OUR SCHOOL
school noun
a group of people, particularly writers, artists, or philosophers, sharing similar ideas or methods.
"the Frankfurt school of critical theory"
Sometimes I feel as though we're constantly trying to find answers without asking any decent questions.
More than ever, I feel as though we're actively discouraged to think for ourselves. To take things for granted, rather than question why they're there.
Our current levels of connectivity have, in some cases, left impressionable minds open to manipulative and diluted forms of magic. Rather than casting spells of empowerment and belief, brand power and consumerism often capitalise on our individual fears of inadequacy.
Every word heard, spoken or written carries potential for the consumer to gain an insight, understanding or opportunity to relate to something new. Knowledge is power. That being said, it's no mystery why we're force fed the belief that we actually deserve our shallow escapes.
We're told that after a hard days work we deserve to switch off. We deserve to indulge ourselves in the vacuous falsity of reality television. 'I loved that film when it first came out, perhaps this updated version will really bring it to life...?' Are we simply paying money to know how something ends? To become witness to success, a passive party to tangible resolve. Do we crave that certainty?
I feel a little off kilter whenever I hear a loved one say,
"I just want to switch off."
This is a world where people dream of a little more sleep, and get antsy at the sight of grass, desperate to be back to inside. Lovely, warm and cut off. We feel it necessary to keep our cogs turning. Machinery operating... with little to no maintenance.
We're able to spend our entire lives with our frontal cortex's fused to LED's; in the gym sating base instincts on improving ferocity; giving in to gluttony; over-filling our guts; gorging on nature; abusing our planet... but only a quarter of our lives being encouraged to learn.
We're not here to preach or tell people what to think. We ourselves don't claim to truly know anything. We've got a few ideas though.
We've got ourselves a little candle.
Now we've just got to use that to light others.
Less of us will be in the dark that way.
Welcome to Bad Colour.
"Once you stop learning,
you start dying."
- Albert Einstein
"We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
"One teacher,
one child,
one book
and one pen,
can change the world."
- Malala Yousafzai
"Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking. They want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation."
- George Carlin
"The classroom's the last room to get the truth."
- Rage Against the Machine