Spirit and Sludge

Education (more commonly “schooling”) is like distillation: you chuck a “mash” of society in a pot (called school) apply energy (called teaching) and out the top comes “spirit” with loads of qualifications. But out the bottom comes Sludge! (Should this seem harsh, let me say I gravitated inexorably during much of my schooling.)

Spirit-folk run everything acceptable to society, from Parliament to prisons, and rarely have an inkling of what it is to be sludge.

Spirit-folk have lots of money and goods which sludge-folk steal and damage; bringing a measure of sludge-misery to the spirited.

Sludge contains rare elements and gems, but the Spirit-folk stand so tall, they seldom notice.

Typically, sludge-folk run nothing, not even their own lives. They survive through crime and welfare – a burden to all the spirited ones – who seem, paradoxically, too stupid to realise this. Perhaps it is to do with emotional intelligence.

Until we see the factors of spirit and sludge as two inevitable products of school – as currently structured – all the down-stream tinkering, by spirited activists, to control or uplift the sludge-folk, will be never-ending.

If we must continue with institutional schooling, to service Mammon (an un-asked question in its own right) then I suggest that those who are suited to the school ethos should be “given the tools” and left to finish the job. The bulk of the education budget, and effort, could then be put to understanding and uplifting the proto-sludge-folk. Far better, would be a total re-think of the whole learning ethos. Currently we exacerbate the “baptism of fire” that is modern birth and early nurture, with a “confirmation” in institutional schooling. From such beginnings, come many of the ills of society being ineffectually toyed with by “spirited”, but blinkered, parliamentarians today.