Society & Culture

The Dangerous Delusions of Self-Directed Education

by Kermit O
In our “free” society, schooling became a replacement for the development of material and social skills young people once learned in community, through apprenticeship, through experience with the natural world. In order to maintain schooling as an institution, these young people’s needs are provided for by parents, by the state, other external agents, and further ... Read More

From COVID to Climate Change: Herd Immunity vs. Institutional Distrust

by Kermit O
Whatever technologies, models, and organizational structures we develop, to orient ourselves toward social and economic justice, we must also make space for the unwilling and the unable to be independent, self-determined, and safe. This means insulating them against the violent death throes of our system of capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism, as we replace it ... Read More

One Educator’s Journey to Personal and Collective Liberation

by Kermit O
At the end of last year, I published an article in the journal Transcontinental Human Trajectories, my first “official” publication. It is mostly a personal narrative — and I do mean personal — but it also lays out much of my educational philosophy, and sketches my initial trajectory from a school teacher to more of ... Read More

Free Speech, Cancel Culture, and the Miseducation of Cousin Miles

by Kermit O
The constraining of ideas to the "median" seems to be rooted in white USAmerican norms of white upper/middle class "decorum", specifically the pressure to avoid conflict, or rather, to avoid any public appearance of conflict. Those who benefit from the status quo (and those who aspire to) — by virtue of social, economic, or political ... Read More

The Sacrifice of Ralph Northam on the Altar of Sanctimony

by Kermit O
This whole Virginia drama is revealing something important about the current Democratic establishment, something which has implications for both past and future, including the election of Donald Trump. That something is that Democrats are symbolic politicians, concerned more with the image of doing the right thing, than actually doing it. Where they effect policies that ... Read More

Thomas Chatterton Williams And The Scourge Of Individualism

by Kermit O
There has undoubtedly been one person, or ten, or even one thousand black people who have gone through their lives with little to no observable experience with racism, don't consciously feel its impact, and for that manage to gain some degree of success or wealth or high quality of life. Their experiences do not invalidate ... Read More

Learn, Predict, Steer: The God That Google Made

by Kermit O
I thought about the implications of this AI Overseer guiding thoughts, emotions, opinions, consumer habits, politics, public policy, among many other things, including the very modes of human interaction and our reasons for doing anything at all. It sounded like a "benevolent" dictator, but one with far more insight into and power over people on ... Read More

Bill Cosby and the Monstrous Charade of Cliff Huxtable

by Kermit O
The truth of the matter is that these revelations haven’t tarnished the image of Cliff Huxtable, and changed him into a monster. Rather, the image of Cliff Huxtable was built around an actual monster. A monster playing his best role yet, as a beloved family icon and upstanding public figure.

Black Mandarin: Critical Speculations on Language and Power

by Kermit O
A contemplation of the revolutionary potential of teaching black kids Mandarin. Beyond allowing black people to have more mobility within a new power structure, fluency in Mandarin would allow us to spread our own influence. Our revolutionary spirit writ large to resonate with people around the world…

Thomas Jefferson is the Founding Father of White Supremacy

by Kermit O
When you hear the name Thomas Jefferson, it is likely followed by "founding father", "hero", "patriot", and other such reverent terms. But he should also be considered one of the Founding Fathers of white supremacy. Nearly every white supremacist idea, claim, or rationale, can be found in Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia…