On Friday evening, after my school's baccalaureate services, I attended "Class Night." There the school handed out awards to the top achievers. There were 88 categories of awards, each with anywhere from 1-10 winners. I think at least 300 awards were given out. (The evening lasted 2 and a half hours, down from 3 and a half two years ago.) The upper and middle schools combined consists of only 350 students. Of course, many of the students won multiple awards. Many won none. But really? 300 awards for 350 students?
When I asked one of my colleagues why the evening lasted so long and we handed out so many awards, he smugly smiled at me and said that we don't want all the kids running around the dorms for hours on the last night before they move out.
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3 comments:
That award ceremony is a microcosm of the United States culture industry.
Well done at work, my boy. Now you GET to watch five hours of ceaseless network television. Maybe you'll even chance to see a film in which a rebel escapes from the Thoreauian quiet of the masses and revolts against the totalitarian system that rewards them with false dreams meant chiefly to placate and mechanize them.
Let's hope the Matrix comes on next. Stay in your seat, and you'll see.
That is a brilliant way of maintaining crowd control without the crowd knowing they are being controlled. Sort of like Brave New World.
Come on Dave, you did not have anything better to do on a Friday night!
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