Technolandy

Day 9 (of 2025/26) 2 things in the news: the move to utopia? Consequences to free speech…

https://news.gallup.com/poll/694835/image-capitalism-slips.aspx

Star Trek and The Orville are tv shows that show a common growth in human civilization: the move away from capitalism (well, except for relations with the Ferengi…) 

So when this recent article said that people are getting tired of the capitalist system – which has had a good run, but definitely making the concept of a ‘middle class’ even more of a sleight of hand scam than in its original incarnation…  with the complex part being a lot of capitalist systems like to demonize socialism/communism as ‘evil’ – even though… like many ideas… they may have been ahead of their time… there is a ‘joke’ about the isms:

But when anything you need (or even want) is a replicator (enhanced 3D printer) away… then the focus of ‘work’ becomes linked to joy and enjoying the calling and the draw for needing $$$ goes away. Housing can be flexible… food plentiful… and ‘wealth’ comes from what you contribute to society – from designing a new tool to being the person who helps create it… 

yes, it’s different – but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing… I can foresee a bit of dystopia in the way as we get there… cities ‘sponsored’ by key corporations being very transparent that it will not be like the industrial revolutions “Company Store” which essentially created another methodology of slavery <— ooh, and we have to be very mindful that ‘work’ is based on passions, not production quotes… again, tricky to wrap our minds that are indoctrinated to think that capitalism is the apex of human civilization. 

I’m in to seeing this happen…! But utopias and dystopias can be very much alike…

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Reactions to Charlie Kirk have been broad – including some teachers (amongst others) losing their jobs because of how they shared publicly: https://thehill.com/homenews/5499708-why-are-yall-sad-teachers-firefighters-officials-on-leave-or-fired-over-charlie-kirk-posts/

Natural reminder that in most jurisdictions, ‘teachers a re held to a higher level of expectations’ than most of society… admittedly, I am more than happy to do inclusion posts such as this one from this past week where I ‘saw something, so said something’… 

I had started this blog connecting to the ‘higher level of expectations’… aka the back pages of the teacher magazine

https://vancouversun.com/news/bc-teacher-loses-certificate-sexual-assault

This summer had a couple of good reminders about what can lead to educators getting into trouble – one pretty straightforward… teacher charged with sexual assault, and not able to reapply for their teaching license for a decade… criminal matters are always serious as they reflect on the ‘professional judgement’…

The second in this article was an expansion of a bad joke that may or may not have been meant to be heard by students…. Which is the usual HR reminder I always share with staffs about work environments…. Mr Landy may tell Mrs Landy a very funny (in their opinion) joke… but if M Landy overhears it and finds it offensive…. Mr Landy has created an unsafe work environment… with intent always being key, it reminds me of the great question BCPVPA support teams will ask: what were you thinking?!? In part the mocking ‘that the hell were you thinking when you said/did what you did… but more intentionally, what was going on in your mind when what happened … happened… I don’t believe any educators wake up looking for an opportunity to make the learning environment a negative one for anyone… but we’re only human and some senses of humour are different than others (I am much more okay with dark humour and even when I get targets by insults, I am usually more disappointed by the lack of originality than any comments about my lack of hair or size of my belt… I am a fan of sarcasm and satire, but my target is almost always myself (or other adults – authors and media figures) never kids as it is such a delicate form of dialogue and can easily go awry…. We have to be mindful of audience… as I have said for a long while… intention is nothing, interpretation is everything…

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Bonus one to think about – how important dollars are to deciding what can, rather than will…, work for students. Class size limits and class complexities are going to be in the news as Alberta and BC work out new education contracts… https://apple.news/AS2ezeW32SNa7DXWmEPgeoQ or https://globalnews.ca/news/11417065/calgary-parents-frustrated-cbe-school-leased-private-company/amp/ leasing spaces vs trying something different in spaces. $ matters.