CxD#89
Rhetorical Character; Anti-College; Danger of Mindfulness
1. If you haven’t seen Jon Stewarts congressional testimony in which he wonders why 9/11 first responders have to fight for their medical benefits, then you, yourself, forgot what happened on that day and you must watch this.
As a professor of rhetoric, I can confirm professionally that this speech is a masterful performance of persuasion and reason and timing. But so much more important is that Jon Stewart undeniably cares about others, especially others who risked their lives and are now getting fucked over by rich greedy people.
You can feel his anger. And so if you’ve you’ve ever wondered why anger that is controlled and focused and clear-eyed is good for, study this.
Want to see a grown man cry? Watch the NYC Fire Department give Jon Stewart a beautiful gift.
This, friends, is Character.
2. I’m in favor of options other than college, especially for the firs year or two after high-school. Read this about the rise of “Anti-College” programs, which end up being character design models.
“Perhaps the proliferation of programs like these will push mainstream universities to recover the moral component of their mission, and to recognize that what students need — far more than gourmet dining hall food or fancier classroom technology — is a period of discipleship, a time of discernment. They crave a means to figure out how to do what we all desperately want: to submit to a community and an ideal larger than ourselves, without losing ourselves entirely.” Source
3. If you’re practicing mindfulness or engaging in some kind of meditation practice, heed this warning:
“But anything that offers success in our unjust society without trying to change it is not revolutionary – it just helps people cope. In fact, it could also be making things worse. Instead of encouraging radical action, mindfulness says the causes of suffering are disproportionately inside us, not in the political and economic frameworks that shape how we live. And yet mindfulness zealots believe that paying closer attention to the present moment without passing judgment has the revolutionary power to transform the whole world. It’s magical thinking on steroids.
There are certainly worthy dimensions to mindfulness practice. Tuning out mental rumination does help reduce stress, as well as chronic anxiety and many other maladies. Becoming more aware of automatic reactions can make people calmer and potentially kinder. Most of the promoters of mindfulness are nice, and having personally met many of them, including the leaders of the movement, I have no doubt that their hearts are in the right place. But that isn’t the issue here. The problem is the product they’re selling, and how it’s been packaged. Mindfulness is nothing more than basic concentration training. Although derived from Buddhism, it’s been stripped of the teachings on ethics that accompanied it, as well as the liberating aim of dissolving attachment to a false sense of self while enacting compassion for all other beings.” Source
Our protective ego structures have a way of co-opting everything to further their self-improvement project at the expense of all else. Pay attention to this process and slow down and ask questions: why are you doing what you are doing? Then ask Why 4 more times. Where does that leave you?
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