someone's trying to mock 'the Family Circus'

Punch and Jude has a post linking to a Family Circus-Nietzsche merging.

Sort of mandatory that I mention this, since I have given similar links.

*I have not thought about Western philosophy in decades. But years ago I decided I hated Nietzsche. I decided he knew -as a former Army man- what was happening in the Congo (what was called 'the Belgian Congo') and looked the other way.

A lot more could be said, but this is not a political blog. Let's just say a whole lot of eggheads today couldn't figure out that real-life coward to save their lives.

*I just found the quotes, written in that crappily elusive style. There's Beyond Good and Evil #257 and The Will To Power #120.

Read between those lines, if you can.

authoritarian children in liberal surroundings

Again I'm amazed at the media. A man born (and apparently secondary-schooled) in South Korea goes on a killing rampage in the USA. It happened yesterday and is a big story around the world. Today many people are trying to understand it.

Yet Google News search for corporal punishment South Korea produces no relevant results. If you pontificate for a living shouldn't you know that in South Korea CP is still used heavily, maybe the most in the industrial world?


[In contrast, Taiwan has just banned CP in schools; it is illegal in China; even Texas may soon ban it!]

As soon as they can, the media should find out: Did Cho Seung-Hui go to school in South Korea? And if he did, was he whipped or beaten there?

background
A semi-conclusive study has shown a correlation between high rates of corporal punishment in public schools and social pathologies.

If CP as a child is a partial explanation for the VT shootings then Cho was unconsciously ambivalent. Envying and hating. Forgiving and not forgiving.
eg: maybe the night before he walked through a dorm and saw his fellow students looking at porno.

it's like oil and water
If children are raised in an authoritarian background (included beatings), and then -as young people- are exposed to a liberal one (including pornography) the result is a potent brew. This combined context is tragically common.

Note that standard issue ideology cannot handle this topic. When violence occurs in similar situations, those wishing to defend authoritarianism can blame the porno; while those wishing to defend liberalism can blame the authoritarian background.

added:
Apparently it's not just beatings, but also egregious humiliation may still a integral part of the South Korean educational system.

modified 2007-06-24