Happiness cycle, volume 2: "Thinking today of what I want to say/ Thinking of inhibition and vice"

(gînduri pe stradă)

Concurenţa cea mai cinstită, benefică este cu tine însuţi. e bine a vrea să te autodepăşeşti...

Competiţia e bună, dar nu în viaţă. Concurenţa nu este în sine un lucru rău dar modul cum este reflectată în societate este; societatea azi este o competiţie pentru mai mult şi mai bine, un mediu care invită la invidie.

Ne holbăm după Maybach-urile altora, ne benoclăm la "staruri" şi visăm să ne aflăm în locul lor. Observăm un televizor nou la vecinu şi... imediat dorim şi noi unul. Privim salariul colegului şi vrem şi noi la fel de mult, sau... mai bine - mai mult! Competiţia aduce doar senzaţia că există "pierzători". Iar în goana pentru a evita acest statut omul se pierde pe sine.

...Pentru ce? În viaţă lupta cu tine pentru a deveni un om mai bun sau a avea un trai decent e în regulă, dar privind, trăind şi visînd la averile sau la inteligenţa altora "concurăm" cu întreaga lume. Invidie şi nefericire îmi par consecinţele cele mai directe.

În "viaţă" există mai mult de un cîştigător. De fapt cîştigător este doar cel fericit... Iar cît timp eşti într-o goană continuă nu ai timp a fi "fericit".

 "Tell me, what do you need to make you happy? Indeed, 
         is it out of your reach?
Beware of "number one", see all the damage it has done, 
        there are so few of them
You won't find too many in the land of competition
Southern California doesn't breed them
If you just want the best, turn to yourself for the rest
And forget about the ones who "have it all" " (Bad Religion)

 Îmi aduc aminte şi de un interviu al lui David Barsamian cu Noam Chomsky, care atinge subiectul:

John Dewey, one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, had a strong influence on you in your formative years. Your parents sent you to a Deweyite school in Philadelphia.

My father ran the Hebrew school system in Philadelphia, where I lived, and it was run on Deweyite lines, which meant trying to focus on individual creativity, joint activities, stimulating projects. I taught there, as well. In the school I attended, we covered all the regular subjects, but with an emphasis on the child's concerns and commitments and creative engagement. There was no competition among students. I didn't even know that I was a so-called good student until I left the school to attend high school. In high school, everybody was ranked, so you found out where you were. It was just never an issue before.

In Propaganda and the Public Mind, you said that "my intellectual achievement was retarded when I went to high school. I sort of sank into a black hole."

That's pretty accurate. Getting into high school was a bit of a shock. I went to an academic high school, very rigorous and disciplined. I disliked almost every aspect of it, aside from my friends. But I remember very little of it, whereas I remember elementary school and up to high school very vividly. I couldn't wait to get out.

So, including your early years, you've been a teacher for more than six decades. You've had thousands of students. What qualities do you look for in a student?

Independence of mind, enthusiasm, dedication to the field, and willingness to challenge and question and to explore new directions. There are plenty of people like that, but school tends to discourage those characteristics.