of unnecessary stress, he added.

He said that schools are trying to make everything as “as easy and straightforward as possible” for pupils during their exams.

Well, the poor butt-hurt stressed-out dears! Note, the solution is not to teach younger people how to access that bizarre, strange, intimidating and occult world of the analogue clock, but simply to remove the offending artifacts altogether, which strikes me as a very un-British solution to things(speaking objectively here, as a colonial observer from across the pond).

And it brings up a social and cultural problem which, I suspect, could - if we're not careful - end up causing everyone harm if the world is eventually going to be run by people who don't know how to read analogue clocks. If this trend keeps up, one can imagine a couple of future Britons, standing in Trafalgar Square and looking up at Nelson's statue and opining that they "don't know who it is" or "why it's there", but "it sure is impressive" (that is, only if Lord Nelson's statue has not been torn down because it's an example of white male privilege and intolerance of Bonapartist self-expression and oppression of French culture and aspirations; he was, after all, simply protesting BREXIT. They'll have to rename Trafalgar Square too, something more "affirming" and "uplifting", like Franco-British Amity Square, or Unity Square, or something. Perhaps even build a memorial to Admiral Villeneuve in order to maintain balance and perspective).

Which brings me to my anecdote. About a month and a half ago, I went out grocery shopping late at night (I usually do this to avoid the inevitable lines, where I always find myself behind someone with a bag full of coupons, and who wants to cash a fourth-party check in order to put it on their debit card to buy the groceries... sigh... ). Just as all of my items had been scanned, and I handed the clerk the cash for the goods, a momentary power outage or surge (or something) happened, and everything including the computerized cash register, flickered on and off and back on again. Of course, this wiped out my transaction, and the manager had to be called to bring the transaction back up again. In the meantime, I explained to the clerk that I was in a bit of a hurry, and could I please have the change (the cash drawer was still open). My purchase was some forty-odd dollars, and I had handed the clerk two twenty dollar bills and one ten dollar bill.

The look of utter mystification - shock, horror, perplexion, confusion, embarrassment - that passed over his face approached panic. He explained that he'd have to wait for the manager to come and pull up my transaction, because that would tell him how much change to give me. I said, well, my purchase was for (let's say) $46.92, right? The clerk nodded. So, I said, you can just count the change back to me.

Blank expression on clerk's face.

By this time the manager had arrived, keys were inserted, and my transaction recalled, along with the ever-so-comforting Change Due screen, which told the clerk to give me $3.08 in change. This was quickly grabbed out of the drawer, and plopped into my hand in one mass of coins and bills with the statement "Your change is three-o-eight."

Being a curmudgeon, I took the opportunity to show the clerk how to count change back, and said "See, you can do this any time the computer goes down, and it works flawlessly, no mistakes." The clerk was genuinely happy I showed him. The manager was apologetic, and she told me they just don't have the time to show clerks how to do it. One wonders how we ever survived without the computer.

And that's my problem with modern edgykayshun: its assumption that technology will always be around; its assumption that everything is on computers. Its assumption that testing should consist of multiple guess standardized questions graded by computers, where students are not taught to write out answers, and whose penmanship - if one can call it that - increasingly is an illegible scrawl. We have an entire generation that cannot read clocks, make change, write clearly, or for that matter (and much more seriously) knows how to use a card catalogue in that most analogue of archives, the library.

This isn't what built the empire, or the commonwealth. What it is is nothing more than a sign of impending cultural collapse, unless it's turned around, and soon. But don't look for the educrats to do so. They, in their stupidity, think all this technology is just wonderful. And they're producing invincibly ignorant and helpless people and removing those offending analogue technologies lest the poor dears be "stressed".

See you on the flip side...

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

23 Comments

  1. FiatLux on May 3, 2018 at 5:27 am

    Who needs education? It might teach kids to think! No worries–have of them will be born autistic in a few years anyway.



    • FiatLux on May 4, 2018 at 5:41 am

      “half,” that is . . . The edgykayshun must be rubbing off on me.



  2. basta on May 2, 2018 at 7:43 pm

    Idiocracy. It’s gone live.



  3. Baz on May 2, 2018 at 8:13 am

    Digits don’t rotate. The hands on a clock-face spin around so that we can tell (ie, vibrate/speak) the time. Minutes and hours may creep or fly according to our own perceptions and we see the passage or the movement of time when we glance at a clock. When we look at a digital timepiece we see only the appearance and disappearance of small chunks of time; we see a numerical increment which I believe is designed to disassociate or hypnotize our awareness. It’s designed to compartmentalize aspects of our attention, and therefore of our consciousness.
    When it’s almost a quarter past something I can resonate an analogical position in time. When it’s 19.57hrs I’m speaking analogical gibberish.



  4. zendogbreath on May 2, 2018 at 1:15 am

    doc, don’t know if you listened to quinn micheals interviews much with jason goodman. one of his experiences where he thinks he’s being messed with and contacted by a friendly ai is where he is inconvenienced in a similar too coincidental way as he moves through public places. so which ai was this contacting you and what do you suppose the ai’s point was?



    • zendogbreath on May 2, 2018 at 1:16 am

      and do libraries have card catologues anymore?



    • zendogbreath on May 2, 2018 at 1:34 am

      btw, this all sounds like another reduction (think jesuits in uruguay) or slow holocaust (think ireland 1800’s) or recollapse of ussa (think ussr into russia). at some point 5g kicks in and interacts with vaccines, toxic foodlike substances, chemtrails, glyphosate, tv and bill gates gets his 10% population decline he’s asked for. meanwhile the narrative moves on to cover only those versions of events that the oligarchs what their slaves to hear in the next 2 generations. just like we were all led to believe in irish potato famines, single bullet theories, lone crazed assassins, the food pyramid, vioxx,……



  5. goshawks on May 1, 2018 at 11:12 pm

    Speaking of edgykayshun, observe the “Big Mac Index”:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-30/big-mac-index-suggests-america-decade-long-depression

    “America is in a Great Depression right now.”

    “The Economist Magazine’s Big Mac Index has been using the famous hamburger as a light-hearted proxy to determine the purchasing power parity value of global currencies for decades. The idea is to see whether the market values of existing exchange rates adequately measure what people can buy with that money.

    A Big Mac, which is made the same way in most countries around the world, and whose recipe has changed little during the past thirty years, provides an excellent tool. However, the Big Mac also provides a good proxy for how much Americans’ real national output has changed. In addition to its famous ingredients (two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun), the burger also contains substantial inputs related to rent (purchase enti tles [hah!] the buyer a seat at the restaurant for an hour or so), labour and taxes (which comprise a huge portion of business costs).

    Measured in official terms, U.S. GDP came in at $19.4 trillion in 2017. That’s a 33% increase over the $14.5 trillion recorded in 2007.

    However, those $14.5 trillion could buy 4.25 trillion Big Macs back in 2007 when they cost just $3.41 each.

    By 2017, the price of a Big Mac had risen to $5.06, so the $19.4 trillion in GDP that year equated to only 3.83 trillion of the burgers.

    That suggests that U.S. GDP, as measured in Big Mac terms, fell by 10% between 2007 and 2017.”



    • goshawks on May 1, 2018 at 11:27 pm

      “John Williams of ShadowStats, for example, has for years tracked how the U.S. Statistical agencies have changed their data calculations. The reasons cited by the officials always sound good, but their net effect is to make government statistics look a lot better than they actually are.

      Williams calculates that U.S. inflation (which came in at 2.36% during March) was running at 5.9% based on the way the government calculated the data back in 1990, and at 10.1% based on 1980 methodologies.

      The official U.S. unemployment rate of 4.14% during March is actually 21.7% when calculated using ShadowStats’ alternative measure.”



  6. goshawks on May 1, 2018 at 8:37 pm

    After we get past the teehee factor, there might be something anti-sinister going on. I use ‘sinister’ in the way it was originally meant*: left-handed-ness (and therefore right-brain-ness).

    It is generally recognized that the logical side of our natures is based in the left brain, and the intuitive or holistic side of our natures is based in the right brain (for most people). This roughly fits-in with digital versus analog ‘input’. Think cursive writing versus print-script (typewriter-style) writing. When the brain looks at words in cursive, it must ‘intuit’ that form as a whole. Right brain. Then on to left brain deciphering. Digital lettering requires no such step; straight to left brain. Same with fussing with a radio dial versus pushing a button for a station. Same with ‘tonal’ instruments versus ‘plucked’ instruments. Sherlock Holmes style deductions versus “Aha” moments. In ESP circles, a telepath is ‘digital’; an empath is ‘analog’. Mother Nature is probably more than half ‘analog’, hence our dual ways of thinking…

    Now, look at the bigger picture. If, say, the PTB were looking for a slave race, they would try to minimize the intuitive side of our brains. Don’t want the cattle getting a gestalt picture of what’s really going-on, do we? “Aha” could be dangerous. So, we gradually phase-out anything that invokes the right brain, while requiring more and more left brain thinking. The brain has been shown to be at least partially ‘plastic’, meaning that well-used features connect-up and lesser-used features go-dormant. Perfect…

    Now, use the above to intuit why replacing an analog clock with a digital clock could be a small part of an Agenda. We are far past teehee…
    .
    .
    * ‘Sinister’ was used for left-handed people because they were a threat in medieval-style combat. Right-handers were used to holding their swords and, particularly, their shields in a way to counter other right-handers. A ‘leftie’ could take advantage of that automatic behavior, and be right past your shield before you could react. Hence, the ‘slur’ of Sinister…



  7. jenuspect (Jeannette B) on May 1, 2018 at 8:01 pm

    A bit of a cop-out isn’t it? Epidemics of neurological injury are impacting across the board, so we can’t finger any one group (though some do seem to be trying to float blame of “Adversive Childhood Experiences”, ACEs, the ones coming from parents, not the state, for the increase in health/neurological difficulties) suggesting this could be coming from something society widely countenances, maybe even requires (somewhat like mandatory education)…but we’re not wanting to go there, so we’ll exchange the clocks–and float a press release about it?–rather than ask and demand answers and potentially be required to scrutinize the environment we provide or support?



  8. Francois Raby on May 1, 2018 at 12:36 pm

    This looks more and more like the “St-John Revelation’s” meeks (deficient in spirit and courage… a dictionary definition) generation that will inherit the earth. A logical kind of cosmic war recursive “tower of babel” moment, as a social culturally engineered scenario for our progressive technocratic times… Just a thought.



  9. Robert Barricklow on May 1, 2018 at 11:20 am

    I saw this Headline the other day and thought:
    It’s time for “real” education.

    In regards to “reality” ?
    The one word that is now seen in only w/quotes.



    • Robert Barricklow on May 1, 2018 at 11:26 am

      An intense Solar Flare might bring on a “Reality” check.



  10. WalkingDead on May 1, 2018 at 10:48 am

    Apply the above post to the world of higher mathematics and you begin to understand why bridges in Florida collapse,
    F-35’s don’t work as advertised, etc. The current generation isn’t being “taught” anything of any practical use. This has to be intentional and explains why our nation is near the bottom of the educational rankings. If anything resembling critical thinking was taught, those in power would be jobless, the MSM/Hollywood would be out of business, and they would have a revolution on their hands.
    Go to any library and try to find any resource material, it appears to have been intentionally removed. History is being rewritten before our eyes to favor the current meme. If you desired to find out how we got into the position we are in, you couldn’t do it; it has all been taken away and disposed of.



    • Joseph P. Farrell on May 1, 2018 at 12:34 pm

      Hear hear!



    • Katie B on May 1, 2018 at 1:35 pm

      I recently went to register at a local library and I was astounded to find out that all I needed to do was fill in a very short form. I did not need to prove my identity or my address. I can only think this is in an effort to ensure that any books that are not returned are never recovered.



  11. Katie B on May 1, 2018 at 8:34 am

    I recently called a not so salubrious pizza takeaway and was greeted with a barely inaudible grunt and then when I told the young lady what pizza I wanted she said I couldn’t have it as it was new and there was no button for that on the till. I asked whether perhaps she could just key in the price instead and she had to get a manager. I was on hold for 10 minutes whilst this complicated and very technical operation took place. I have noticed younger generations cannot think on their feet at all and if they can get away with saying ‘computer says no’ and coughing in your face, all at the same time, they will.



  12. DanaThomas on May 1, 2018 at 6:54 am

    From the same Telegraph article: 5 digital spring-cleaning tips | By Tanya Goodin
    1 Turn off all app banner style/pop-up/sound notifications.
    2 Delete all social media apps from your phone, only check these from a desktop. 3 Move all non-essential apps to a second screen to make it that bit harder to access them.
    4 Use a real alarm clock and keep your phone outside your bedroom overnight (or turn the phone alarm up loud and plug it in outside the door if you don’t have an alarm clock!)
    5 Try leaving your phone at home for a couple of hours, for a meal out, gym session, drinks etc.



  13. anakephalaiosis on May 1, 2018 at 6:32 am

    PYRAMID HAIKU 46
    Avalon fruit fall.
    Giza gas chamber earth mound.
    Grave rooted apple.

    Druid Christ is king of chronometry, as heaven on earth is zodiac clock, showing celestial time in everyday horizon. Trains on time.

    Originally, clock was compass with eight “hours”, known as eight-spoked wheel, and eight-legged horse of Odin in Runes.

    Druid timekeeper was engraved into landscape of Britain. Burial mounds mirror stars. That is Grail quest in zodiac map.



  14. Kenny on May 1, 2018 at 6:17 am

    Some words of hope, people learn to count, and see clocks real fast when a hurricane hits and leave them for three months without power.



  15. Baz on May 1, 2018 at 5:57 am

    I had a similar experience early one morning last week when I drove into a fast-food outlet (I know, shame on Baz…) and was told by a disembodied voice that “the system was down” and that I could only make a purchase if I had the correct amount of cash. Of course I ignored this directive and when I got to the pick-up window the charming young man behind in his little booth said I should wait while he tried to work out the price of my small purchase. I told him what the amount due was, and I explained that if he looked at the explicitly priced menu behind him he too would be able to transact with utter confidence, as I had just done. I drove away feeling smug and irritated towards a waiting dyspepsia….



  16. Neru on May 1, 2018 at 5:39 am

    Stange those “snot noses” have no problem reading analog clocks when working.
    They are the first to be in the dressing room to prep themselves to go home!
    No digital clocks where I work so laziness maybe?



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