RUDIMENTS 60.

RUDIMENTS  pt. 60

Making Cars

One thing I noticed was that, when

younger, a person seems to want to

have an opinion about everything.

Later on, in deeper age, it no longer

seems as vital, seems in fact more

to be just nosiness, blowhard stuff.

What used to be called 'Budinsky.'

That should surely be a syndrome

by now. They can sell  pills for it and

then have that long list of cool side

effects listed. Best thing the FDA

ever did  -  better than having to

call Mommy a drug addict. 'Well,

she often walks into walls now and

often poops her pants, but at least

we no longer have to hear what

she thinks about Cuba.'

-

Back when I was finishing high school,

that crummy final year filled with loads

of bad moments, there was a young

teacher, just starting, named, as I best

approximate, Mr. Fangeorelli. He was 

maybe 26 or 27, and for his first classes

they'd assigned him to a 'new' subject

class, never tried before. It was called,

'Non-Western Cultures'. Immediately one

is struck by how 1960's the very concept 

is, like 'lets have courses about all those

other people who are not like us, those 

freaks and pygmies, the African bug-eaters,

those weird South and Central Americans

and all their gods and temples.' Real

Board of Ed boardroom stuff. So, they

give it to this new guy. He was from

Plainfield, and his family had a vegetable

mart that spilled out onto the sidewalk,

stuff for sale; Plainfield Fruits & Vegetables.

Kind of a creepy guy, (disclaimer here, right

up front  -  he eventually got fired for 

messing around with a girl student or 

three. I know no more and it wasn't me). 

He had an opinion on absolutely all matters,

and because of that very little real matter

ever got covered in class. He'd manage each

class (I recall it as two, maybe three, classes

a week) to sidetrack the entire operation

by talking about every extraneous matter

you could think of  -  from Star Trek (TV)

to the Miss America Contest, and everything

in between. The highlight of the class, and

I guess what made it manageable, was when

the 'girls' would cook dishes native to whatever 

culture or country was ostensibly the subject

of the course right then. Weird Peruvian

potatoes, and African green things. That's

how it just went but I was constantly annoyed

by being subjected to some fool's opinion

on everything.

-

You see, the trouble with that is that opinions

only ever end up reinforcing the status-quo.

And that's all they ever want  -  because the

import of the entire idea is to render everything

ineffectual. All things are presented as either

'this' or 'that'  -  in a very stark either/or way.

Which is about as completely stupid as you

can get -   so who wants your opinion. I

had plenty of (unschooled) opinions about

everything, but hey were really more like

attitudes, and I never piped up and no one

ever asked me anyway  -  but if they had, I'd

probably have peeled their eyelids with burn

at a few of the concepts I'd have handed them.

All society ever wants to do is to keep on

going along just as it is, which means every

item that's already in place wants to stay that

way. So, schools are about the last place 

for any fool to begin opining about stuff.

-

I never understood much, and I had a lot of 

scars to show for it. Nor was I ever much

for games and feints and all that fake stuff

people in neighborhoods do. Basically it's

all to flatter the next guy's wife. Catch her eye.

I never understood why Life itself shouldn't

just be about relaxation and learning; but

learning in a relaxed manner. They'd even

made a rat-race out of that, and then they

wanted you to enjoy it and volunteer to

PAY for some four more years of it. Career

opportunities abounded. For nitwits. It all

just goes on and gets continued, mostly all

because no one ever just says 'Stop! Instead

they keep jamming structures and formats

and logic and reason down your throat for

all those deadly-years of enforced government

schooling taught by the worst examples of

their calling you want to find. Pill-popping, 

overly-energetic types who, like that 'Non Western' 

cultures guy just end up pawing little girls. 

Or boys, if it's a church thing.

-

At least when I got away, landed in NYC, 

I was away from all that. The library there

was as big as a small country (probably

a non-western one), and I took full advantage

of wandering around and staying lost within

it....and much more. I knew there had to be

some sensible matter 'out there'  -  but it 

had, to that date, eluded me.