[Vox]

My school has no computer labs, so if I want to do any work, I slide into any class that's in session and hope they have a free computer. Classes are almost always in session during the day.

So I joined one class and quietly minded my own business as the teacher lectured. It was about social media and its power to effect change, which was pretty neat. She cited a case last year between Greenpeace and Nestlé, in which Greenpeace hassled Nestlé about using palm oil from Indonesia (problem being that Indonesia is full of rainforest, which the farmers are depleting!). It ended up being a mess, but a victory from Greenpeace's POV, and the upshot is Nestlé agrees to use palm oil only from farmers who are not destroying the environment.

So that was cool - processed palm oil is unhealthy for you anyway, I believe buying local is better (can't we get oil from local sources? Does it have to come from thousands of miles away?), and I'm happy that Nestlé agreed to get responsible about holding the farmers it employs to being responsible themselves. Old-growth forest, yay.

However, that wasn't the message. The real message for the class was:

If you are a self-righteous little ass and can join with hundreds of like-minded others to cyberbully and pester someone, IT'S GOOD. That "someone" was a multibillion dollar international company, so that was EVEN BETTER. All that matters is that YOU believe you are right and that THEY disagree with you. And don't forget to glory in your superior knowledge of the internet, with which you can leverage and speak to power...there was all kinds of political jargon. -_-

I don't see Big Business as the enemy. I didn't get up in class to say that, as it wasn't my class, but, I just don't. Big Business provides jobs, innovates new products, and helps civilize the world, for example, those poor farmers in Indonesia can maybe get dental care and buy new tractors. Big Business can be greedy and pitiless, but also incredibly helpful, useful and a part of civilization that we can't afford to destroy.

Maybe it's TL: DR, but I hated that the teacher was including so much propaganda with her lecture. I believe she is doing it with the blessing of the school, as well. (Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Nestlé had shares in the school...lol. Or maybe Cadbury does, lol.) I hate that it wasn't a neutral lecture. It was so damn politically charged that even I felt pressured to go out and speak to power, and join up with my grassroot friends to overthrow people who actually make money and provide jobs. It was like religion, that class. Ugh!!




So...do your teachers ever make you feel like they're preaching a religion, rather than presenting a neutral picture so you can draw your own conclusions?