Malik Greatly Disapproves. Again.

[loyalrebel]

[It's been a while since Malik's spoken up on the network but this is something drastic to him and it needs addressing.]

It has been recently brought to my attention that the education system of modern times is sorely lacking in a number of regards.

I was told that beyond the basics of reading and mathematics anything else was not important and was not even taught, and this desperately needs to be rectified.

We may be learning magic and other such things from our overlays, but there are areas that are horrifically left by the wayside in this arms race we have entered in to.

I may not know much about history as it is from most of your perspectives but there has to be educators among us or at least those who will be willing to step up and help the children among us not return home uneducated louts who respond to the idea of mathematics or reading with "why should I care?" or "it is too difficult".

[He's not sorry Phillip. This is probably your fault kid.]

Comments

[aimedhigh]

Probably. The Marquis de Lafayette? He served in the war with me.

[dawnoftruth]

Ah...Indeed.

[The tone shifts a little here, to something slightly awkward.] He negotiated the establishment of a constitutional monarchy for us two years ago. I think no one was very pleased with that.

[aimedhigh]

[In contrast, Alexander's tone sharpens a little.]

After a revolt, I take it? Considering the first revolution went so well, I can see why he advocated for such a thing.

[dawnoftruth]

After a revolution. There is a difference between the two at least in terms of popular support. A revolt can BECOME a revolution, obviously, but...

[But some do not, obviously. As far as the actual statement goes, Enjolras does snort.]

And a difference between revolution and republic. I would point out that the first revolution did what it set out to do. The republic...it may have carried things too far after a point. Sad, what a people feel they must resort to when they have long been pushed. I fear it was the wave of terror that inspired a lack of discrimination when it came to invoking reprisals against those who had harmed the republic, or were perceived to have.

It made us unsteady, of course, the greatest nation in the world, but to stand on such a foundation as could so easily be crumpled when we turned amongst ourselves...There is an inevitability in that, I think.

But when a Revolution, comprised of those including la Garde nationale arises...certainly that speaks to the idea that more than angry students and workers are ready.

Would you suggest that we cannot learn from the past? That we are not capable of achieving greatness as we learn from the failure as well as the success of those who've come before? How limited do you propose that any people is, that advancement may not come?

[aimedhigh]

'Too far'. Was it too far when they started imprisonin' innocent folks, or when they cut off the heads of the damn guys who started the thing in the first place? Kinda hard to get anywhere when most of the people with the good ideas are dead, ain't it.

I'm not sayin' you can't learn from the past, I'm just sayin' maybe you should consider taking the advice of a guy who's been in a couple revolutions. He might have a few tricks up his sleeve. We can't all go runnin' headlong into a republic. I mean, it's a fuckin' miracle that ours even got off the ground.

[dawnoftruth]

Those are the problems I refer to, yes. Particularly the latter. I used to long for the experience of having seen those days, when I was young and stupid, but when I came to know the men who would become my brothers...that latter part became a nightmare, and the former unthinkable. To create something that lasts, a revolution does need more. Not only commitment to the cause, but commitment to those principles that caused it to began.

If not... the snake feeds on its own tail and hardly stops to realize it has done so, doesn't it? Not a strong basis for anything to last, though I am at least relieved that I was clearly meant for revolution and that when my task was ended, to be called to...

[To be called to what? Enjolras supposes, thinking about it that death doesn't apply here, really, does it? Not the death he'd considered, anyway.]

Well, to be called to what lies beyond, I do suppose, be it this, or something else. I will admit I have no mind for government, and perhaps my estimations were, still are, too rash. Experience makes a decent teacher, but there are times the decision to strike out, even against those voices can be right, can be principled, as we attempted to conduct ourselves.

Although...[He has to snort, his tone a little rueful now] The revolt that sent me to another world, two years later, that we had every reason to suspect would be the one after the Revolution Monsueir le marquis halted against much of the collective will...

Several people did warn us against that one,and less we had expected turned out to man the city's barricades. Perhaps there was something more that they knew after all, at least as our approaches were concerned.

[aimedhigh]

Well, there ain't we can do a lot about government in this place, unless we try an' start a council of some kind, but I'm not sure how it'd work yet.

Maybe. Or maybe you shoulda tried compromisin', but that sounds like it was after my time, so I shouldn't be talkin' about it. [A beat.] It does work, though. Sometimes.