Painting

Another reworked Orchard picture from the 2019 calendar.

Thinned Peaches
Oil on canvas
12" by 12"

THE CRITICAL CONDITION Vol.1. Issue 3. [Draft May 6th 2020]

The Critical Condition

Volume 1. The State Of Art Criticism

Issue, 3.
THE LATEST SYMPTOMS

1.) COVID-19 ALERT! THIS IS NO JOKE!

Dear Readers,
The other day I watched as someone coughed conscientiously into their arm only to laugh openly at a funny joke. C'mon people! Laughter sends clouds of potentially lethal virus into the air in the same way as a cough or a sneeze! If you must laugh try and muffle it in your sleeve just like you do when you're sick. More importantly, if you are 'funny', you should think of the ramifications of impromptu jokes in this crisis. If you can't help being funny it is best that you stay at home because it isn't too much to ask that you wait until after the danger has passed to incite laughter indiscriminately. Now is not the time for humour. The next laugh may be someone's last.
Yours Sincerely,
J. 'Swifty' L.



2. a.) IS THIS THE END OF THE LINE?

I've heard some disquieting things in line for groceries this week. It may bear repeating that waiting in line is a part of life. We accept it here in Niagara but that's not to say it's the same the world over. There are places where people don't simply form a queue.

We like to think, around here, that it's no matter if you are a millionaire or on Welfare you have to get in line and take your turn. No matter what you identify as you must take your place in line. No matter how important you are you are as important as everyone else in a line. And what maintains the integrity of the line? The people in line. Everyone is responsible for their place and nobody should fear saying to someone contemptuous of the line, "No, get to the back of the line!" Therefore the strong must even take on more responsibility and protect those individuals to weak to protect the vital link between them and the person in front of them.

A line is as anarchic organization, a democratic triumph, etc.

Collectively a line can even make decisions. An elderly person hardly able to walk can be expedited to the front of the line. And everyone in the line can feel that some justice has been done and there is a general feeling of humaneness. But also, collectively, a line can be cowed into letting bullies bud in--What are you going to do about it? And there is a general feeling of helplessness. Collectively a line can become just another line and some people may be considered "above the line". But if that person why not me? And the whole idea of a line is in jeopardy.

Similarly, when the line is directed by protocol and not the humanity of the people in the line, people get to feeling disrespected and dishonoured. It's a fine balance: take away the individual responsibility and the line becomes really contemptuous. So, is this the end of the line?

2. b.) IS THIS THE END OF THE LINE? WITH ADDED PARAGRAPH

I've heard some disquieting things in line for groceries this week. It may bear repeating that waiting in line is a part of life. We accept it here in Niagara but that's not to say it's the same the world over. There are places where people don't simply form a queue.

We like to think, around here, that it's no matter if you are a millionaire or on Welfare you have to get in line and take your turn. No matter what you identify as you must take your place in line. No matter how important you are you are as important as everyone else in a line. And what maintains the integrity of the line? The people in line. Everyone is responsible for their place and nobody should fear saying to someone contemptuous of the line, "No, get to the back of the line!" Therefore the strong must even take on more responsibility and protect those individuals to weak to protect the vital link between them and the person in front of them.

A line is as anarchic organization, a democratic triumph, etc.

Collectively a line can even make decisions. An elderly person hardly able to walk can be expedited to the front of the line. And everyone in the line can feel that some justice has been done and there is a general feeling of humaneness. But also, collectively, a line can be cowed into letting bullies bud in--What are you going to do about it? And there is a general feeling of helplessness. Collectively a line can become just another line and some people may be considered "above the line". But if that person why not me? And the whole idea of a line is in jeopardy.

Similarly, when the line is directed by protocol and not the humanity of the people in the line, people get to feeling disrespected and dishonoured. It's a fine balance: take away the individual responsibility and the line becomes really contemptuous. So, is this the end of the line?

There are people who say that the future of the line depends on what line and where the line is and when the line is. That there must be line-ology and line-ism to guide us. Line-ologists! These people want ultimate, academic, authority over how we should line up. According to them it turns out that not only are you responsible for your place in an actual line but also for every progression and/or injustice in every line ever depending on what category of human being you are. The normal way of lining up is horribly line-ist.

Bull. Any child can tell you the proper way to line up and know enough to defend the integrity of a line. Every business knows the principle of a line: "First Come, First Serve."

Perhaps the fairness of being in line only works when everyone in line can see their place in line and is responsible for their place in line. When the lines go 'online' and nobody can see that people are really in line when it comes to, say, groceries or goods, something is truly lost to us.

Are you "in line" or are you on a list?

3.) What Do I Mean?

"The moderns much too late." What can it mean?

A tragic media, allowing corruption. Maybe the moderns could have saved us.
But it looks now as though even the moderns can't make the changes
We need.

We need moderns. Desperately.
But they have been pruned out of society these last few years.

The idea of a modern. Or more than only one! Two moderns! beggars belief.

The post-modern front is immovable.

From teacher to teacher to even our youngest children the doctrine cascades.



4.) On-line Learning And The Teachers

I've pondered it a bit. It seems to me that 'teaching' is fast becoming 'children's programming'. Lessons are more like old kid's shows than old school work. Looking over some examples of the lessons being sent to parents during this crisis . . . Is it a teacher or is it Barney The Dinosaur that is asking for a task to be completed? Is it Dora The Explorer breaking the fourth wall, or The Teletubbies?

Remember teachers aren't trained artists. And an interactive online learning experience is art. The powers that be think that since teachers are on social media then they'll know how to create programming. But kid's programming is created by an artist--perhaps informed by a teacher, at best. So Disney is probably really excited--they have the artists and can make better programming. Sure, why not leave it to them? Blue in the face 24 7 telling your kids things they should already know!

Because programming can't tell when someone has learned something. It continues grinding away after something has been learnt. Programming relies on repetition but Education relies on cognition.

But if I was a teacher I'd have to become a teacher Via Media with the Cardinal Newman shakes. I'd have to do everything that I think is antithetical to the way teaching is effective. So I pity the whole profession right now. Teachers with integrity won't do it and they'll be fired. And the problem will become even worse. For Goodness sake, did the Governor of New York really say that maybe after this crises schooling should be online? What does he think a student is, a Clockwork Orange? 

A teacher is someone who thinks in front of people. And when it works the teacher is thinking with the students. And that thinking is done in person in reality and not on recordings, TV, or the internet. Right?

"Thought lighting itself at the fire of burning thought."

(And I wonder how are the supply teachers are surviving? I expect the school boards have left them for dead. The one group of people that really do deserve 'basic income'. The good ones are on call 24 7 and when they aren't at work they're becoming the only teachers that had the time to become competent in their field of study.)

Another way of looking at it is that the "Blue Meanies" (This is TV influenced by that culture defined by The Beatles) are actually educating kids about the very things that are dangerous--it only works if you think a kid will only use that information to keep safe. A kid is just as likely to know there are dangerous things to play with . . . the same way a kid will play with matches and in most cases not burn down a building.

This is the same problem as with 'teaching bullying'. There is no reason to think that every child is a victim of bullying looking to learn how they can deal with it. Most children are simply learning the counter-attacks so that they can be better bullies. They get mixed messages: bully for the good but don't bully for the bad. Anyone who ever read Plato knows as much (but not as much, apparently, as those teachers against The Socratic Method).

Why bullying is on par with English and History is certainly mystifying. The Province hires what is increasingly a caste within our society that is totally insulated against parental involvement. The move to ban homework was never an educational idea it was a bad idea.

Just imagine, during this crises if your child's teacher called up and spoke directly to your children about the work that's due in Sex Ed.!

What has become perfectly normal in the culture of the classroom is obviously lunacy performed by even well-meaning teachers.