XPost: alt.arts.poetry.comments   
   From: dmh7@skypoint.com   
      
   Chandra P Das wrote:   
   > An ode to failure   
   >   
      
      
   This is actually fairly interesting as a meditayion on failure and   
   success, but - although it flirts with the idea - it still emphasizes   
   far too much the idea that success is measured mostly in financial   
   terms. This may be true - as far as the world-at-large goes - but a lot   
   of those "losers" (and I know many of them, including myself!) are   
   really successes.   
      
   As for the American education system vis a vis this discussion, while it   
   is true the system is more fluid than the European models, it too   
   emphasizes far too blatantly the idea that success is only measurable in   
   terms of professional achievement and - yes- bank accounts. And the   
   notion of streaming isn't totally weithout merit itself, since it has   
   the potential to educate students in the idea that not everyone HAS to   
   become wealthy or powerful within a certain slim wedge of endeavor to be   
   considered worthwhile. As you imply (but do not quite emphasize) many   
   so-called "losers" are the only reason a few "winners" have any success   
   at all; Ray Kroc would be a janitor too if he couldn't have convinced   
   thousands of mainly young people (although - now - increaingly older   
   people) that working for almost nothing was good enough for them. In   
   fact, almost all the really important functions within a "successful"   
   business are accomplished by "losers." The fact is, capitalism demands   
   that more and more people be as like slaves as is legally possible. Of   
   course, most large capitalist entities can no longer get away with out   
   and out enslavement (although many businesses function in countries   
   where this is a concern), but - as wages continue to be frozen at early   
   1970s levels, and the top one percent continue to gobble up more and   
   more of the basic resources, a state closely resembling slavery is   
   emerging more and more.   
      
   So while it is "practical" to teach the importance of money and position   
   (as opposed to a successful imaginative life or a successful family   
   life, etc.) this practicality (read "utilitarianism") only supports the   
   status quo. Which isn't precisely what I (and many others) really desire   
   from education.   
      
   But still - interesting.   
      
   dmh   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)