my education

. . . began with lies presented as truth. Next year, there was a patina of new lies to cover up the old; never mind that some of the details of these new lies conflicted with those of the previous year, kids can't tell, can they? The next year was the same, and the next. My "knowledge" was well-shellacked with layer upon layer of lies . . . but at the bottom? ~ or was it lies "all the way down"? In college was the first time I was assigned a reading which was then later discussed in class as if it might not be true. May I then doubt the contents of books? May I then doubt the verity of television broadcasts? May I doubt even the words of my teachers? Indeed, I must, but I found this doubt late, very late. And for those who never find this doubt? ~ or find it in the wrong way? Modern society is built upon a profound pessimism and lack of faith in mankind. Children, says the common man, are too stupid to learn critical thinking, too stupid to begin acquiring the tools necessary to mend that which is broken. And so the common man persists in breaking his children, in feeding them lies, in indoctrinating the freshest eyes and raping the cleanest minds. The common man has made of himself a petty God with narrow dominion; he controls not even his own lot, but only that of his child ~ and in this tinpot kingdom, he enacts the grossest despotism and tyranny merely to assuage his own sense of impotence.