[ SECRET POST #1554 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1554 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[Knut The Polar Bear]


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03.
[Invader Zim]


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04.
[Can't Hardly Wait]


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05.
[Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey series]


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06.
[Robert Knepper/Prison Break]


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07.
[The Prophecy, Christopher Walken]


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08.
[Skins]


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09.
[In a Fix, on TLC]


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10.
[UK TV/Radio]


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11.
[Homestuck and Puella Magi Madoka Magica]


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12.
[Shameless US]


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13.
[Young Justice]


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14.
[Rose of Versailles]


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15.
[Dr. Horrible]


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16.
[Tangled]


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17.
[Homestuck]


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18.
[Severus Snape/Lolita KompleX]


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19.
[Alien loves Predator]


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20.
[TFL]


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21.
[Regular Show]


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22.
[Summer Wars]


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23.
[Glee]


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24.
[Ace Attorney]


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25.
[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]


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26.
[Fringe]


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27.
[k-pop]


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28.
[Stargate SG1, Legend of the Seeker, Rizzoli & Isles]


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29.
[Sailor Moon]


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30.
[The Spoony Experiment]


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31.
[MSLN]


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32.
[Todd In The Shadows/Infomania]


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33.
[Roman Polanski and Woody Allen]



Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 120 secrets from Secret Submission Post #222.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 4 5 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - not English ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not trolling and I'm not a dumbass. I went to private school with a focus on economics.

I'm also 20 years old, and studying economics and computer science.

[(Anonymous)]

Private school with a focus on economics

Well, there's your problem. The actual field of economics and business does not give a flying fuck about anything but the bottom line. People? Eh, who cares. They're supposed to be rational actors!

[dorknessrising.livejournal.com]

Ah, private school. Forgot that one. Because I was seriously baffled at you thinking "wealth means everything" was the only way anyone was ever raised. But I guess when you're raised by and surrounded by people just like your dad all your life, it makes sense. I actually pity more than hate you, 'cause that's kinda sad.

[(Anonymous)]

You know, I always thought people who weren't brought up the way I was were either religious fundamentalists, or just very naive. Everyone I knew growing up was taught the same things by their parents, and school reinforced it. In eighth grade we did a project on how you can devise a business plan involving your entire company with most of the profits going back to you. In tenth grade we spent an entire month doing a project on outsourcing, like when it was more cost effective to keep the work domestically and when to sent it offshore.

And I have to say, this is really a huge shock for me, because in my fields of study, we've basically picked up from where my high school left off- everyone in my department was brought up the same way as well. I guess I took it for granted that everyone understood things the same way I do. I already knew there were people who didn't have the same education- the Internet is a big place, but I wasn't really aware of how few people actually had the same upbringing.

Out of curiosity, did your parents/guardians/school/whoever teach you anything about economics? You don't have to answer me if you don't want to, though. I was just wondering.

[dorknessrising.livejournal.com]

Yes. It was public school, and we had basic-to-intermediate economics as a requirement. But it was not the curriculum's main focus by any means, and civics and social studies classes, it was stressed that money is needed for vital things like food, housing, and utilities. But it should never, ever be more important than people.

And from my parents (who are not very religious at all), it was taught early that if you have certain principles that you feel strongly about (like, oh, not enabling a child rapist to reap shitloads of cash from a movie by helping him make it), you should never compromise them for any sum. Because you can't put a price on a clear conscience.

It's kind of sad and horrifying to think you're been that sheltered that you thought only a religious fundie or a starry-eyed idealist could ever think differently from you. Especially when private school tuition on average costs half the yearly income of your average worker. Did you really think everyone could afford to go to that kind of school?

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly? I knew that not everyone could go to the same school I did, but they did have scholarships. It just never occurred to me that other people's parents would have raised them differently- they didn't go to my school, but I just never would have thought that even if they didn't get the same education that their parents wouldn't teach them the same things. I learned the same things at school that I did at home, and I realized on some level that public schools didn't focus on economics, but I thought even if they didn't get it at school, they would get it at home.

I mean, I knew that tuition wasn't cheap. But I also was hearing every day that if I put into practice what I learned, I'd be able to drop huge amounts of cash on whatever I wanted without worrying about running out of money.

It's the same now- the professors are basically repeating everything I've learned my whole life. It just never occurred to me to question any of this. On some level, I knew that I probably wouldn't end up CEO of Microsoft, but my entire life I've been trained to reach a management-level position- it's expected of me. Hell, one of my earliest memories is my dad taking me to the NYSE and telling me that someday I'd be there.

I'm sorry, this comment is really long and rambly. I hope it makes some sense.

[(Anonymous)]

I think you need to start questioning it. Economics likes to assume that people are rational actors and that certain things are constants when they're not. It likes to assume that what matters is the bottom line, not the people who might lose their jobs because a manager decided it was more profitable to outsource so they could pay some poor guy two dollars a day for his labor in a country with horrid labor laws. Or the people who get affected because they're a mining town and they lost thirty odd people because the company decided it'd be more profitable to cut a few corners on safety, because hey, no one will notice and nothing will happen anyway.

And look at the labor conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries. Look at what workers fought for. Economics likes to pretend its all fine as long as the people who "matter", the people at the top, are making more money and amassing more wealth.

And they forget about the rest of us who have to make do with a living wage and scrape and save and get by and go to increasingly worse public schools because hey, don't you know the private sector can do it better? And oh look, that school isn't doing well, so we might as well cut more funding from education.

Not everyone has had the privilege of a private education. Not everyone has the privilege of a college education. Or being told that one day, you'll be one of those people on Wall Street who gets to dick over the little guy.

And yes, I'm bitter. I'm horribly bitter, because everyday in this country, the poor get poorer, the rich get richer and slowly but surely, the middle-class is sliding away. Top one per cent of the nation? owns 33 per cent of the nations wealth. Top ten per cent? 70% of the nation's wealth. And it keeps getting worse for us on the bottom.

[(Anonymous)]

I did learn about the labor conflicts- it was explained as being the major reason that manufacturing jobs started leaving the US, by making it so that we couldn't be competitive in the global workforce.

We were taught that as long as the corporations were strong, everything would be better for everyone. The more money the economy brings in, the more money that everyone will have in the long term.

I am sorry that you are struggling, though. My dad has always paid for everything, with the expectation that I pay him back with interest when I get a corporate job. It's been expected of me since I was very small that I would be in a high-level position in a corporation. I mentioned going to the NYSE when I was about three years old, and being told someday I'd be there. I can't remember a time when I wasn't preparing for this future. But I don't really understand your position, and I'm sorry for that. I really do hope that things get better for you.

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

That's only indirectly true. Manufacturing jobs moved because, holy shit, workers in the United States wanted decent pay and safe working conditions. But why go to all that expense when you can move the manufacturing to some third world shithole and pay your workers a dollar a day? If paying your workers a decent living wages is seen as a negative, then I very much question your education. People matter. More so than the money you can potentially drag in.

Those labor conflicts (starting in the late 19th century and into the mid-20th) came about because of the horrible pay, working conditions, and outright bastardry perpetrated by business moguls. The Pullman strikes, for instance, because Pullman made all his workers live in apartments he owned and buy food and other necessities from company stores. And paid them only in company scrip. Workers are people too. They deserve every chance at happiness, wealth, and success that the bastards at the top do. Even if they won't ever be fabulously wealthy, paying them a decent living wage, giving them safe working conditions and helping them when they retire or need medical assistance is the best way to ensure you have a healthy, happy, and productive workforce. Even if it cuts into the bottom line.

Strong corporations are good for one thing: the corporations. I agree that we need businesses, jobs, what have you in this country. But not at the cost of our decency, our morals, and our humanity.

What you have been taught is inherently selfish. The few profit from the toil of the many. You are very fortunate to have someone who will pay for everything you want and need. Pretty much all of the rest of us don't have that luxury.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I get everything paid for now, but it's expected I pay everything spent on me since I turned 18 back by the time I'm 35. With 20% interest. My whole life I've been taught that nothing is free, everything comes at a price. And if you want to get ahead, then by god you'd better pay that price.

I think it's clear from some of the posts here that I didn't have a normal childhood, and I don't have a very normal adulthood, which is news to me. But I am doing some research on these things. It's very interesting.

[kanjo-girl.livejournal.com]

Do you watch the news at all? These things should be showing on documentaries, panels and everything. Which country do you live in? I don't mean to be rude, but I'm just wondering how you could sound so...ignorant, or maybe you just don't these things. It baffles me, but I know I shouldn't be all that surprised.

If you reside in the US and want to know more about this, there's a great documentary called Waiting For Superman (don't anybody attack me for it) that depicts the stress for both parents and school children about their future.

[(Anonymous)]

Because being competitive means that you need to pay people less than minimum wage, right? And actually give people benefits and help pay for their healthcare. After all, laborers and the lower-classes should be thankful for the jobs the corporations and businesses deem fit to hand out, right?

Well, we're in that world right now - the corporations, the major ones, are strong. They have had steadily increasing profits for a long time. The financial sector keeps pulling more money. And guess what? It's still crap for people on the bottom. Trickle-down economics are crap. Sure, the rich are pulling in more and more money, but that doesn't help us. My father has been unemployed for almost two years now. He works part-time in retail just to keep the house.

Save your apologies. They don't really help anyone put food on the table or keep a roof over their heads. Because I do understand your position. It's fuck everyone else, I have mine and if the poor are starving or living in crappy apartments or are unemployed because the manufacture companies found it more profitable to export their factories, well, shit. That's just too bad for them. They'll find a way! Bootstraps! What matters is that the company has more money and the stockholders are happy!

[(Anonymous)]

Also, I was under the impression that public schools struggle because they waste so much money on unnecessary things like sports and art? We didn't have that at my school- we had the basics- economics, computer sciences, accounting, mathematics, History of Business, English, Chinese, Russian, and marketing. I thought part of the reason public schools struggled was because they tried to use that money on stuff like sports, art, drama, and music, when they money could be going to pay for other things- it was a problem of not budgeting well?

I'm going to Google this stuff. I'm really interested now.

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

No.

That's not it. It's because they are critically underfunded. Yes, they have music, art, dramatics and extracurricular sports. Because these things are important in the development of a well rounded and healthy mind and body. An understanding of music can help with mathematics. Sports are not only entertainment, but encourage exercise and good health (even if they are generally given funds over underutilized things like art and drama).

[(Anonymous)]

If we live in a world where sports, art and drama are unnecessary parts of education and growing up, then it is a sad, sad world indeed.

No, my school didn't have much of a drama department. We had a computer lab. We had mobiles. We had a marching band. We had a decent sports program.

But you know what? That made life fun. It give different people different outlets. It meant that creativity and the idea that we're more than just cogs in the corporate machine.

As for school funding? Depends on where you go to school. A lot of funding for public schools gets based on local property taxes and if you live in a poor area - surprise! You don't get much funding. Bush didn't help with NCLB, which tied Federal aid and funding to how well people perform on standardized tests. It's pretty damn complicated, though. But it's surely not because schools "waste money" on art and drama and music.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, yeah, I knew about NCLB and the funding. Since my school didn't do that I'm not as aware of how it worked, but it seems to be common sense. You can pay an art teacher, or you can by new math textbooks. Or you can use the time to have students study something that will be beneficial in the workforce, like a second language or business. We were taught that in the business world, no one cares if you're good at football or if you can play the violin, unless you're trying to impress potential customers/business allies.

Again, we didn't have that stuff, so maybe it was a lot of fun. But sometimes you've got to make tradeoffs. I don't regret my education, and while obviously not everyone wants to have the same education, I personally would recommend my education to someone else, even the public schools.

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

Your education sounds more and more like Right-wing corporate brainwashing.

[(Anonymous)]

You do realize that not everybody goes into the same "workforce" right? That without artists and musicians making product, there would be precious little for you business-types to buy/sell?

That the world at large could use far less people trained like you and far more folks trained to see people life human beings instead of cogs to go into a machine. Hell, what's the machine you're building at that point, if there's no room for any fun that can't be quantified. Might as well plug in, coppertop, and let the robot overlords enslave us already.

You don't sound like a person. I don't mean that you sound like a troll. I mean...you sound like someone who is nothing. Just a name and a number. Someone who has absolutely nothing that makes them worthwhile. For your sake, I hope things get better for you, and that it's not the sort of realization that hits you ten years down the road, staring at a bottle and wondering what the point is.

[tari-silmarwen.livejournal.com]

It is a LOT more complicated than that and frankly it irks me that you pin the full blame solely on extracurricular programs.

Glad to know my six years of junior high and high school orchestra were useless wastes of money.

It's especially ironic because fine arts programs are always the first things cut when a school district has budget problems. And you know what? It doesn't help at all.

[(Anonymous)]

I never said it was solely the fault of extracurricular activities, but it seems to me that they'd take a lot of money that could be used for other things.

[kanjo-girl.livejournal.com]

What would you use that money for then?

This blows my mind. I'm having trouble you're actually a twenty year old, who is in a position of authority and completely ignorant of what is happening all around you. It's really hard for me to understand this. How could you not stumble across an article about poverty? Or listen to a political debate? Or listen the the Union of Address? Do you even know who our President is? (Okay, that last question is a little sarcastic, granted.) Are you registered to vote? Do you know why the stock is low right now?

It's just not believable.

[xanykaos.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh lord in heaven. You did not just refer to art as "unnecessary" and the money spent on those programs as "wasted."

I'm really beginning to think that you've got to be a very good subtle troll because the idea that there are myriad people--potentially powerful people--who actually think this way makes me a little sick. I'm not even exaggerating. I actually feel nauseated reading this. It's horrifying.

But more than that, I have trouble believing you can be involved in fandom enough to be on F!S and see art, drama, and music as "unnecessary." Life. Is. Art. Everything that has a fandom is art. Art is the foundation for culture.

Look, seriously...without art. Without music and drama, paintings and novels, stories and jokes...without all that extra, what the ever-loving hell are you living for? What are you going to enjoy with all that money? What's the point of your job? What's the point at all? In what way are you a person and not a robot, if you only live to do a cooperate job?

Hell, what's fun?

Art (and I'll go ahead and include sports in that, under the "art is anything not motivated by survival/need" definition) is what makes life life. That's not an abstract ideal, that's the reason that all over the world you have so many beautifully drastically different cultures. Art is the balm that makes the weary world livable when things are low. Art, the soul of it, endures in the meanest of settings to the highest. It raises people up and makes them more, makes them better. Teaching children Shakespeare and Mozart, putting an instrument in their hands and letting them learn to play, passing around the cheap tempra paint that the teachers bought with their own salary, that's what makes them grow up to be human beings instead of soulless automatons.

And if you want something beyond a struggling, somewhat belligerent artist waxing poetic, then yes, by all means, look it up. Maybe try something more substantial than Google. Pick up a few philosophy books or psychology studies. Beyond all the sparkly pep-talk, the process of creating art, whether or not you're any good at painting a picture, writing a story, playing an instrument, etc. engages and develops the brain in very specific, important ways.


And yeah, if you really think it's okay to treat workers the way big corporations do, why do you think so many people hate those companies? Why do you think we get fierce little grins every time we see a big-wig led away in handcuffs for thinking he deserved 90% of the pie? You treat people like that, you're really just one unstable and disgruntled employee away from a burned down office building.

I honestly can't believe you'd make it to the age of 20 without ever looking around and wondering. Without, apparently, having ever seen a movie. There's sheltered, and then there's me wondering if I typed a few ranty paragraphs out to someone who's playing a belated April Fools prank to the hilt.

[dorknessrising.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much this. I'm starting to think troll, too, because the alternative is damn horrifying.

[(Anonymous)]

Technically, if my dad knew about the fact that I was involved in fandom, I'd probably get whacked upside the head with something. I like to read, believe it or not, and I really like to watch movies and television. I write fanfiction, even though it's not really something that I was raised to believe as being beneficial. I've worked on the coding for a fan game.

But I do it on my own time. Not when I'm supposed to be studying, not when I'm supposed to be working. If you want to do artistic, fun stuff, then do it when you're not supposed to be at school. I started getting involved in fandom when I was in high school, but I did it after school, after I'd gotten my work done.

I'm also aware that if I "fulfill my destiny," so to speak, it's likely that my employees are going to want me dead. I know that. But I also try to be a good person, despite the fact that I sound like Gordon Gekko (and yes, I know who that is). I can't control other people's feelings. But I know what's expected of me.

[kanjo-girl.livejournal.com]

And, honestly, I keep wondering the same thing. There's no way someone can be on the Internet and not know any of this. My first year into my life on the Internet, I learned about sex. (TMI, but whatever) There's just no way you can't know about the debates and--I can't even. Especially if you live in the US. Just sayin.

In addition, if I were in Hannah's position (name, i think?), I'd be really defensive right about now.