Just looking over some of today's news stories and a diary by Mad Floridian impressed me with a specific pattern. The role of non-human players in the most critical areas of American public life.
1) I'll start with this intriguing post from Mad Floridian - whose work I love. As reported by a teacher, comment voiced by education 'friends' suggestd they view human-to-human instruction of the young to be a thing of the past - so 20th century. Essentially, corporatized and privatized elites are primed to remove human sensibilities, community and public commons from 21st pedagogy. Techo-learning all day? Computerized? Teach to test and don't move off script? Converting flesh and blood humans to programmable drones honed to serf-like impotency by eliminating critical thinking and human relationships.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/55912) Then, I note the story of the US drones crashing in Pakistan,shot down by Pakistanis. It's not a new story, but the pattern intrigued me in context of other stories. As the story unfolded, we are reminded that the US is using non-human agents developed by corporations to locate, assess and kill human beings on the ground in a sovereign nation. The ground resistance in Waziristan is meting out blood and guts retribution to locals suspected of abetting the US - but the decider of who lives, who dies today is a programmed non human who will not face charges of war crimes.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/24/world/AP-AS-Pakistan.html?_r=13) Finally, the SCOTUS decision on corporate funding (buying) of what remains of public life. In context of the preceding stories, corporations have every reason to take complete and unchallenged control of human pedegogy and warfare, just aeven as they move to take over healthcare and labor relations.
Just thinking, are we the Pod People or are we ruled by Pod People?