Trading in my jeans for the tracksuit pants
I recently came upon the column website
of the Finnish state radio station Yle 1. Yes, there are indeed two of
them. Historically, these stations have been known as the refuge for
hardcore stalinists and other "intellectuals" who have used and still
continue to use them to preach their doctrines to the Finnish people.
So it doesn't actually surprise me that the few columns that I read
were so unimaginably stupid that I wish I could translate them word by
word for my international readers. Since I lack the time and
inclination to do this, I can just point out a few meatiest bits.
First, the column "Yhdysvalloista on tullut teokratia" informs us that during the presidency of George W. Bush, America has become a theocracy.
For our second choice cut, I remember seeing professor of education Kari Uusikylä constantly on Yle talk shows and panel discussions when I was a teenager. The good professor's consistent message was that in school, nobody should be better than anybody else, but all children should be taught identically so that nobody gets left behind. This way, all students will have an equal chance to get in the best universities. (I remember wondering when I was watching one panel discussion that he was in whether his university uses this principle in selecting its students and grading them. To my disappointment, no other panelist asked him about this.) Thanks to these people, currently there is virtually no special education for bright children in Finland. One important exception to this rule, the Päivolä private high school of math and science, is constantly under fire from the equalists.
To my delight, I can see that this man still continues to spout the same old idiocies in a long string of columns. In addition, just like his ideological fellow traveller Professor Kurgman, his expertise easily extends to international politics. In the column "Viiden minuutin puhe presidentti Bushille", he starts by letting us know that he lived in USA for two years, and was shocked to see how many poor and homeless and mentally ill people there were, unlike in Europe. He then laments the fact that European societies are becoming more competitive and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, just like in America. Finally this wise man advices Dubya and America to listen to criticism, since the USA is not like Soviet Union where criticism of rulers was forbidden. (Indeed they are not, but it certainly wasn't due to the efforts of this guy and his fellow travellers.)
In the column "Mitä tapahtuu kun sivistynyt humanisti näkee peilistä jalostuneen rasistin?", the progressive feminist writer (who considers herself to be a bright beacon of intellectualism) laments her realization of being herself a "racist", because she instinctively had a bad feeling when she saw a woman dressed in an all-covering burqa. Dunno, for some reason I just feel that this trendy lefty wouldn't be as quick to tolerate women wearing burqas if the white Finnish men forced them to do it. What do you think, am I right, or am I right?
The column "Vuoden Oscar-palkinnoissa on kaunis jakauma" discusses the most recent Academy Awards, and starts by lamenting the somewhat strange claim that Hollywood is not known for engaging in social activism. Fortunately, this year's winners gave this particular columnist quite a lot to gush about.
However, the column "Lars Norénin näytelmät ravistelevat ruotsalaista kansankotia" truly takes the cake. The column first introduces us a Swedish theater director Lars Norén, a radical social activist who wants to shock audiences with his depictions of ugliness and misery. "Street children, alcoholics, drug users, gays, criminals, horrible family dramas", all these oppressed and misunderstood wretched little souls get a turn to tell their stories in sets that are smeared with feces. A bit like "Rent", I guess, but without all that peppy singing and dancing.
The column does not tell us to what extent the costs of these plays are covered with ticket sales and how much is left to government grants. I can make an educated guess, especially since according to the column, Norén is "hated by the audiences". But who cares? After all, according to Norén, theater must "work to serve society", so it's probably only appropriate that society picks up the tab for this important work.
Then comes a paragraph I simply have to translate here, without any further commentary other than to note that it's been a long time since I have previously read anything that has so many things at once screaming and howling in between the lines.
First, the column "Yhdysvalloista on tullut teokratia" informs us that during the presidency of George W. Bush, America has become a theocracy.
For our second choice cut, I remember seeing professor of education Kari Uusikylä constantly on Yle talk shows and panel discussions when I was a teenager. The good professor's consistent message was that in school, nobody should be better than anybody else, but all children should be taught identically so that nobody gets left behind. This way, all students will have an equal chance to get in the best universities. (I remember wondering when I was watching one panel discussion that he was in whether his university uses this principle in selecting its students and grading them. To my disappointment, no other panelist asked him about this.) Thanks to these people, currently there is virtually no special education for bright children in Finland. One important exception to this rule, the Päivolä private high school of math and science, is constantly under fire from the equalists.
To my delight, I can see that this man still continues to spout the same old idiocies in a long string of columns. In addition, just like his ideological fellow traveller Professor Kurgman, his expertise easily extends to international politics. In the column "Viiden minuutin puhe presidentti Bushille", he starts by letting us know that he lived in USA for two years, and was shocked to see how many poor and homeless and mentally ill people there were, unlike in Europe. He then laments the fact that European societies are becoming more competitive and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, just like in America. Finally this wise man advices Dubya and America to listen to criticism, since the USA is not like Soviet Union where criticism of rulers was forbidden. (Indeed they are not, but it certainly wasn't due to the efforts of this guy and his fellow travellers.)
In the column "Mitä tapahtuu kun sivistynyt humanisti näkee peilistä jalostuneen rasistin?", the progressive feminist writer (who considers herself to be a bright beacon of intellectualism) laments her realization of being herself a "racist", because she instinctively had a bad feeling when she saw a woman dressed in an all-covering burqa. Dunno, for some reason I just feel that this trendy lefty wouldn't be as quick to tolerate women wearing burqas if the white Finnish men forced them to do it. What do you think, am I right, or am I right?
The column "Vuoden Oscar-palkinnoissa on kaunis jakauma" discusses the most recent Academy Awards, and starts by lamenting the somewhat strange claim that Hollywood is not known for engaging in social activism. Fortunately, this year's winners gave this particular columnist quite a lot to gush about.
However, the column "Lars Norénin näytelmät ravistelevat ruotsalaista kansankotia" truly takes the cake. The column first introduces us a Swedish theater director Lars Norén, a radical social activist who wants to shock audiences with his depictions of ugliness and misery. "Street children, alcoholics, drug users, gays, criminals, horrible family dramas", all these oppressed and misunderstood wretched little souls get a turn to tell their stories in sets that are smeared with feces. A bit like "Rent", I guess, but without all that peppy singing and dancing.
The column does not tell us to what extent the costs of these plays are covered with ticket sales and how much is left to government grants. I can make an educated guess, especially since according to the column, Norén is "hated by the audiences". But who cares? After all, according to Norén, theater must "work to serve society", so it's probably only appropriate that society picks up the tab for this important work.
Then comes a paragraph I simply have to translate here, without any further commentary other than to note that it's been a long time since I have previously read anything that has so many things at once screaming and howling in between the lines.
Norén wanted to help three young prisoners and took them in a theater project organized in a prison. Norén was curious to see what goes on inside a neo-nazi brain. After theater practice, these prisoners escaped and killed two policemen. It was astonishing that sensitive Norén was able to overcome the shock that these events gave him.
Kari Uusikylä is still very much active and every now and then blurts some incoherent drivel in the letters to the editor in Helsingin Sanomat.
Currently, the letters to the editor is featuring an attack on the concept of intelligence and especially the methods used to measure it. The claim now seems to be that intelligence is some kind of a warm, fuzzy ability to take others into account, definately not something that can be accurately measured, because that would be wrong on so many levels.
Posted by Anonymous | 1:22 PM
Uusikylä is a devout supporter of Howard Gardner's "multiple intelligencies". Gardner himself on the other hand is pretty much in the fringe (alone) but pedagogues love him because he grants _some_ kind of intelligence to everyone. His gift box already had among others "naturalistic intelligence" and "kinesthetic intelligence" and lately he has added one more, namely "sexual intelligence".
Neuroscience is digging every day deeper into the intelligence and revealing it more and more clearly as a hardwired ability with very clear physiological components. There isn't very much fuzzy about it any more.
Posted by Catilina | 1:37 PM