WADASAURUS
RSSIf you have two minutes and a tolerance for poor image quality, I love this video clip from Beavis and Butt-Head.
Due to a new school board edict, we will not be running-ball handling drills today, we will be building empathy!
This is what our public schools are doing to kids. Callously forcing them to un-stitch coordination from aggression, and commanding they instead recite sissy platitudes.
But that’s not what’s really great about this clip.
Do not copy my butt. Do not copy my butt. Do not copy my butt…copy my butt!
__
Negating a frame evokes the frame. Repeating it brands it deeper into the mind. And then the not melts away! So people think the opposite of what you say! Fun!
Dr. George Lakoff at UC Berkley is famous for explaining the ideas of framing and negation together, forging the phrase “Don’t think of an elephant” to succintly demonstrate the point. He has this to say about what’s replacing ball-handling in our basketball gyms:
In the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama accurately described the basis of American democracy: Empathy — citizens caring for each other, both social and personal responsibility…
And freedom is auxiliary. So Coach Buzzcut, his gym class afflicted by Lakoff’s edict-activated version of empathy, sees his clear command to Beavis backfire because the negation faded away as the frame embedded itself.
It’s like Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge is poking fun at Dr. Lakoff.
Previously negated, looks like they might end up doing ball-handling drills after all.
Since Beavis broke the copy machine, Coach Buzzcut’s mandated curriculum might not have circulated.
That would be cool. Heh heh.
About WADASAURUS
