The Hampton Trash (blog)
http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/
London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
31–40 of 182 posts
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#32You can't just have individualists roaming freely around doing whatever the heck they like. Where would it end?
Hmmmm...no ruling elites?
If individualists are incapable of building functioning nonhierarchical organizations, they'll be at the mercy of those good at violence, and ruled.
This is why much of the anarchist tradition is about collective action, to support individual freedoms. They frequently reject the collective vs. individual dichotomy as absurd. (Hopefully this isn't pedantic or nitpicky, just this tends to be a common misconception.)
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
... Yes. As a self-taught programmer, I believe university is important. It gives quite a lot of advantages (mostly social ones, which are the most important). And undergrad universities select primarily based on school performance, so kicking him out definitely would've sabotaged his higher education. To piggyback on this comment in hopes of finding some assistance: I've been trying to figure out some long-term stra…
As someone who dropped out from Brown (and transferred credits from State universities I attended while in HS) and been engaging with newer educational things like project breaker[0], there are plenty of social advantages out there with "non-traditional" organizations that give more freedom and open just as many doors… Though yes, if you are trying do research, uni might be good, but there's plenty of university poli…
Well, I've been doing my best to research on my own, but at this point I need access to a high quality spectrophotometer in order to perform measurements of various materials' absorption spectrums under various lighting conditions. They can run ~$5k, so uni seems like my best bet. I figured I couldn't really just show up and ask to borrow their spectrophotometer... they'd probably want me to have a degree or some kind of credentials before trusting me at all.
Project Breaker looks quite interesting. Thanks for letting me know!
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#34This sort of thing is alive and well in US schools, too. The official policy of the Seattle Public School system is to stamp out racism in all its forms, and notice how many forms there are. (Note in particular the Cultural Racism section that includes, "emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology" as a form of racism that, by official policy, is to be stamped out by the government education system):
http://web.archive.org/web/20060522101405/http://www.seattle...
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
The headteacher appears to think he can keep this guy from getting a college education, and he might well be right. True, there's no single gatekeeper, but there are a zillion little ones, and too large a fraction of them will stop someone without a degree, or one without a higher tier one ... and probably more in the Great Recession when there are so many credentialed unemployed.
If this guy wants to be a politician, which he seems to do, then passing thru hostile gatekeepers is his job description. Anyway, even if he would not it's not as easy either. Imagine someone cold-calling univercities telling he's a headteached (whatever this means) and persuading not accept the student N. He'll be seen as a lunatic, wouldn't he?
That's the thing we don't know. His attitudes aren't necessarily "lunatic" based on post-WWII U.K. history, and we don't know how much this sort of thing is still an "old boys club" in which he got a hearing from people who weren't entirely cold called.
Conflict with a teacher cost Richard Gabriel of "Worse is Better" fame entrance to Harvard or MIT and a lot of subsiquent grief: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Gabriel
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who dropped out from Brown (and transferred credits from State universities I attended while in HS) and been engaging with newer educational things like project breaker[0], there are plenty of social advantages out there with "non-traditional" organizations that give more freedom and open just as many doors… Though yes, if you are trying do research, uni might be good, but there's plenty of university poli…
Well, I've been doing my best to research on my own, but at this point I need access to a high quality spectrophotometer in order to perform measurements of various materials' absorption spectrums under various lighting conditions. They can run ~$5k, so uni seems like my best bet. I figured I couldn't really just show up and ask to borrow their spectrophotometer... they'd probably want me to have a degree or some kin…
No, no. Show up knowing what you're about, vs. someone with theories "no one else understands" (from watching this once, I wouldn't be surprised if MIT professors get a bit of training in how to handle the crazies), you've got a hypothesis that's interesting and you need to do specific tests, and, oh, yeah, you'll be happy to let them share credit. You might be surprised at how far you can get.
Do some networking. If you don't have any contacts, start showing up for seminars at a target university. Listen, start contributing a bit to the community, then ease into "By the way, I have a [fill in the blank] I'd like to test...."
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#37I'm disgusted by the head teacher's nosy behavior. I also think the student is an insufferable person according to his blog posts [1]. He's one of those people who try to use loaded words like "anarchism" and "individualism" to justify annoying or selfish behavior. Kind of like Galt-wannabe libertarians who hide being the word "liberty" to give credence to social darwinism.
[1] http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/sludge-obituary...
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#38This "headteacher" should be arrested and prosecuted.
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who dropped out from Brown (and transferred credits from State universities I attended while in HS) and been engaging with newer educational things like project breaker[0], there are plenty of social advantages out there with "non-traditional" organizations that give more freedom and open just as many doors… Though yes, if you are trying do research, uni might be good, but there's plenty of university poli…
Well, I've been doing my best to research on my own, but at this point I need access to a high quality spectrophotometer in order to perform measurements of various materials' absorption spectrums under various lighting conditions. They can run ~$5k, so uni seems like my best bet. I figured I couldn't really just show up and ask to borrow their spectrophotometer... they'd probably want me to have a degree or some kin…
Totally understand. But have you looked into public labs? I know there are DIY biotech hacker labs[0] so maybe something is out there near you.
Also, do you have any friends in uni who may have access to a spectrophotometer? I've asked friends to get me uni papers and run experiments if they had the time (though I have also helped them out with matlab code for simulations and such)…
Also, these places aren't really the most secure places in the world. If you got swiped in with a friend, carried a backpack, picked up some lab gear by the door, and conducted a quick experiment, I'm sure you can get by.
[0]http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/genspace-diy-scien...
Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”
#40[deleted]