The Archives

Excerpts from Electric Degeneration, Degenerate Press' semi-weekly e-zine, free and ad-free. A full episode contains sections for music reviews, upcoming events, blasphemy, classifieds, and anything else we feel like saying. If you'd like to subscribe just contact us.

You can surf the entire archive.

If you can't find what you're looking for by surfing, use this handy search feature:

9/1/1999

EAR PLUGS
DAMN if it ain't a laborious long weekend of music decisions.
Montreaux is IT for you jazzholes out there, you can't swing an empty
Heineken bottle in East Atlanta without smacking into a good show, 9
Lives is having a massive battle of local bands Friday and Saturday,
89.3 has their annual blues barbecue on Monday with an amazing
lineup, and I promised myself I'd take a weekend and do a massive
update to the Ear Plugs site (we have a TON of photos to add and some
new search features and such.)
But then there's the Starlight Drive-Invasion.
Looks like I'll be coated in sunscreen, bug repellant and smiles this
weekend...

BLASPHEMY
Don't know why everyone's so opposed to removing evolution from public school curricula. I've been in Cobb County, GA for almost a year now, and I have seen no evidence that any kind of evolution has ever taken place here. degenerate JDP

The Swine Are Barking
If I had known that sucking "the life out of the… media-circus tit that is the Kansas State Board of Education" was what's required to get degenerate MAC to show himself, I'd have done it sooner. MAC offered us one long, cool drink of intelligence - a real commodity out here in the Wasteland. As fine as MAC's comments were - and they were fine - there was room for a couple of questions, or at least comments. First, though the "media-circus tit" may appear dry on the Kansas issue, rest assured that the shriveled paps of superstition are always leaking and will continue to do so till the end of time. The decision of the KSBE concerning teaching evolution is only the most recent incident in a battle that goes back 2,500 years when the first philosopher, Thales of Miletus, argued that the moon was not a god but a magnificent rock. In doing this, Thales opened a new avenue for human knowledge, one that would later be called "reason" and, among other things, focused into "scientific method." Ever since the arrival of this way of looking at the world, though, there have remained those in the religio-mythological camp who wish to have their perspective sanctified as being "science" or "scientific." Not satisfied with religion being religion, they insist it must be science as well, inevitably offering literalistic and materialistic interpretations of their own dogma and metaphors. This is probably because of desire for power, superstition, fear, and intellectual inertia. They end up with bad religion and no science at all. Now, having said this, we come to the core of the problem: Is education the means to stop the masses from imposing their superstitions on the more enlightened minority? MAC says, resoundingly and democratically, yes. "Critical thinking is the way to go. Teaching critical thinking is the challenge." I am less sanguine on this topic. First, critical thinking is an unnatural burden which one must choose to take upon one's self. And unless one volunteers for it - that is, unless one feels the NEED for it - one will never attempt to think in a truly rational manner. Being a matter of effort, critical thinking is an inherently minority affair. What makes the mass a mass is its very unwillingness to accept the burden of creativity and self-motivated thinking. If the masses were amenable to accepting responsibility, they would immediately cease to be mass. We have evidence, though, that this does not tend to happen. MAC seems to pretend that the Kansas SBE has never heard of critical thought, general learning, and scientific theory when, in fact, we all know they have, in some form, been exposed to these things their whole lives. Even with the benefit of this exposure they have chosen to reject it as superfluous. Instead, they have taken the easy road of unexamined opinion and authoritarianism as a substitute for the arduous journey demanded by history and reason. The very thought of trying to "educate" such people smacks of tossing the proverbial pearls before the swine. "Does charging the mob with ignorance impel it to seek enlightenment?" asks MAC. No, it does not. But, then again, nothing could so impel it because "the mob" isn't interested in knowledge, no matter how it is addressed. No one looks for what he thinks he already has and the mass man is certain beyond all doubt that he "knows" all he needs to know about everything. He is smug and satisfied. What makes our situation precarious, however, is not that there is a mass of ignorant people who are content to wallow in their ignorance; these, like the poor, we have always had with us. Our age is particularly dangerous because THIS mass has no tolerance for the existence of an educated minority in its midst. Not only is the minority simply irritating to the mass man - because their existence implies his inferiority, but they also insist on contradicting his beliefs. So, the majority, in retaliation, feels it must have its way, even to the point of absurdity, even to the point of trying to wish away the backbone of biological thought, for instance. The only thing to do, at the moment, is to protect the rights of the select minority and to stop mincing words; it is time that the willfully ignorant receive no more acts of obeisance from their betters. For the mob is not merely ignorant, but also stupid, and it needs to be reminded of this every time it rears its idiot head to speak or act. We need to install an inferiority complex in the masses - mass man must be rendered docile. Of course, all of this depends on those who are capable of doing so taking up their peculiar cross and stepping onto the Via Dolorosa of culture. There is no excuse for the non-mass man to live the carefree, anti-gravitational existence of the masses. There is no other route to true freedom, no other hope for the Western way of life. The masses will be led properly - and their social, political, and cultural function is to be led - only if each person so able takes on the weight of service and becomes a living example.
degenerate RVI


Contact Degenerate Press

Take me to Degenerate Press' home page!
There's no place like home... no place like home...

All content on this site is owned by Degenerate Press and cannot be used without our permission. We have lawyers for friends with nothing better to do than cause trouble (no kidding), so play nice. Copyright © 2002, All Rights Reserved