Clarissa's Blog

6 responses to “Thursday Link Encyclopedia ”

1. 

   Dreidel

   August 5, 2016

   Being an oldie, I’m tempted to comment on the “mandatory schooling for senior citizens” article, but it’s so vague on facts (and so are the articles that it links to), that it is impossible to get an idea of what sort of “mandatory schooling” the Nation of Norway has in mind.

   Is the State talking about some kind of compulsory continuing trade / technological education (like the “continuing medical education” that physicians in the U.S. must get annually), or is it more like a general refreshment course in the K1-12 courses of “history, science, literature, and math,” that are currently offered in the “folk high schools” in Denmark?

   Either way, the term “mandatory right” strikes me as a bizarre play on words, like the term “emotional labor” in your later blog tonight. Something is either a “right” — or it’s “obligatory” — which is this proposal?

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   1. 

      cliff arroyo

      August 5, 2016

      My guess is that “mandatory” senior education is paired with increasing minimum education. The idea is to slowly work to the middle so that a large chunk of the population will spend their whole life in some kind of school/learning situation as they acquire skills to get jobs that are not going to ever appear.

      It’s one partial solution to the problem of what to do with people that can’t be employed in a post-scarcity economy (along with Potemkin companies).

      I think the broad aim is institute some kind of guaranteed basic income tied to some kind of ongoing social participation rather than the soul-crushing experience of just giving people money to sit at home or hang out on the street corners.

      It beats the bicycles of Black Mirror’s 15 million credits…..

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      1. 

         Clarissa

         August 5, 2016

         It’s definitely better than just letting people rot in front of screens, you are right. But still, how sad.

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      2. 

         Dreidel

         August 5, 2016

         “I think the broad aim is institute some kind of guaranteed basic income tied to some kind of ongoing social participation rather than…just giving people money to sit at home.”

         So it’s a disguised welfare program? If that’s its real purpose, the government surely doesn’t want to say so out loud — that could explain the deliberately vague pseudo-explanation of the program in the linked article.

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2. 

   cliff arroyo

   August 5, 2016

   The Dutch guy in the airport for 10 days is really intriguing.

   Was she just extracting resources from him? (if he wasn’t sending her money I’d be very surprised)

   Did she really exist at all? (that is did the person he thought he was visiting exist at all?)

   Did he learn anything? (probably not but a 26 year old getting elective plastic surgery is a huuuuge red flag – run away as quickly as possible)

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3. 

   rglw

   August 5, 2016

   Thanks for the pingback! It is always so humbling to me when people find anything I write and when it resonates with them! Love this chain of thoughts, too!

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