The conformity in the educational system does have a function. The elites in power want the masses to be uninformed and unable to make rational decisions. They do not want people to think for themselves because they know that will result in people taking action to change the system.

The most controversial people are controversial because they are dangerous to conventional thinking. Sam was named the "Top 100 Most Dangerous Professors in America" because he does this on a daily basis. We need more people like Sam and Noam Chomsky to reach out to the public and get this message across to as many people as possible.

This way of teaching encourages conformity which only enhances this robot like attitude towards accepting the false information you have been fed your entire lifetime as true. People who fail to question whether or not what they have been told throughout their life do not understand that their ignorance is highly encouraged by the people in power. The elites in control of this nation do not want an educated population to actually question what our politicians are doing because then they would no longer be in power.

As I went through public school, I was always challenging every part of the process along the way. It would be an understatement to say that I was a non-conformist—but I think I really did it in order to bring attention to this problem facing public schools in America. I'd demand a reasoning behind all thsse invasive and time consuming policies and assignments that just wasted our time and actually impeded the educational process.

This is what I hated most about public schooling, the attitude that schools should be run by strict rules and procedures like a prison. My highschool was run in this manner and only a few teachers really stepped out of the "conformity zone" and actually encouraged challenging the system and questioning the status quo. These teachers really opened my mind on another level. I started to become angry with the system and how it shapes people to be just another brick in the wall.

I hated when teachers failed to recognize that they must step outside the boundaries like Sam does and really challenge the facts of history in every aspect. Some teachers would never take a step beyond their textbook and helped maintain the ignorance that impedes our educational process. However, the best teachers would challenge this idea of conformity and open our minds to the problems associated with conformity like Noam and Sam have shown. Our educational system on the large part is based on this idea of conformity that restricts creativity. This is another valid point Noam makes about the suppression of creativity when we are being molded by our restrictive education system.

I also feel that the lecture was one of the best of the year because it helped inform people about how other nations in the Middle East perceive America. It also clearly shows rampant ethnocentrism in America. We tend to think that what our military is doing around the world is for the right cause. But if you dig a little deeper like Sam did by showing quotes from George Bush calling it a “crusade” and quotes from the most powerful men in our government, General Portraeus and Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Greenspan even directly stated “it is sad to say the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is primarily about oil.”
There is little doubt in my mind that Warlord Bush decided to enter Iraq in order to maintain the economic prosperity and viability of our nation due to our extensive dependency on oil from this region of the world. There is no justification for this kind of action. Greed should not take the lives of innocent civilians. Companies like Halliburton that have extensive ties to elected officials like Dick Cheney should be held responsible for their injustice and downright disregard for human life and the law. We paid millions of dollars in taxes so that corrupt officials like Dick Cheney can award huge government contracts to a company where he was once Vice President- a company that promised to rebuild Afghanistan and never completed the jobs we paid them to complete.
However, I do feel that some members of our government do have just intentions and are really involved in the War in order to provide a secure homeland for all Americans. The people involved in the conflict deserve to have our respect and support, regardless of whether or not you personally support the War. These people are offering their lives for our nation, and we must acknowledge their servitude.

Unlike countries in Europe who have many neighbors in an smaller geographically than the Eastern United States, we share a border with two countries that have minimal influence beyond the border towns. Due to this, we are extremely ignorant to what the world is thinking about our Land of the Free. We need to take a step outside our media-blasted lives and think about what we are doing to the world. We need to examine the justifications for war and look at the history of the situation before we act.
The War in Iraq is just the latest example of exploitation of third world nations that has been going on for three hundred years. In the long run, we are going to end up paying for our actions. This hatred towards America does not come from anywhere. If we want to move forward and change the world, we must first change ourselves.

I want to say that we do not look down upon those who do believe, but I feel it is my burden to open your mind to reality. The points Sam made should open your mind regardless of whether or not you have faith.
I think you and many other people on this message board are adherents to FAITH not Christianity. You must first find faith and then apply the Bible and all of its practices BECAUSE YOU HAVE FAITH. You utilize this faith in order to practie your religion- and this occurs in all religions, not just Christianity. This faith is what holds religion together. You have to believe.
Being from a Christian family, the church I was raised around is actually named Faith Presbyterian. I can not agree with you more that your religion is about having a personal relationship with God. This relationship has given you faith. This faith is what you hold on to when things hit rock bottom. What I’m really getting at is that you do not need religion to have faith in something. I have faith that because I live my life in a just manner now, I will be in a better place (whether that may be rotting away six feet below, or if its Heaven as described in the bible) when I die. I do not attempt to explain what happens when we die, and I’m comfortable accepting the fact that NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE.
I believe in karma. I feel that what people do on a daily basis will come around. I realized the other day that karma is not based in any one religion, but has fundamental support from the smartest man to ever study science. Newton’s third law of physics clearly states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction--in both magnitude and direction. I had never thought about applying this type of knowledge to abstract ideas like religion. However, this is so true in every aspect that is has become a Law. I never ever thought about extending laws of physics to religion and karma, but it just makes so much sense on EVERY LEVEL; take any situation and it will apply. Think about it. When you push a person, that person is exerting a force equally as hard back at you-you just cant see it because they are the one who flies away when you pushed them. So when you do a harmful deed to another person, that action is accompanied by an action EQUAL in magnitude (how severe ) and OPPOSITE in direction-meaning its coming to you now, not originating from you.
Faith is an incredible thing, and I can not disagree with you about the role that faith plays in most our lives. However, we need to take a look why we need this faith. We have an inherent part about us that makes us question why we are here; some people just cannot stomach the fact that we are part of a NATURALLY occurring, beautiful Earth. I am not a religious person at all, in fact I think what Sam said in class was absolutely on point- but I HAVE FAITH. I have faith because like you, I have developed a personal connection with God. However, I do not adhere to the outrageous hypocrisies of organized religion. I am infuriated when people put their religion on a pedestal and look down upon other religions.

After learning in high school that there will be more people speaking Spanish than English in America in the next decade, I came to realize that white people are finally going to have to adjust to other peoples culture. However, I do believe that the institutional racism will continue to be driving force in the race relations game. These methods of institutionalized racism will not disappear overnight-regardless of whether or not white people are no longer the majority. The foundations of our society have been , and will continue, to remain predominately controlled by the rich white elite. However, it is important to note that through political activism, we can overcome these challenges to racial equality.
The people in power, the white elite, will continue to try and preserve the status quo in America- white supremacy -primarily based in politics. To bring about such broad changes in society, people need to take action against and form grass roots movements, unite as one and vote for the candidates who not only support racial equality, but take affirmative actions towards achieving this goal. I believe that as information is made available to the people, the common person is going to see the problems and backwardness of our society in general. It will take time to tear down the walls of institutionalized racism in America, but I have great confidence in our generations and those to follow. These institutional policies have been reinforced throughout our history, and it is time for change. Change We Can Believe In.
I firmly believe that our generation is different than past generations in America. I believe that we have a new outlook on social equality. I believe that the American people have spoken in the 2008 election, choosing Barack Obama to lead our nation in a new direction because we have made a landmark transition in the way we perceive other people.
However, it is important to question whether or not white people will remain in the drivers seat, even after we become a minority. If everyone went out and voted for their representatives, they would truly represent their constituents. Although this sounds easy, there are many institutionalized practices built in to our election system that prevents this from happening. Simply put, I have an inclination that whites will continue to play their over-bearing role in our Senate.
I also feel that even when the whites become a minority in America, the young children will still pick white dolls over black dolls. I believe it will take much longer for the racist ideologies implanted in our children at a very young age to change. The keepers of this status quo will do everything in their power to keep things the way they are. I have faith that as our generation brings about real change to our government, society will be forced to change its racist ways of the past.

To be honest, I have only recently thought about the true origins of who we call Hawaiians. Taking History of the Human Race last semester really made me question where all these people originally came from. The people who settled Australia did so during a period of lower ocean levels, so once the oceans started to rise, they became isolated from the world for a long period of time. This isolation led to some of the most unique cultures on the planet. Likewise, the Hawaiian Islands have been isolated from the modern world for a long time- leaving a rich cultural history that we must preserve and appreciate.

I think your argument comparing Native Hawaiians to Native Americans is in concordance with my beliefs on the issue. These native people were driven off their homeland just for more greedy white businessmen to extract profits from their breathtaking islands, continuing the theme of extremely gross and pervasive exploitation of every square inch of this magnificent planet for the past 300 years.
Likewise, the fact that native Hawaiians earn less money, live shorter lives, get sent to prison more often and are more likely to end up homeless than other ethnicities is quite similar to the argument Sam presented in class about how blacks face institutional racism in the juvenile, state, and federal court system.

I am elated to hear about the pending legislation which will enable Native Hawaiians the same rights and privileges given to the other people white people have downright robbed when we set out and created this "Land of the Free." Native Hawaiians are the last remaining indigenous group in the United States that hasn't been allowed to establish their own government, a right already extended to Alaska Natives and 564 Native American tribes. I believe that all those native peoples who really should own “OUR” land should have the right to create and enforce their own government on land that is truly theirs and not under control or influence of the US government. We should not impose our constitution on people whose ancestors were here well before our ancestors left Europe for the New World.
These Hawaiians have been suppressed and exploited since we first arrived on their native land, so its about time that we gave these people a fighting chance. Like you pointed out, the Native Hawaiians make up 20% of the entire population, yet account for a staggering 28% of the state's homeless who received outreach service. It is an absolute injustice to the Hawaiian people that we come to their land, kick them off it so we can turn a quick profit, and now the natives are the ones without a HOME. We kicked the natives off their land and now they are homeless, ever wonder who is at fault for that?

This article reminds me of the blog post concerning the last surviving person of a particular tribe of indigenous peoples-the last person who could speak the native language and how someone set out and recorded it. It reminds me that we need to allow them to preserve their history and proliferate the Hawaiian culture for the sake of their peoples. I really liked the part of the article that focused on trying to reinvigorate the native culture and history of the native Hawaiians. This legislation would allow Native Hawaiians to eventually get greater access to affordable housing, their own culturally focused education system, health centers and full-time jobs that would include teaching hula or Hawaiian language.

Recently, articles in the news have been reporting the influence of large states like Texas and their overbearing role in deciding what type of information is put into the most widely distributed and widely used textbooks throughout America. I would argue that "the reason we learn history the way we do" is because the publishers must alter the information to appease the largest purchasers of their product. States like Texas purchase the largest amount of textbooks from the largest publishers, thus they have a direct influence into what is being taught to children across America. WE NEED TO CHANGE THIS, NOW. Just this past week, the Texas Board of Education blatantly and openly did just this :
By APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Writer – Fri Mar 12, 6:46 pm ET
AUSTIN, Texas – A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.
Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas, explaining her vote against the standards. "We have manipulated strands to insert what we want it to be in the document, regardless as to whether or not it's appropriate. Some board members themselves acknowledged this morning that the process for revising curriculum standards in Texas is seriously broken, with politics and personal agendas dominating just about every decision," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for religious freedom.
Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students "explain how institutional racism is evident in American society."
Democrats did score a victory by deleting a portion of an amendment by Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement led to "unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes."
The last part of this story, with Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement led to “unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes.” Is why we need to change the way we let states like Texas impact the education of children in states around the country. We need to let the people who experienced history write the textbooks, not the politicians wishing to brainwash our children with bullshit they want them to hear. It is very similar to the two young girls, Prussian Blue, we saw in the video in class and how their white nationalist parents totally influenced how they saw the world. We need to address these wrongs in order to move forward in race relations.
As far as the white guilt thing is concerned, I do believe that most people do acknowledge the wrongs done by most our ancestors. However, the guilt I feel is not the personal guilt like you feel when you have done something horrible. It is a communal guilt, a guilt that motivates one to right the wrongs of history by changing ourselves and the others around us. We are all on red land, and what would happen if we were to allow the remaining Native Americans to reclaim their tribal homelands? This is their land, but to them, the concept of land ownership never existed. This is an incredible fact. They never saw this land as THEIR LAND, for when white men offered to buy it, they didn’t understand the concept of owning the land- THEIR LAND BELONGED TO NATURE. These peoples way of life was so much more admirable than our consumer based materialistic driven society. If we could have only respected the native way of life.
Likewise, when white people fail to feel this guilt or fail to recognize the atrocities in our past, it makes me angry. Ignorance is always a factor, and I become most disturbed and frustrated when people choose to be ignorant. It is a different story if people just are not aware of the facts of the situation.

I do not agree that the noose deserves much more attention than the "ghetto" themed party. After reading the invitation posted above, it is clear that this is a blatantly racist driven and themed party. The invitation posted above, if indeed the actual one sent out to the "Compton Cookout," screams fighting words in all aspects deemed by the United States Supreme Court. If that invitation does not stand out to you as absolutely racist, then you are not seeing what is really going on here. I know some may argue that it was all in “good fun”, but the words used in the invitation are lined with hate and malicious intentions. In the land where we prize our freedom of speech, where is the line drawn?
Likewise, I don't agree how someone said people would be "crazy" to attend UCSD. This sort of thing can explode anywhere, on any campus. It usually is just a couple spoiled apples that ruin the bunch, and it appears in this case to be a snowball effect on their campus.
I am not sure if the color of the skin of whoever hung the noose should change the situation. I think that the skin color and the intent of the person who hung the noose are important factors to consider before making a judgment about the entire situation.. What if the student was doing it as some sort of prank or maybe they were told to do it for some irrelevant fraternity initiation. Regardless of the intent, this action had produced a huge uprising in the black community and has shacken the campus considerably. It is not obvious that something needs to be done in order to address this explosion of hate on their campus. The massive reaction to the events was indeed justifiable because of the malicious intent described on the Comptom Cookout invitation. It is one thing to have a "gangsta" themed party in California, but another to include such phrases like "Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary" while also mocking what some may perceive to be “their” culture-“ dat Purple Drank- which consists of sugar, water, and the color purple , chicken, coolade, and of course Watermelon.”
-This sort of negativity will only cause more problems and perpetuate the cycle of hate and racism in America. I believe it is right for the black community to respond in the way the did, protesting and standing up for injustice. Only when you draw more attention to their situation will people begin to understand what is really at stake here. We are too young to remember what was going on during the Civil Rights Movement-like the Birmingham church bombings which the headlines titled “Bombingham, Alabama” and the countless others who died in the struggle for equal rights; let history humble us and remind us that what those people were fighting and dying for this cause will not and should not be forgotten.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"-Martin Luther King Jr.

I remember this exact study in PSYCH 100 with Dr. Hunt last year. You bring up an excellent point that most people fail to recognize. We all develop similar ways to interpret our world as we develop mentally and physically throughout childhood. Every person has schemas that allow us to interpret the world around us. These provide structure in a world of what is really meaningless objects. I know Wikipedia is not the most scholarly source of information but they definitely word it better than I can.
Wikipedia says schema "influence our attention as we are more likely to notice things that fit into our schema. If something is contradicting our schema it may be encoded or interpreted as an exception or unique. Thus schema are prone to distortion. They influence what we look for in a situation. They have a tendency to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information."
The fact that both black and white children at a very young age both pick white dolls provides great evidence that certain schemas may be ingrained in children already at such a young age. This is disturbing to think about.
I think most people are unaware of what is really going on in the world around them. Sam continuously drives home this message in class, "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean its not there." Like you stated, "It's very likely that this ideology would stick, sub-consciously or not, into adulthood, and consequently affect their opinions in daily life, manifesting in areas like the workplace." People need to be more conscious about what influences the things they are doing on a daily basis. They need to perceive and evaluate more information that they currently take into account.
The information overload in our world drives people to be influenced by things they would never imagine. I think that people need to break down their schemas in order to see what is really happening in the world. Like Sam says, just being aware of another viewpoint is enough to help you consider the other side of the story.
Another key idea that shaped my decision on this topic is the discrepancy between perception and reality. The fact is that we all have much different schemas of reality than say, native tribal aborigines in the Australian Outback. Again Wikipedia puts it best, “What one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one’s culture, and the interpretation of the perceived. If the percept does not have support in any of these perceptual bases it is unlikely to rise above perceptual threshold.

I never put too much thought to this topic, but after realizing that gay parents may be just as qualified to raise children, I think I have become a supporter of equal rights for all. Before thinking too far into this issue, I was under the assumption that raising a child with both a male and female parent was in the best interest- developmentally, socially, and most importantly, psychologically - for the child. After some thought, I now believe that the sex of one's parents, all other things being equal, has little to no impact on one's childhood development. However, I would like to examine some research on this topic because maybe there are some things we need to address, in concern for the children who will be raised in a same-sex household.
The only other logical argument against equal rights for all men and women is the idea that homosexuality is not natural. I was always under the assumption that homosexuality was a personal decision. I thought that all humans were born with a natural attraction the the opposite sex. (I'm sure Darwin would have some very interesting views on this topic, for he most certainly observed homosexual animals in the wild.) And according to his evolutionary theory, men are born with a natural and innate drive towards humans with two X chromosomes. After Sam pointed out that most people know they are gay very early in their lifetime, I realized that they never had the choice to pick who they wanted to pursue.
The "natural" view argues that only the distinct combination of man and woman can procreate life in an natural environment. Therefore, humans by nature have a natural and biological predisposition to be heterosexual. This is a biological certainty, in a world full of uncertainty. What Im saying is that men and women have evolved together for a reason, men provide roles that women cannot and vice versa. This is why we need to research what may or may not be lost when a child is raised in a same-sex household. Men and women evolved in harmony to provide the wide range psychological needs necessary for proper development in all human beings. Men and women play different roles in the development of children, and we must first completely understand these roles before we accept this way of life because we could be denying children essential components of their childhood.

It is very interesting to analyze the differences between monozygotic twins who were raised in either a same-sex or a heterosexual household. I believe that the data generated in these studies could provide conclusive answers to this question, because if we analyze the differences to people raised in these opposing environment, DNA being identical, we are able to observe the role of the environment. THIS IS CRITICAL.
Freud would have a very interesting view on this issue as well because he spent much time studying specific psychological disorders that arise because of various traumatic experiences during one's childhood

One of the largest fallacies in our society is the belief that the best methods of acquiring knowledge are all driven by technology. In reality, we all stand to learn the most from what has preceded us. We need to stop and take a look around us once in awhile, respect what has come before us in order to maintain an honorable and sustainable way of life. Sustainability should be the main goal of all humans, for what gives you precedence over any one of your relatives who will come after you?
I believe and hope that current technology is able to preserve the last of all dying breeds. We need to utilize our abilities and technologies in order to preserve languages like that of the Bo tribe. These people have been on this Earth for over 65,000 years. We have been in "America" for slightly over 200 years, get the picture? That is 65,000 years of knowledge, culture, uniquely informative experiences, and traditions completely lost into the depths of the Pacific. I was shocked last year from reading a book titled "Learning from Ladakh" when I realized the kinds of lessons to be learned from present day societies who have not changed with the world around them. The areas that have escaped the prying hands of mercantilism and capitalism are the ones which we need to study the most. We need to have their perspective in order to value our own way of life.
The people in Ladakh and other peoples like the Bo tribe have inhabited some of the most unrelenting areas on this Earth, and have adapted their own ways of living in order to survive. The people of Ladakh have been so sustainable, that until recently, their country remained outside of the reach of Western hands. On the other hand, maybe the people of Ladakh have remained outside the reach of capitalism because they are so sustainable.
The book brought about ideas that challenged the status quo. It proved that people do live in ways that Americans would quickly label "primitive" yet it lacked the negative externalities like alcoholism, rape, and greed which rip apart families in America every day. If we all took a step back and asked ourselves, why do we always need to consume more? Why do we enable capitalism and its associated ideas to dominate our lives? I believe the answer to this question is complicated, but stems from people's ignorance. Most Americans have all been raised and barraged with ideas like mass production, globalization, and consumerism as forces that are necessary in our world. They are not. We need to broaden our considerations and really take a good look at what we believe is important in our culture.
Likewise, we need to value what we stand to lose here. Every day, valuable culture and languages are to be lost forever. When a piece of human history is lost for one culture, every human on this Earth is affected in one way or another. The impact may not be obvious, but we need to understand the interconnectivity of all our actions, across the world.