The Master's Tools

In Our Master's House

Morning Comrades.

Before we start a quick logistical fact: I am taking two weeks off for vacation starting Sunday and that means you get a break from me for that time.

With that, a dispatch about learning, teaching, pedagogy and what it means to know and learn, for what class and in whose house. Initially, my thoughts around this today came a few days ago after I had watched parts of that clown show that they called the presidential debate in the US and thought to myself, how did we get there? Intellectually, linguistically, materially, all of it? How did we get to a point where the two contenders to rule the most violent of all nations of earth can stand on a stage and put together words that mean, nothing. It reminded me of the film Idiocracy and sure, as funny as those comparisons are it is undeniable that language, the part of the social fabric that ties together so much is no longer meaningful in the realms of power. We all know the comparisons to 1984 but it is different, only because their fabrication of reality is based on stupidity rather than cleverness. All of that made me think of Audrey Lorde’s quote:

“For the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master’s house as their only source of support.”

With that, let’s dive into it all.