I do, however, feel that, from time to time, there may be some need for I, as the moderator, to actually moderate so as to make sure that, things flow smoothly within our community and now is one of those times.

I think that education may indeed be the ‘collective action' of this particular website-community,- that the education system in this country is not meeting the needs of the weak, while at the same time stifles the creativity of those who are strong with their will- (which is somewhat ironic because the creativity of the strong willed is essentially what our capitalist economy is fueled upon, so why is 'innovation' so strongly discouraged in school?)

You know, one of my teachers at one of the various Midwestern States Universities that I have attended over the years, started out his course by asking us to ‘go around the room’ answering the question of who we wanted to emulate during our work this academic period. We went ‘round the room and there were some pretty compelling answers-one girl wanted to be Barbara Walters, another liked Christiane Amanpour, some other people liked the esteemed Tom Brokaw, or was it Dan Rather?…they weren’t quite sure-but one of those two for sure. When it got around to me, I answered that “Yaknow I really haven’t put much thought into that one…” When really I actually had put as much thought into that situation as I felt it deserved. I normally answer that question by saying “I want to be the next Dan Beckmann when I grow up,” and that’s the gospel truth.

It may sound a bit cheezy, but I often consider John Lennon when I am in the ‘zone’ of doing my work. Not necessarily because some might say he was a dreamer, but more so because I get the impression that he underwent a great deal of labor throughout the creative process and it couldn’t be more easily reflected in my mind than through the shape of his music-I definitely get So Tired when I’m hammering and nailing away at what it is that I do. He really hammered out and struggled when he was creating that song Little Girl off Rubber Soul, but you know he actually stole most of the lyrics from one Elvis Presley who undoubtedly stole his interpretation from someone of great talent who maybe in this case, we may never know(And isn’t it righteuos when you hear Dear Prudence at your local same corner everywhere in the country Walgreen’s(R)?..when I hear that rock’n'rolly guitar part it makes me so rebelious want to destroy those ‘Compare and Save with Walgreen’s brand(R) displays’ because WalTussen(R) just doesn’t taste the same no matter how cheap it is!!). Regardless…although it may not seem like it takes up a significant amount of my time, the process of completing ‘my work’ is laborious and I am also very much concerned that I must always create whenever I am permitted and sometimes even when I am not.

If not at Midwestern States Universities then where are the leaders of the Mid West-if not the world, for that matter, supposed to come from. When I speak of the attendees of these premier mid-western institutions, I’m talking about those who are so uninfluenced by such established and partial structures, that they seek education in the blandest area in all the land, during some of their most vibrant years in life. A place where if you live in one of its city’s centers, you can bask in the convenience of limited access to the influences of ‘national chains’ or virtually any other business else for that matter. What better a place to come up with your own, original idea, that is free from idea pollution, then in hubbles of lets say…downtown Detroit on a brisk January Evening?

Don’t fool yourselves–I’m talking about those who accept East and West Coast States Universities, you were counted out long ago as innovators of the original idea-for the most part students at these places are far too entrenched in their all ready prescribed paths to the degree in which people can so obviously identify their influences from hundreds of miles away(Although of course, we are willing to seek, accept and support those from these places that are trying, against all odds to break their prescribed molds). What the hell actually is this Mid West anyway? (It’s really the East Central but because of those at the East Coast States Universities, it actually is Middle (out) west(of us) because ‘hey, anything west of New Jersey is the west, isn’t it? (The Mid West most certainly is never to be considered the Mid East!) So if not from the Midwestern States Universities, then where will our true innovators and leaders come from?

Maybe all the ‘note-taking’ creates leadership? How about those who master the phrases: Along those lines or maybe in the same vein? I have no idea about you, the reader, but I personally find that last one pretty grotesque…I always think of them carving into one of my veins and creating some sort of plastic link from my vein, with the blood spurting everywhere over to their end of the table in the half round room, with many different levels and all of the disease and sickness that is then free to enter my body while the entire operation is taking place.

There is a mob mentality in place and if you don’t get all of the notes down you may not make enough money to eat when all of the rest of the note-takers have better notes with more of somebody else’s ideas that they can memorize much better and say back exactly the same way much better on a test. You know that feeling of ‘mastering a test’-these days it basically can come down to saying it in the exact same way as in your notes which you hopefully got directly from the exact phrasology of a teacher. Ace-ing a test has nothing to do with ‘I came up with this idea on my own and I was finally given the opportunity to verbalize it and discuss it with someone of more experience then I so that I may better understand the original idea and how I might move on from it to develop my own understanding.’ The note-taking freenzy has created a posse’ of all of those who think a like and a system where even a different way of even phrasing the same idea can be penalized and this mentality exists all down the line of the academic food chain.

There are people who feel that they are doing damn well for themselves in this capitalist system and who actually enjoy all of the subtle manipulation that is inherent in all of this marketing, whether they are conscious of it or not. There are self-proclaimed liberals, who actually appear to make up the majority of the liberal category, who are admittedly in favor of change, but they also want to level with you, be your best friend, and tell you that if you learn their tips on how to take the shortest path to the goal that they have in mind for you, then you, in the end will indeed be much better off because after all there is some sort of order to things whether or not that order is not really going to change after all. The huge dilhema here is that some sort of order may indeed be wrong, and while it works for the time being, I may actually enjoy the pursuit of finding something else that might be much worse, or actually if I venture a correct guess, I may truly enjoy arriving at a better and stronger situation then my ‘liberal’ teachers/advisors. For instance, I could order the Orange Chicken at the Panda Express(R) for lunch since that is your suggestion since you found out where the Panda Express(R) is located and more importantly you undersatnd where the Panda Express(R) is located and how to use it. But, if I were to look around the block for myself, I may indeed find a nice bagel shop which might be more to my individual satisfaction and that place may also come equipped with a shorter line. If I venture out on my own, I may still actually find absolutely nothing else better then the Panda Express(R) and in doing so will lose half of my lunch break looking for ‘the path that leads to place other then Panda Express(R)’, but at least then I will be certain that I have my own knowledge of what is out there (and between you and me there is always a better place to eat the Panda Express(R) so never settle for that shit).

In order to be extremely general about the history of my life…I have always been offered the best advice in our country. Growing up in Suburban U.S.A. in the ‘especially Green Hills Local School System’ of the Mid West, I have essentially started at the finish line in terms of providing food for my self and for those in which I would love to reproduce my ideas and/or specimen with. At every step of the way, up until I even entered those ‘crazy fraternity days’, I have honestly taken all of the advice in while at the same time protecting my sense of choice-I mean this is America. At every step of the way, and I am now close to being finished with the official academic process, I have tried my best to make up my own mind and act accordingly whether with or against the group. I have always listened to everybody, and this is a very improtant point, because many construe my actions as not listening to them and although my hearing and attention span is not always the best, I have always considered what I am being told, even it I know that I have heard it somewhere else before—WHAT I HAVE OFTEN done, whether it be to stand in that line or go out and be an on-air reporter with no experience, is to consider for my own self what I would like to do and how I am going to get there-I am in fact, the supreme leader and innovator of myself.

With that said, “where are the leaders and innovators going to come from if not the Midwestern States Universities I ask again? Well why the hell not from this very website or from places much harder to find then even this. They have to come from these places because even if you are enrolled at one of those more liberal Midwestern State Universities they will never understand why it would be in the their best interest to train you to actually think for yourself when that is so dangerous-and of course the liablitlies.

Through the means of this space, we will no longer have to be a party to the ‘dumbing down’ of American so that they can more easily predict how the herds will react to their products in order to facilitate their jobs and a survival based on brainwashing the masses…because maybe we have a better time when we take their answers and come up with more questions!

So in order to ‘save the day’, WE must meet our responsibility to educate the people of what they cannot know through the conventional means of this bankrupt education system or the media/marketing machinery, because we know that we can actually see otherwise and we are guilty, as of now, if we don’t share our multiple visions with the world.

Through means of this newly-fangled institution:
People who can see will have a place to say
People who can’t see will have a place to look
People who say they can’t do anything about it will have no more excuses…

So go to the Midwestern States Universities, or other places that are much worse across this globe, heck, you can even work at Deloitte & Touche(R) for all I care, but as far as I, and the other moderator(s) are concerned, this website is sacred territory…sacred from all of those people stuck in their boxes, whether literal or figurative, that are trying to tape you up inside of one too. With tomarken, you can still actually live inside of the box quite well if you have to, and I may suggest you indeed do so, so long as you have an unregulated internet connection in that box and enough time to spare to further or restrict the development of your species.

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So in order to moderate what I have just presented, let me further clarify that the range of what will be considered a useful part of this scheme need not be gargantuan, nor on the topics of uphevil or discontent, it may indeed be a different proof for the status quo, or a waste of time argument proving that Baskin Robbins(R) never always has 31 flavors-it fluctuates damn it!-or it can be none of these but in order to ‘make the grade’ around here…it must educate! We even invite you to post lesson plans or what are generally called syllabusi, in order to futher facilitate this free flow of education. We will be introducing the syllabus database in the coming weeks…

And as always we welcome your comments. For now, please submit them through submit@tomarken.com, until we innovate a better way, and we will post ‘em so long as they’re ‘legitimate.’ Good luck everyone, welcome to the ground floor going up! DPB.