October 18, 2017

Short Erotica Formula Plot Template

By wise sloth

Note: This guide doesn’t teach you the way to write pornographic short stories. There’s no single way to write about sex, and since sex is such an emotional and often spontaneous activity the topic lends itself to free-flowing, spontaneous writing. Having said that, good stories tend to follow a logical progression of events based on cause and effect. Good writing also caters to human psychology; readers want realistic characters with reasonable motivation, rising action, a climax and closure at the end. This guide takes all of these elements into consideration and lays out a useful formula to writing short pornographic stories.

Getting Started

Before you can write a story you need to decide what the story is going to be about. The trick to picking the right story isn’t to have a million brilliant ideas. The trick is to eliminate 999,999 of those ideas until you’re down to one. In order to do that you need to ask yourself two questions:

1. What do you want to write about?

2. What do your readers want to read about?

I would advise any writer in any genre to write about what they, themselves want to read about. Trying to guess what other people want to read can drive you mad, but since we’re all humans with the same brains and hormones, that means someone out there wants to read the same thing you do. If you write about your interests you’ll be able to flesh out your story with details that express your passion and make your story more genuine, and since you’ll be speaking from your own experiences and fantasies you won’t have to think too long and hard about how to express yourself. Plus, you’ll have more fun writing for yourself, and the more fun you have writing the more fun others will have reading your work.

The Introduction Scene

Every sitcom or movie you watch will begin by introducing the main character. Pornography is no different. Movies can spend the first twenty minutes illustrating who the main characters are, what they want, where they live and what they’re doing with their lives. Sitcoms have to do all of that in less than one minute. Pornographic vignettes have to do that in a few paragraphs.

There’s no set length for how long each segment of a story needs to be. It needs to be as long as it needs to be to say what you need to say. So don’t get hung up on the length of your writing. Just make sure you say what needs to be said. Understand though that people read pornographic vignettes to live out a quick fantasy. They don’t need or want to know the characters’ entire life stories. They just need you to set the stage for their fantasy and move on towards the climax.

Here are the details you do need to include in the first couple of paragraphs of your story: A physical description of the main character. His/her name, location and maybe their occupation. You also need to relate the state of your character’s sex life. Chances are there’s something missing in your main character’s sex life. They could be lonely, just getting over an ex, taking their relationship to a new level, looking for their next fling or even avoiding sex for some reason. Whatever the case may be the reader needs to know what the main character wants and how they feel about their sex life. This brings your characters to life, makes them easier to relate to and gives them credible motivation for whatever they’re going to do for the rest of the story.

If your story starts with your main character leaving the house and having sex with some random person for no reason your story won’t flow; it might not even make any sense. Another very important reason to get into the main character’s mind is because sex is as emotional as it is physical. Half the eroticism of pornographic writing is exploring the emotional aspect of sex. In order to relate that you need to explore your characters’ thoughts, desires, expectations, insecurities, and reactions.

Since every pornography story revolves around the main characters you need to write believable characters. The best way to do this is to use yourself as the main character, and have the person “you” have sex with be someone you actually know (or at least have seen). It might help you to use your real names when writing the first draft. Then change the names when you’re finished. When you write about real people they’ll feel like real people and you won’t have to worry about inventing every detail out of thin air. Of course, since fantasies are exaggerations of real life you don’t want the details to be completely based on reality. You can and should tweak the descriptions, thoughts, and behaviors to meet the needs of the fantasy (and to protect the real identities of the people the characters are based on).

The Cataclysm Scene

Once you’ve established who your main character is, where they’re at in life, what they’re missing and what they want, then you’ve set the stage to give it to them. During the introduction segment of the story, the main character was going on about their life as normal. In the cataclysm segment, the main character goes somewhere or meets someone who opens up the opportunity for the main character to fulfill their unfulfilled desire.

In an action movie, the cataclysm would be an intense event that completely throws the main character’s life off track like an alien invasion or the death of a loved one. In a sitcom, the cataclysm would be an idiosyncratic opportunity or inconvenience. In pornography, you don’t have to get so creative. The cataclysm is usually nothing more than the main character meeting the person they’re about to have sex with.

If the main character already knows the person they’re about to have sex with then the cataclysm needs to be some event that changes the nature of their relationship. The easiest way to orchestrate this is to have one of the characters take a chance and hit on the other one either for the first time or harder than usual. Whatever happens, both characters need to have a reason for doing whatever it is they’re doing. Usually, the reason they’re stepping out of their comfort zone is because they’re really, really horny, they have a strategic goal they can achieve by having sex or they have some philosophical/emotional justification/need.to.

The Decision Scene

Your story began by introducing your character, and then something happened to your character that opened up the opportunity to fulfill their sexual fantasy. It goes without saying that your character is going to accept this opportunity, but it’s important to tell the reader why. At the moment when the main character accepts the opportunity, you need to get into the character’s head and explain their thought process. It may only take a sentence or two, and the reason may be as simple as the character being uncontrollably horny, but the reader needs to know this in order for the events that follow to flow logically and for the reader to fully empathize with the character they’re living through vicariously.  Your story can still be successful without this detail, but details are the difference between a good story and a great story.

The Crossing The Threshold Scene

You can’t lead your story up to a point where two people have decided to let go of their inhibitions and then immediately start having skin-slapping sex. There needs to be a transition scene that raises the emotional and physical energy in your story. If they just had full-on sex right now the story would be over. The reader wants to be teased and aroused before getting to the climax. Since your reader wants to be teased and aroused your character needs to be teased and aroused. So it pays to dwell on this phase of the courting ritual long enough to build some sexual tension. Have your characters make out and pet each other, and make sure to explain how the main character/s feel and think about the situation they’re in. Focus specifically on the first time your characters touch and the first time they kiss.

The First Rising Action Scene (Foreplay)

Once you’ve built up the sexual tension a bit you’ve set the stage for the clothes to come off and the characters to finally get their hands on each other’s genitals. Have your characters give each other oral sex, hand jobs, fingering or whatever foreplay your characters are into.

This scene should raise the physical and emotional connection between the characters Get inside their heads and elaborate on how elated they are and how they can’t believe what’s happening. Tell the reader how badly your character wants more. Describe how hard, wet, sweaty and hot the characters make each other.

The Second Rising Action Scene (Sex)

After your characters are on the verge of bursting physically and emotionally you can finally allow them to have penetrating sex. Describe the physical act in detail. Describe how it feels inside and out. Make the action go faster and faster. Let the characters lose control emotionally and tell the readers how the characters feel and what they’re thinking.

The Climax Scene

This segment of the story isn’t just about bodily fluids. This is the fulfillment of someone’s wildest dream. That’s a huge occasion that’s going to affect them emotionally. Take a moment to dwell on how emotionally and physically satisfying the experience is to the characters. Say how it affects them. Say how relieved and fulfilled it’s made them. Illustrate the emotional impact by how the characters act.

The Walking Off Into The Sunset Scene

Your readers don’t care where your characters are going to be ten years down the road. So you don’t need to dwell on the post-sex events of their lives too much, but at the same time, you can’t just end your story with, “…and then he came. The End.” Your readers are human beings, and human beings expect narratives to have closure.

Don’t overthink the ending, and if you’ve structured your story logically so far, the end will write itself. You just need to have your characters do the next logical thing that they would do in the situation you’ve created for them.

Like every other segment in the story, it’s not enough just to say what the characters physically do with their bodies. You need to tell the reader what the main character thinks and feels about the experience. How has it changed them inside? How has it changed their life? How happy did it make them? How will the experience change their life? What are the chances they’ll do it again?

Below is a summarized/modified version of this template sent to me by Carmen Webb, who has been using it to write their erotica shorts using about 1k words per section: 

Synopsis:

Short blurb about what the story is about, this can BE the Blurb.

Introduction:

Physical description of the MC, name location, maybe occupation. Sometimes you can add details of their desires to relate the state of the character’s sex life. You need to relate the characters’ thoughts desires, expectations, insecurities and reactions.

The Cataclysm:

This is the event that opens up the opportunity for the MC to fulfill their desires. It could be as simple as meeting someone or as complex as you like.

The Decision:

This is the point that the MC accepts the opportunity presented and needs explaining why.

Crossing the Threshold:

This is where you tease and arouse to build sexual tension.

First Rising Action:

This is building on Crossing the threshold and is where foreplay starts.

Second Rising Action:

This is for penetrative sex; the characters have been driven to the verge of ecstasy.

Climax:

This is the point to really point out how this has affected the MC and others. How does it fulfill their desires?

Walking Off into the Sunset:

Final resolution with detailed closure.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

Formula Plot Templates
Screenwriting for Movies
Screenwriting for TV
Short Stories
Choose Your Own Adventure
Movie plot break downs
TV plot break downs
Free story prompts
Writing tips
Blogging
Art

Leave a comment | posted in Formula Plot Templates

October 18, 2017

Extended Short Story Formula Plot Template

By wise sloth

Start by summarizing the three acts:

 ACT 1

The protagonist, setting and conflict are introduced.

ACT 2

The protagonist confronts the conflict and solves it.

ACT 3

The protagonist reaps the (usually positive) consequences of his actions.

 Once you’ve summarized the 3 acts, expound on them by dividing each act into 3 parts:

 

 ACT 1

 

 PART 1

The protagonist and the setting are introduced

PART 2

The antagonist takes away that which is most dear to the protagonist

PART 3

The protagonist makes an irrevocable decision to confront the problem.

 

ACT 2

 

 PART 1

The protagonist identifies a solution to the problem.

PART 2

The protagonist applies the solution

PART 3

The solution neutralizes the antagonist completely.

 

ACT 3

 

 PART 1

The protagonist gets the prize.

PART 2

The protagonist uses the prize.

PART 3

The protagonist disappears into the sunset.

Once you’ve expounded each act into 3 parts, expound each of those parts into 3 segments:

 

ACT 1

 PART 1

The protagonist and the setting are introduced.

SEGMENT 1

We see a snapshot of a day in the life of the protagonist.

SEGMENT 2

We see a snapshot of the kind of conflict that epitomizes his life and his dreams.

SEGMENT 3

We see the typical outcome of how he normally handles conflict.

 

PART 2

The antagonist takes away that which is most dear to the protagonist.

SEGMENT 1

An event knocks the protagonist’s life off track in the worst possible way.

SEGMENT 2

He reacts to the conflict in his typical manner.

SEGMENT 3

He fails to prevent the event from cutting him off from his dreams.

 

PART 3

The protagonist makes an irrevocable decision to confront the problem.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist asks what he can do to fix the problem.

SEGMENT 2

He weighs his options.

SEGMENT 3

He makes an irrevocable decision to confront the problem.

 

ACT 2

 PART 1

The protagonist identifies a solution to the problem.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies a clue/path/opportunity to help him solve the problem.

SEGMENT 2

He follows the clue.

SEGMENT 3

It leads to the antagonist, who the protagonist is too weak to overcome.

 

PART 2

The protagonist applies the solution

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies the source of strength he needs to overcome the antagonist.

SEGMENT 2

He pursues the source of strength.

SEGMENT 3

He attains the source of strength.

 

PART 3

The solution neutralizes the antagonist completely.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist approaches the antagonist with his new strength.

SEGMENT 2

He engages the antagonist.

SEGMENT 3

He defeats the antagonist.

 

ACT 3

 PART 1

The protagonist gets the prize.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist emerges from the battle.

SEGMENT 2

He reaches for the prize that will fix his life.

SEGMENT 3

He attains the prize.

 

PART 2

The protagonist uses the prize.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies the wrongs left over from the conflict.

SEGMENT 2

He goes about using the prize to set them right.

SEGMENT 3

We see the result of him setting things right.

 

PART 3

The protagonist disappears into the sunset.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies his plans for the future.

SEGMENT 2

He steps into the sunset.

SEGMENT 3

He disappears into the sunset.

Finally, expound each segment into 3 scenes.

 

ACT 1

 PART 1

The protagonist and the setting are introduced.

             SEGMENT 1

We see a snapshot of a day in the life of the protagonist.

SCENE 1

Show the protagonist in his natural setting.

SCENE 2

Show him doing something that defines where he’s at in life.

SCENE 3

Show him doing something that defines where he’s going in life.

 

SEGMENT 2

We see a snapshot of the kind of conflict that epitomizes his life and his dreams.

SCENE 1

The protagonist is hit with a problem typical of his life.

SCENE 2

He responds to the problem as is normal for him.

SCENE 3

He succeeds or fails as is normal for him.

 

SEGMENT 3

We see the typical outcome of how he normally handles conflict.

SCENE 1

Show the immediate consequences of the protagonist’s success or failure.

SCENE 2

The protagonist reacts emotionally to his success or failure according to his values.

SCENE 3

Show how this affects his long-term plans/outlook.

 

PART 2

The antagonist takes away that which is most dear to the protagonist.

 

SEGMENT 1

An event knocks the protagonist’s life off track in the worst possible way.

SCENE 1

The worst thing that could happen to the protagonist begins to happen.

SCENE 2

The event continues to unfold.

SCENE 3

Show how this event will prevent the protagonist from continuing his life as normal if it is not stopped.

 

SEGMENT 2

He reacts to the conflict in his typical manner.

SCENE 1

The protagonist decides to take action to stop the event or its repercussions.

SCENE 2

He takes action.

SCENE 3

He fails to stop the event and it irrevocably prevents him from continuing life as normal.

 

SEGMENT 3

He fails to prevent the event from cutting him off from his dreams.

SCENE 1

The protagonist emerges from the event.

SCENE 2

He reacts emotionally to the event according to his values.

SCENE 3

He acknowledges that his life is forever changed.

 

PART 3

The protagonist makes an irrevocable decision to confront the problem.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist asks what he can do to fix the problem.

SCENE 1

The protagonist asks what he can do to address the conflict.

SCENE 2

He weighs his options.

SCENE 3

He states his conclusion.

 

SEGMENT 2

He weighs his options.

SCENE 1

Focusing on that one course of actions, he asks if it’s worth it or even possible to pursue.

SCENE 2

He does the cost/benefit analysis.

SCENE 3

He states his conclusion.

 

SEGMENT 3

He makes an irrevocable decision to confront the problem.

SCENE 1

He steps up to the point of no return.

SCENE 2

He crosses the point of no return.

SCENE 3

He emerges on the other side.

 

ACT 2

PART 1

The protagonist identifies a solution to the problem.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies a clue/path/opportunity to help him solve the problem.

SCENE 1

The protagonist identifies a clue left over from the cataclysmic event.

SCENE 2

He analyzes the clue.

SCENE 3

He gains some advantage from it.

 

SEGMENT 2

He follows the clue.

SCENE 1

The protagonist decides to follow the trail the clue revealed.

SCENE 2

He follows the trail.

SCENE 3

He reaches the end of the trail and finds an obstacle.

 

SEGMENT 3

It leads to the antagonist, who the protagonist is too weak to overcome.

SCENE 1

The protagonist approaches the obstacle.

SCENE 2

He engages the obstacle.

SCENE 3

He fails to overcome the obstacle.

 

PART 2

The protagonist applies the solution

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies the source of strength he needs to overcome the antagonist.

SCENE 1

The protagonist asks why he wasn’t strong enough to overcome the obstacle.

SCENE 2

He analyzes the question.

SCENE 3

He finds the answer.

 

SEGMENT 2

He pursues the source of strength.

SCENE 1

The protagonist identifies the source of strength he needs to overcome the obstacle.

SCENE 2

He pursues the source of strength he needs.

SCENE 3

He arrives at the source.

SEGMENT 3

He attains the source of strength.

SCENE 1

The protagonist approaches the source of strength.

SCENE 2

He reaches for it.

SCENE 3

He attains it.

 

PART 3

The solution neutralizes the antagonist completely.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist approaches the antagonist with his new strength.

SCENE 1

The protagonist approaches the obstacle with his new strength.

SCENE 2

He engages the obstacle.

SCENE 3

He overcomes the obstacle.

 

SEGMENT 2

He engages the antagonist.

SCENE 1

The protagonist approaches the antagonist directly.

SCENE 2

He engages the antagonist.

SCENE 3

The antagonist defeats the protagonist.

 

SEGMENT 3

He defeats the antagonist.

SCENE 1

The protagonist decides to make one last strike.

SCENE 2

He strikes the antagonist.

SCENE 3

He defeats the antagonist completely.

 

ACT 3

 PART 1

The protagonist gets the prize.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist emerges from the battle.

SCENE 1

The protagonist rises from the battlefield.

SCENE 2

He reacts emotionally to the battle according to his values.

SCENE 3

He steps off the battlefield.

 

SEGMENT 2

He reaches for the prize that will fix his life.

SCENE 1

The protagonist identifies the prize.

SCENE 2

He acknowledges the prize’s significance.

SCENE 3

He reaches for the prize.

 

SEGMENT 3

He attains the prize.

SCENE 1

The protagonist takes the prize.

SCENE 2

He absorbs or releases its power.

SCENE 3

The protagonist and/or the world is transformed by the prize.

 

PART 2

The protagonist uses the prize.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies the wrongs left over from the conflict.

SCENE 1

The protagonist asks what loose ends are left over that need to be set right.

SCENE 2

He analyzes the question.

SCENE 3

He identifies the answer.

 

SEGMENT 2

He goes about using the prize to set them right.

SCENE 1

The protagonist focuses his attention on setting that/those thing/s right.

SCENE 2

He uses the prize to neutralize those problems.

SCENE 3

He succeeds at neutralizing them.

 

SEGMENT 3

We see the result of him setting things right.

SCENE 1

Show the consequences of the protagonist neutralizing the problems.

SCENE 2

The protagonist reacts emotionally to his success.

SCENE 3

The protagonist experiences the consequence of everything that has happened.

 

PART 3

The protagonist disappears into the sunset.

SEGMENT 1

The protagonist identifies his plans for the future.

SCENE 1

The protagonist asks what he should do in the future.

SCENE 2

He analyzes the problem.

SCENE 3

He states his conclusion.

 

SEGMENT 2

He steps into the sunset.

SCENE 1

The protagonist asks what he needs to do to achieve his goal/s for the future.

SCENE 2

He analyzes the problem.

SCENE 3

He states his conclusion.

 

SEGMENT 3

He disappears into the sunset.

SCENE 1

The protagonist steps towards the point of no return.

SCENE 2

He crosses the point of no return.

SCENE 3

He emerges on the other side.

Once you’ve finished plotting all your scenes, simply write the story following your scene summaries. Your story will flow seamlessly from beginning to end.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

Screenwriting for Movies
Screenwriting for TV
Short Stories
Erotica
Choose Your Own Adventure
Movie plot break downs
TV plot break downs
Free story prompts
Writing tips
Blogging
Art

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October 18, 2017

Short Story Formula Plot Template

By wise sloth

ACT 1

 

Introduction

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

Cataclysm

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

Decision

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

 

ACT 2

 

Preparation

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

Engagement

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

Neutralization

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

 

ACT 3

 

Prize

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

Reckoning

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

Sunset

  • Setup
  • Delivery
  • Outcome

 

Terms

 

Setup

This is where you see the cause of what’s about to happen.

 

Delivery

This is the event the cause…caused to happen.

 

Outcome

This is what happened as a result of that thing happening.

 

Introduction

Introduce the protagonist and the setting. Show the protagonist in his natural setting doing what he always does the way he always does it. Show how life usually reacts to him doing what he usually does. Show what the protagonist loves, hates, fears and hopes for most. Show what he’s best and worst at. Show who he is and who isn’t, what he does and what he doesn’t.

 

Cataclysm

The worst possible thing that could possibly happen to the protagonist happens. He loses that which is most dear to him.

 

Decision

The protagonist must decide to set the universe right again. Show how he makes that decision and why.

 

Preparation

If the protagonist already had everything necessary to solve the problem then it would have been solved already. So he has to gather the resources he’ll need to use to solve the problem.

 

Engagement

Once the protagonist has those resources, he goes about applying them to the problem.

 

Neutralization

There is a key moment where the solution and the problem meet and the solution neutralizes the problem conclusively. For example: throwing water on a witch. The audience needs to see the final event in full detail.

 

Prize

There wouldn’t have been a journey if there wasn’t a prize. The audience needs to see the protagonist pick up the prize in full detail.

 

Reckoning

The protagonist didn’t come all this way to get a prize and just hold it up for the crowd to admire the rest of his life. He planned on doing something with that prize. Show the first thing the protagonist does with the prize…or what it does to him.

 

Sunset

For the sake of closure, show the audience what the long-term future holds for the protagonist.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 
Screenwriting for Movies
Screenwriting for TV
Short Stories
Erotica
Choose Your Own Adventure
Movie plot break downs
TV plot break downs
Free story prompts
Writing tips
Blogging
Art

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Formula Plot Templates

October 18, 2017

The Quality Of Our Leaders Reflects The Quality Of Our Higher Education System

By wise sloth

I was already deeply unimpressed by the Republican party, but I hadn’t realized how completely and utterly superficial America’s leadership (and the entire machine responsible for rotating those leaders) had become until I watched the 2016 Republican National Convention. It was as artificial and insincere as a fast food restaurant, and all the makeup and flashy backdrops in the world couldn’t dress up that pig. That turd was polished as well as it could be, and it was still offensive to the intellect. To be fair though, the Democratic National Convention wasn’t much better.

 

 

The entire 2016 presidential race in America has been a gigantic, flashing red warning light that America is desperately long overdue for an intervention about how fake its political machine has become, but it also points to another, possibly more important issue. Everyone who made a fool of themselves during the 2016 presidential race held a degree from an accredited university. Some of them had masters and doctorate degrees from prestigious schools known for their high academic standards.

The standardized higher education system we’re using to educate the people who are running the world doesn’t work. If you need more evidence then look at any career field in the world, but possibly the purest example of the ineffectiveness of university degrees is the American military officer caste. Every enlisted soldier has stories of woefully incompetent officers. I’m not saying every officer is incompetent. I’m saying there are enough incompetent officers to constitute a pattern, and if we trace that pattern back to its source we can fix the problem. The problem (other than the UCMJ) is the broken higher education system.

Nobody likes to admit when they’re wrong, especially people whose careers are based on the premise that they’re smarter than everyone else, but humanity can’t afford another generation of leaders as conceited and incompetent as the ones we’ve got now. We can’t even afford to endure the incompetent leaders we have now. The failures of the higher education system are felt in every career field every day. The cumulative effect is that it’s killing people. It’s lowering people’s quality of life and the potential of the entire species. I would even go as far as to say that the failures of the higher education system are pushing the Doomsday Clock in the wrong direction.

How can we fix this problem? The most fundamental change that needs to happen first is that every level of education needs to be free. As long as credentials are sold higher education will be a glass ceiling for the poor, schools will compromise their effectiveness for higher earnings and students will be set up for failure.

If you want to design a better education system then you need to talk to people who understand how the human mind works. If the American Psychological Association had been in charge of the Department of Education all along, we might not be in the place we are now.

It frightens me how blatantly broken the higher education system is, but it can’t be fixed because it can’t be changed because it’s so suffocated by bureaucracy.  Plus, there are too many people making too much money ripping off students to let anyone change the system in any way that would lower their profit margin. However, free online video schools like The Khan Academy and M.I.T.’s open courseware will make the traditional higher education model obsolete once they’ve created downloadable content for every class in every subject at every level. If America had given its entire Iraq War budget to The Khan Academy and/or M.I.T. then everyone in the world could be going to university for free to study whatever they want as long as they want at their own pace by 2020.

Someday that will happen, and then students won’t have to pay half their life’s wages to learn about their professors’ personal lives, how to bullshit their way through PowerPoint presentations or how to cram for exams on topics they’ll never use again. Once students are free to learn whatever they want and/or need without having to endure a traumatic gauntlet of unreasonably complicated, irrelevant assignments then universities like the ones our politicians graduated from will die a natural death, and the world will be a safer, more productive place. It sure would be nice if we could speed up that process, because the red button is surrounded by idiots.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

The Importance of Public Education
Flaws in the Public Education System
Improving Public Education

 

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October 18, 2017

6 Ways Universities Make People Dumber

By wise sloth

Picture of Jim Belushi chugging a bottle of Jack Daniels, wearing a sweater that says, "COLLEGE."

 

I’m not saying that going to a university will just make you stupid and therefore you shouldn’t go. You can learn a lot of invaluable information at college, and it will help you grow into a better person. A college education is so important that everyone should go for free. However, there are some massive design flaws in America’s current higher education system that cause many students to get dumber in certain ways even as they get smarter in others:

 

1: Standardized essays and regurgitated facts

During your college orientation you’ll be told that college will crack open your mind like an oyster and transform you from a mindless robot into an enlightened uber man. But the two most important skills you need to succeed at college are the ability to memorize a lot of information very quickly and write good formal essays.

Most of your college career will be spent reciting information like a parakeet, and even when your professors are psychotic and obviously wrong about something, you still have to give them the answers they want to hear or you won’t pass. You’ll also have to write formulaic essays in more than half your classes. These essays will require you to regurgitate information in a standardized, mind-numbingly formal process. Your professors will demand that you back up every statement you make by citing authoritative sources. While this is a valuable skill to learn, it doesn’t train you to think for yourself and formulate new ideas. It forces you to become a professional regurgitator and to value popular knowledge over independent thought. Forcing students to think like that for four to eight years straight can seriously stifle their creative potential.

The reason colleges give students so many tests and essays isn’t because that’s the best way to learn. That’s just the way it’s always been done, and not enough people have questioned that tradition. The reason tests and essays became the collegiate standard is because they’re cut and dry ways of quantifying student activity, which schools need to be able to do in order to prove to the government that they’re doing something. That’s the primary goal of for-profit colleges: reporting student output. That’s the bottom line. Colleges need to measure that you did something, because if they can do that, they can tick the right boxes on the right bureaucratic government forms that keep their profits flowing in. So they designed their curriculum according to their needs even though it wastes your precious time that you could be spending learning.

If you stay in college long enough to base your sense of self-worth on your academic achievements, you may find yourself defending the institution and its practices blindly too. If you grow up in a bureaucratic maze, you’re going to take it for granted that the world is one giant bureaucratic maze and the best way to succeed is to just accept it, don’t question your duties and give the person above you whatever they want. These are horrible life lessons our higher education system has taught to millions of people, and since college graduates end up becoming the leaders of the world, these are the values we’re instilling in the leaders of the world. It should come as no surprise that the world is such a high-stress, unforgiving, dog-eat-dog place.

 

2: Awe of rank

Schools tell you that you should address professors as “sir,” “ma’am” or “doctor” out of respect for their prestigious accomplishments. However, if you choose not to address them with a superior title you’ll be verbally reprimanded. So you’re not really “saluting” them out of respect, you’re doing it out of obedience.

It’s illogical to treat another human being like you’re a second-class citizen to them even if they did something with their life. They’re not going above and beyond the call of duty. They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. At any rate, one person’s success is not another person’s failure. Spending 8 years doing something doesn’t indebt strangers to kiss your ass. Nothing does. Demanding that other people treat you differently than they would anyone else is oppression. It might not be apartheid, but it’s still oppression.

If you can teach a person that they have to place another human being above them for any reason then you’ve made that person dumber. And when you indoctrinate an entire generation of young people to believe that their elders are one rank closer to God than them, you’ve set the stage for an entire generation to be manipulated and exploited.

Another negative consequence of convincing young people to be in awe of their elder’s rank is that young people will believe their elders’ teachings without question. Even though colleges say they don’t want this to happen, they go out of their way to idealize their professors’ authority.

Not only does worshiping rank close your mind, it also distorts your sense of self-worth. Every human being is equal. Period. Everyone is deserving of equal respect and love. And in the end, everyone’s shit stinks, and we all die. That’s reality. Indoctrinating young people to be in awe of man-made ranks teaches them to see themselves as second-class citizens. This is hurtful and disrespectful to them on a personal level, and on a larger scale, if you can convince an entire generation of humans to believe that the natural way of the world is for society to be divided into social classes in which the upper classes are treated like royalty and the lower classes are treated like children then you’ve set the stage to exploit generations of poor people.

Schools are going to keep enforcing the tradition of students subjugating themselves to their superiors because it helps the teachers control the classroom, and it makes schools look more prestigious when their faculty wears an aura of holiness around them.

 

3: Untrained/unaccountable professors

You may learn a lot in college, but possession of a college degree doesn’t make you a higher form of life worthy of a grander title. There are actually a lot of really, really stupid people who graduated college without learning very much. Some of those people got jobs as college professors. Some of those professors have learning disabilities and mental disorders. Some of them may be brilliant on paper but are woefully unsuited to command a classroom. Most professors have less training in formal education than K-12 teachers, and it shows. Sometimes even the most well-trained, competent professors will interject bizarre personal beliefs into their lectures.

I’m not saying all professors are stupid. If you go to four years of college you’ll find at least one that will inspire you and change your life, but I guarantee you’ll also have a few nut jobs who have no business being anywhere near a classroom. These teachers will teach you irrational bullshit that will make you dumber. Some of them will just teach you their entire life story. Some just won’t teach you anything. Either way, they’ll waste a semester of your life that you could have spent learning.

 

4: Debt

The cost of a higher education is oppressively expensive. It’s so inflated that it constitutes a glass ceiling to professional advancement for the poor. It’s still a major financial setback for those who can afford it, and for those who take out student loans, their debt is an inescapable source of stress and an ongoing strain on their finances.

The inflated cost of tuition causes poverty. It locks the poor in poverty and drags everyone else down closer to the poverty level. There’s a positive correlation between poverty and lowered mental abilities. In other words, poverty will make you dumber. Colleges are making the world dumber by being so expensive.

If you grow up in a capitalist bureaucracy where everything costs as much as possible, and you spend half a lifetime’s wages to go buy the credentials to unlock the glass ceiling, there’s a good chance you’ll just accept that kind of behavior as the status quo and end up defending the system despite the obvious damage it’s doing to society.

 

5: Stress

In addition to the long-term stress of paying off student debt, colleges also submit their students to intense intellectual stress while they’re attending classes. Colleges push you so hard that many students resort to using drugs like Ritalin and Adderall to keep up with the workload, because if they can’t keep up with their unreasonable workload then they’ll lose all the money they paid for those classes, and they’ll lose their chance at getting a golden ticket through the glass ceiling.

And there’s no mercy for the weak. It’s sink or swim in college. Growing up according to those values teaches you that if you can’t endure inhumane stress for long periods of time then you don’t deserve to have a good life. You’re a failure, and your worthlessness proves you deserve to spend the rest of your life scraping the bottom of the barrel. These aren’t the values of an enlightened society. These are the values of a greedy, selfish, oppressive, cut-throat dystopia.

No professional mental health expert would ever suggest that submitting young people to intense, prolonged stress is in any way good for them. That’s a recipe for mental health disorders. Some people crack under it completely and are scarred for life. They might still graduate, get a good job and be a productive member of society, but they’ll carry avoidable scars with them that will bleed into their lives in subtle, negative ways.

 

6: Sports

Colleges are for-profit businesses. Even public schools, which are supposed to be non-profit still try to make as much money as possible in order to grow and pay their executives more money. Sports are big business. So universities enthusiastically host and promote their own sports teams. You can tell how important sports are to colleges by how much they pay their coaching staff, which is often considerably more than they pay their teaching staff.

There are positive things to say about sports, but sports aren’t as important (let alone more important) than academics. The more time students spend carrying a ball back and forth between two lines the less time they spend learning about the world around them and the problems facing humanity.

If the college propaganda machine succeeds at convincing you that sports are so important that you should wear body paint, scream euphorically in the middle of a crowd and/or argue with people who like other sports teams then they have succeeded at manipulating your values for their own benefit. There are more important things going on in the world than sports. We should be screaming about poverty, income inequality, corruption, pollution and civil rights. The more colleges convince people that collegiate-level sporting events are important enough to devote time and money towards they’re distracting the world from issues that actually matter.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

The Importance of Public Education
Flaws in the Public Education System
Improving Public Education

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Flaws in the Public Education System

October 18, 2017

They’re Giving Away Free Super Powers On The Internet

By wise sloth

Everyone has wished they had a superpower, like the ability to fly or run super fast, but superpowers don’t exist. There’s no hope of finding radioactive ooze or a magical totem that will imbue you with the ability to do anything out of the ordinary other than maybe get cancer.  We’re going to die in the same bodies we were born in, and that’s it.

However, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. You don’t need magic or fantasy to get superpowers. In fact, you’ve got the one superpower that unlocks all the rest. You’re a human, right? And you wish you could fly? Humans have already made flight possible. Do you want X-ray vision? Humans have already created X-ray machines that can do that. Do you want to breathe underwater? We figured that one out too, and scuba divers have been doing it for years. We can see all the way to the moon. We can shoot bullets out of our hands. We’ve got friggin lasers.

If you want a superpower, don’t go looking for mythical beings to give it to you. Go ask a really smart person who thinks a lot. Then they’ll study the universe we live in and reverse engineer a way to give you that ability using what we’ve got. All our technological superpowers came from the same source: people studying the way things work and thinking about it.

There’s something you wish you could do, and it’s probably not as exotic as flying. You might wish you could give fantastic back massages. Or perhaps you wished you were like MacGuyver and could make anything out of anything or like Sherlock Holmes who could solve any puzzle. Maybe you just wish you had the ability to keep your car running. You probably wish you were more seductive… or at least less socially awkward. The point is, there’s something you wish you could do.

Whatever it is. You can do it… or at least the next best thing. There’s just one secret to unlocking every power-up in the universe: STUDY. If you want to be able to do something new… you can do it if you research how to do it, and you can find that information online. Now more than in any other time in history, if you want a superpower you can get it. If you want to become a karate master who looks like a turtle, you can arrange all of that in a couple of Google searches. You can even get a sidekick off of Craigslist.

Learning takes a little effort, but what else did you have to do with your life besides make it better? If there’s something you want to do, then power up with knowledge or quit whining about it. If you’re not absorbing new powers, I have no idea why, because the solution to your limitations is right in front of you. If you want to get stronger, then learn and think, and beware that the less you do, the weaker you’ll be. If you don’t believe me, go talk to an idiot and see how hard their life is. Then go talk to Bill Gates and ask him how many superpowers his house has.

 

Picture of Batman and Ironman with the caption, "MONEY: Best superpower of all."

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

The Meaning of Life
How to Think Like a Genius
Knowledge and Learning
Biker Philosophy
My Tweets About Philosophy 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in The Value of Public Education

October 18, 2017

Education Is The Silver Bullet To The World’s Problems

By wise sloth

What if you only had one year to do one thing to help the entire world before retiring to a life of self-interest? Where would you place your one bet in the chaos theory casino of global issues? If you got a magic lamp and could change one thing about the world, what would have the biggest positive impact?

 

 

It’s a funny question, but it’s important because the world’s problems are your problems, and your problems are your responsibility. The only time you ever get answers, is when you ask questions. So at some point in your life, you have to stop asking “But what can we do?” and start asking yourself, “What causes problems?”

You can make a game out of the question. Just walk around until you see something that sucks. Then point at it, and have someone take a picture of your pointing at the problem. Then go find a solution to the problem and have someone take a picture of you pointing at it. After you collect two stacks of pictures, try to find common denominators and connections between the world’s problems and solutions. If everyone shared their pictures on a website and analyzed them together, we could find all the answers very quickly. I guarantee, all the arrows are going to point to sustainability and education.

Everything education touches turns to gold. You can send in a group of educated people to a barren wilderness or a garbage dump and they’ll turn that area into a utopia. Give a man 8 years in prison and he’ll come out a monster. Give a man 8 years in school and he’ll come out a doctor. The defining difference between an officer and an enlisted troop is education. The first thing employers ask job applicants is what their education level is. Education doesn’t improve civilization. Education is civilization.

So what do we do about that? Should we donate all of our money to universities and testing companies? Because that’s what we’re doing. We’re betting the future of the human species on universities and testing companies, and most of that money is getting funneled into sports cars and swimming pools. The test scores from the testing companies we’re giving all of our education money to are showing that test scores are falling because children are learning less because our schools are focused too much on testing. And the lower you test the higher a percentage of your income you have to spend to further your education.

 

 

Education is getting so overpriced, almost nobody can afford it, and even those who can, are finding the cost/benefit analysis of investing in an education doesn’t add up. The system in place discourages and excludes people from getting an education. Then we wonder why we don’t have enough skilled workers or innovative thinkers to solve the world’s problems. Instead, we have unemployed, angry young adults complaining about not having the opportunities they were promised, and the youngest generation is growing up apathetic because they’ve known their whole life the education system is an overpriced commodity that only leads to a cubicle which is barely distinguishable from a jail cell. They’re not detached because they’re lazy but because they live in a giant, horrible, futile Skinner box.

 

 

So what do you do? Do you fix the testing companies that are cannibalizing our public budget or do you fix the universities that are cannibalizing our private budgets? Or is there a butterfly out there somewhere else that we can disturb and cause ripple effects throughout the whole system that will solve both problems, if not more?

The end goal is to provide a full spectrum of easily accessible, high-quality information to as many people as possible as quickly and cheaply as possible for as long as possible. The ideal dream scenario would be for every level of education to be completely free to everyone everywhere all the time. The ripple effects of such a school system would do more to render more causes of more problems obsolete than any other single solution. Universal, free education is the holy grail of social action. It’s the ultimate tool of self-empowerment. It’s the silver bullet for poverty. It’s the silver bullet for making responsible voters, citizens, soldiers, and politicians. It’s the long-term cure for corruption and the key to technological innovation.

Universal, free education is the key to the next Golden era of human history, which will be the greatest golden era mankind has ever seen, and this key exists today in its infancy at websites like the Khan Academy and others, but they’re all underfunded. If the United States had donated every penny it’s spent on wars in the last 10 years to the free online schools, we would be living in Gene Roddenberry’s wildest dream today. Instead of investing in education, America is investing in bombing goat herders.

 

 

Governments aren’t fulfilling their obligation to education, but you can. Everyone can donate to sites like Khan Academy. Once we’ve enlightened the world then the solutions to the rest of our problems will be clear, and we’ll have the skills to engage those problems. I guarantee it’ll help more than investing in sports cars and swimming pools. It’ll help more than killing brown people. It’ll help more than cheap gasoline. It’ll help more than funding a Republican or Democrat’s political campaign. It’ll help more than funding the war on drugs. It’ll create more jobs than tax cuts for the rich. It’ll put more food in children’s mouths than churches.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

The Importance of Public Education
Flaws in the Public Education System
Improving Public Education

 

Leave a comment | posted in The Value of Public Education

October 18, 2017

3 Solutions That Won’t Change America, And 5 That Will

By wise sloth

THREE THINGS THAT WON’T CHANGE AMERICA

 

1. Waiting for a leader

This is as true in your individual life as it is for society: Nobody but you is responsible for you. If you’re waiting for someone else to come along and sweep you off your feet or wipe your ass then you deserve nothing. As the old sayings go, you need to “be the change you want to see in the world” because “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Nobody gives a damn about you because nobody owes you anything. That’s why nobody is going save you. The only people who are even interested in you are the people who want to exploit you. As long as you’re not trying to save yourself they’re going continue to exploit you.

 

2.Voting in Federal Elections

All voting accomplishes is electing the person you want to represent corporate interests. That’s it. Period. Voting is a sham. If you haven’t figured that out already then you’re part of the problem. Stop supporting the corrupt system by voting if for no other reason than it’ll stop making you feel like you’re doing something when you’re really not.

 

3. Violence

Violence begets violence. The more violence you use against the government the more it’s going to crack down on everyone. If enough violence is used against the government eventually the government is going to declare martial law. Once that happens civil war will break out. When civil war breaks out everyone loses.

And violence isn’t necessary. If you’re smart enough you can work around the barriers to change that the current political parties and corporations have put in place. You just have to “fight” smarter, not harder.

You can’t win a fight against the American military on American soil anyway. The Russian and Chinese military would have to team up to beat the American military, and even then the American Industrial War Complex wouldn’t go down easy. The right to bear arms for the purpose of protecting yourself against your own government is a joke. A hunting rifle isn’t going to stop a Black Hawk. The practical fact of the matter is, the only thing fighting the American government with violence is going to accomplish is getting you killed.

 

FIVE THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE AMERICA

 

1. Educating yourself

The first step to changing the world is always to change yourself. If you can’t see the solutions to the world’s problems then you need to educate yourself until you are smart enough. Don’t sit around waiting for someone to give you a solution. Educate yourself and figure it out on your own.

Don’t make excuses about how you weren’t born a genius. What if I wrote an essay saying you were too stupid to do anything? Would you just agree with me or would you get pissed off and change the world just to prove me wrong? If you’re not going to take discouragement from me then why would you take it from yourself?

Even without instigating a cataclysmic change in the world, simply educating yourself to the point where you can make responsible decisions in your daily life is half the battle. If every single person educated themselves enough to make responsible decisions in their daily lives, then oppressors and exploiters wouldn’t have any power over the public. If half the public actually did educate themselves to the point where they could understand the systemic problems inherent in the system, see solutions to the problems and be able to orchestrate plans to address those problems then the power of the people would be unstoppable. As it stands, everyone just wants to know who is going to win the next American Idol contest. Of course people who are that stupid are going to be exploited.

 

2. Educating others

Let’s say you educated yourself to the point where you’re making responsible decisions in your daily life and understand the problems inherent in the system. That’ll help you live a more free life in your own private domain, but you won’t be able to make a difference in the greater scheme of society without the help of others. But ignorant people won’t help you because there’s nothing ignorant people fear (and thus hate) more than change.

Your fellow slaves will beat you down for trying to help them. So the second thing you need to do to help bring about change is to help educate others, especially the poorest of the poor. They have the least to lose and the most to gain. That’s why the military targets them for recruitment. They have the potential to be your most motivated allies if you can just educate them. And unlike the military, you don’t have to lie to them and systematically brainwash them and isolate them in a cult. You have truth on your side. Just educate them and they’ll put two and two together and do what’s in their best interest… just like you’re doing.

 

3. Organizing with like-minded people

Look on the back of an American one dollar bill. You’ll see an eagle holding a claw full of arrows. The symbolism of that image comes from the wisdom of Native Americans who recognized that you can break an arrow easily, but it’s nearly impossible to break 12 arrows with your hands at once. This is the power of the people. There is strength in numbers.

If you want to create a force for change you need to organize with like-minded, educated people. The key word is “organize.” To use a more modern analogy, think of football. A team of disorganized football players is going to run around the field like chickens with their heads cut off. An organized team where there is a hierarchy of authority, a division of roles and most importantly, a plan, is going to be exponentially more successful than a blind mob… especially when playing against a professional team that has been practicing for hundreds of years and refining their organization techniques.

So get together with a group of smart people and come up with a plan, and make sure part of that plan is reaching out to other smart people.

 

4. Bribery

If you want to enact change in America, I’ve got great news for you. There is already a streamlined method for creating change that anyone can take part in without voting or running for office: legal bribery. All you have to do is make lavish campaign donations to everyone running for public office. Donate to both sides just in case. And regardless of who wins, use lobbyists to shower them with gifts and favors. Then they’ll do whatever you want them to and you didn’t even have to kill anyone to have your voice listened to.

I’m completely serious. The American government is always up for sale. If you want it, just buy it.

 

5. Acting/changing locally

You don’t have to change all the rules in America to live a better life. You certainly don’t need to tear down the entire government, and realistically, you’d most likely fail if you tried anyway. So don’t bother. Organize locally, run for office locally, vote locally, pass laws that favor the individual locally. Create a utopia in the local area. That’s realistic. That’s manageable.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

Barack Obama
The 2016 Presidential Election
Donald Trump
Voting
Corruption and Election Reform
American Laws
My Tweets About Politics

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Corruption and Election Reform

October 18, 2017

If You Want Everyone To Vote, Then Make Voting Work For Everyone

By wise sloth

Picture of an elephant and donkey standing on one side of a chasm holding balloons and popcorn. They're saying, "Come join us!! We've got candy, balloons an clowns!" On the other side of the chasm is a young woman saying, "That's part of the problem." Underneath is a caption that says, "COURTING THE YOUTH VOTE."

 

If everyone in the world woke up tomorrow with no memory or evidence of America’s electoral system, and we had to invent a new one from scratch, there’s zero possibility that anyone would, or even could, recreate what exists now. It’s so absurdly broken you couldn’t make it up.

The most powerful positions in the government are held by 100 members of the Senate, 435 members of the House of Representatives, the president, vice president and hundreds of appointed officials.  The elected seats are filled by hosting popularity contests between wealthy, professional campaigners who are matched against whichever other contestants live in the same geographical area as them. The presidency is a nationwide election, but everyone still votes with their state, and the winner of the state-wide election gets to vote on the national level. However, the state representatives don’t always have to vote the way the people do, and there are unelected superdelegates who can vote however they want.

It’s debatable whether or not Americans’ votes matter at all, but if you’re a twenty year old gay black atheist socialist living in a county full of white, Christian Baby Boomers, there’s no doubt that your vote doesn’t count. It’s a cold, mathematical fact. Even if we stopped voting by states and made every federal election nationwide, the generation with the most people will still have the mathematical advantage.

Right now the Baby Boomers have the mathematical advantage, and thanks to the horrible economy they created, they’re also the most likely to have enough free time to go vote at one of the convoluted voting stations the system provides. So it should come as no surprise that the average age of Congress is 62.

With age comes wisdom, but it also comes with senility and obsolescence. Strom Thurmond had no business taking up one of the highest seats of power in the world, and neither does anyone who has never sent an E-mail. Age also comes with a shift in priorities. You tend to stick with the old ways and prioritize short-term security over testing radical ideas and looking far into the future.  As a result, the youth are forced to perpetually live in an archaic system that doesn’t represent their values or goals.

I can’t help but feel like there’s a more effective way to stock elected seats than by culling them from 50 arbitrary, gerrymandered geographical areas, and holding a popular vote within them between contestants who are old and rich enough to devote their lives to being professional campaigners who work for one of two warring staffing agencies.

Any teenager could come up with ten better ways to staff the federal government. Here are a few that I would be satisfied with over the train wreck we have now. Assign a percentage of the votes and/or seats by age group, income bracket, IQ level, personality type or by the sector of the economy one works in. In addition, make all federal election national and online. Give voters the perpetual option to vote politicians out of office, and eliminate superdelegates and anything resembling them.

Any of these ideas would put my vote in a pool with more people who share my interests. No matter what flaws these options may have, they aren’t worse than what America has now.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

Barack Obama
The 2016 Presidential Election
Donald Trump
Voting
Corruption and Election Reform
American Laws
My Tweets About Politics

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in voting

October 18, 2017

Voting Never Has, And Never Will, Save America

By wise sloth

Every time I check the news these days I see a dozen articles about how bad the economy in America is getting. If it’s not that it’s about workers losing rights, poison in the food, overflowing jails, crime in the ghettos, the quality of education being undermined by politicians, corruption in the government, civil liberties being infringed on.

Whenever I read forums where people are discussing the things wrong with America, inevitably someone will squawk this golden bit of wisdom, “This is what happens when you don’t vote.”

Allow me to use a chart to illustrate the flaw in this logic.

 

Picture of a circle with the words inside it, "Years since WWII Americans have voted. Years since WWII America has gotten worse," with the caption, "This is a Venn Diagram.

In America, voting is considered sacred, but all of America’s problems have been caused by poor leadership, and most of our leaders have been elected. The few who weren’t elected were chosen by people who were elected. Our leaders have consistently failed us.

I think Albert Einstein put it best when he said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Insanity is also not being able to see the obvious, or seeing it and refusing to acknowledge it. The reality is that the right to vote doesn’t empower or protect the American people. The way voting in America works it blatantly disenfranchises them.

Here’s how voting works. Two or more people run for an office. The public doesn’t have much time to get to know the candidates. So the only information they’re given about the candidates are the things the candidates want them to know or what their opponent can dig up on them. Since the people can’t judge the candidates by their qualifications, they judge them on their charisma or familiarity. This means the person with the biggest public relations budget is most likely to win. This means the person with the most money is most likely to win. Most candidates don’t have enough money of their own to finance a campaign. So they get donations. The individuals or organizations who donate the most money expect favors in return.

Now, when a candidate is on the campaign trail they will tell the people whatever they want to hear to get their votes. So they’ll avoid making any concrete statements about their position because they know that will alienate someone. They’ll also make the most unrealistic promises because they know everyone wants to hear that, but once they’re in office they have absolutely no accountability to keep any of those promises or to lean in any direction.

Voters can send letters to their elected representatives, but those letters will be opened, read and responded to by a young intern. If you want to actually talk to a politician and give them a typed up policy for them to sign into law you have to lobby them. Lobbying is when you shower a politician with favors and gifts in return for their compliance. Note that you don’t have to vote for a candidate to lobby them. In some countries, this is known as bribery. And who has the time and money to lobby politicians? Wealthy individuals and organizations. How do they get wealthy? By making goods and services as cheaply as possible, paying the workers who produce them as little as possible and charging the customer as much as possible.

What do you think the wealthy ask politicians for? The right to make cheaper products, pay people less, work them more and charge them more. And that’s exactly what’s happened since WWII because that’s how voting is designed to work. It gives regular voters the illusion of control when in reality it empowers those with the most to gain from exploiting and subjugating the masses. All voting accomplishes is keeping that illusion alive.

 

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also like these:

 

Barack Obama
The 2016 Presidential Election
Donald Trump
Voting
Corruption and Election Reform
American Laws
My Tweets About Politics

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Corruption and Election Reform, voting