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London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

the-libertarian.co.uk

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Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#51

Post by harrytuttle »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #33
cinquemb wrote: post #24

Earlier 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…

Just rent kit. I needed a high end LeCroy DSO a while back. These fuckers are £18000. Leased one for a month for £700.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#52

Post by sillysaurus2 »

hga wrote: post #36
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yeah, worrying about being thought of as a crazy person is precisely what's prevented me from trying to contact any professors, because I'd imagine they have to deal with that sort of thing pretty often: outsiders bothering them with unscientific pet theories. That's why it's frustrating not having credentials.

Attending seminars is a good idea. Thank you. I wonder if I should call up universities and ask for info regarding any computer graphics related seminars / events. It seems like those would be very uncommon, but it's probably my only chance.

I have no contacts because I was mercilessly harassed throughout highschool and leaped at the opportunity to drop out and write software for a living. So I have no idea how to network. Showing up and saying, "Hey, would you be interested in chatting about computer graphics theory?" seems like it'd earn me strange looks.

I just moved to Chicago, so I was hoping University of Chicago has some sort of computer graphics program, and that I can figure out some way of becoming involved with it.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#53

Post by [deleted] »

Sagat wrote: post #37

I'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/20…

[deleted]

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#54

Post by Ensorceled »

Sagat wrote: post #37

I'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/20…

Yes, lots of high school students are insufferably pompous and selfish. They are just growing from children into young adults.

A high school head teacher should be able to handle this.

Also, as an adult, you should also be able to handle this without becoming annoyed and judgemental.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#55

Post by 14113 »

scarmig wrote: post #8
auctiontheory wrote: post #2

I somehow doubt that sabotaging the kid's education would reduce his anarchism and individualism.

Is kicking someone out of a building that bears more than a passing resemblance to a prison really sabotaging their education?

Well yes, as it's unlikely that another school would let him in (post 16 education is no longer compulsory), and as he says, if he'd been kicked out a year earlier it would have essentially forced him to forfeit his a-levels and thus either delay, or preclude him going to university.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#56

Post by dnautics »

calibraxis wrote: post #32
solistice wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

it's not pedantic in the context of the original article, where the headmaster was clearly too daft to know the difference.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#57

Post by brymaster »

harrytuttle wrote: post #50
noonespecial wrote: post #22

You almost feel sorry for the teacher in this case. Sure, he's about to get the just desserts of a repugnant action like this, but its kind of like a dog digging up a nest full of yellow jackets. He "deserves" the stings but he's not going to understand why he is suddenly being stung. It boggles our tech-savvy minds that someone could be this out of touch and still have a position of any authority whatsoever, but the…

Being out of touch disqualifies you from any job pretty quickly. Always be on the ball, not with your head up your arse like this elitist buffoon.

The Peter Principle and Dunning–Kruger effect would disagree.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#58

Post by harrytuttle »

brymaster wrote: post #57
harrytuttle wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being out of touch disqualifies you from any job pretty quickly. Always be on the ball, not with your head up your arse like this elitist buffoon.

The Peter Principle and Dunning–Kruger effect would disagree.

Not really. Modern communication and media makes it easier to single out an individual from the flock and take them down.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#59

Post by Sagat »

[deleted] wrote: post #53
Sagat wrote: post #37

I'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/20…

[deleted]

What I mean by loaded is that they have a ton of different meanings and interpretations, many of whom are illegitimate. Isms of any kind are frequently misused to label people or things. "Anarchism" and "individualism" are just examples. "Fascism" is probably the most common: even Orwell noticed that it was used by everyone to mean anything. [1] In this case the kid thought that making blog posts with swear words that criticize his school constitutes "anarchism" and "individualism". It's like those ads that try to associate their crummy product with freedom or love: meaningless and artificial.

[1] http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/ef...

Edit: looks like they deleted their comment. Nevermind.

Re: London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

#60

Post by honzzz »

petercooper wrote: post #23
DickingAround wrote: post #10

What did the police say? Did the teacher believe that the UK has thought-crime laws about uncommon political beliefs? Do they?

Not so much laws but there's certainly a lot more stigma to holding unpopular opinions (or even freely expressing 'distasteful' but popular opinions, cf. responses to many UKIP supporters) in the UK compared to the USA - nowhere on the scale as in Russia or Eastern Europe though.

Eastern Europe? Could you please elaborate or provide some example to illustrate what exactly you mean? I am from Eastern Europe (Czech Rep.) and I used to live in UK. Generally I would say that current Eastern Europe is way more open/tolerant/apathetic to 'unpopular opinions' than UK.
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