Relentless advancement to produce new gen of seppos
I asked Wendy if I could read the paper she turned in, and when I opened the document, I was surprised to see the topic: critical pedagogy, the philosophy of education pioneered by Paulo Freire. The philosophy examines the influence of social and political forces on learning and classroom dynamics. Her opening line: “To what extent is schooling hindering students’ cognitive ability to think critically?” Later, I asked Wendy if she recognized the irony in using AI to write not just a paper on critical pedagogy but one that argues learning is what “makes us truly human.” She wasn’t sure what to make of the question. “I use AI a lot. Like, every day,” she said. “And I do believe it could take away that critical-thinking part. But it’s just — now that we rely on it, we can’t really imagine living without it.”
honestly considering the origin story of a lot of AES I don’t think literacy is a prereq.
attention span I guess might be more of an issue, but I think deteriorating living conditions will make reality harder to ignore. I don’t really think we win by winning over an actual majority of people with reasoned argument, we win by being in the right place at the right time on the right side of declining living conditions. You need an organized core who have at least some solid basis in theory, but the broader movement around that core don’t have to already understand the theory to be on our side, though hopefully they will learn it as they go
You’re very right about literacy not being something that will majorly hinder organizing. We have a big illiteracy problem in Guatemala because a large chunk of the country still doesn’t speak or read Spanish. This still hasn’t kept our various orgs from making inroads with these communities.
I asked this question because I know countries in the global north aren’t as used to dilemmas like this and may struggle at first with finding a way around it. But it seems like I might be underestimating them.
Fair enough!
I wish that literacy and comprehension/attention spans were the biggest hurdle organizing here faced… buncha fuckin treatler settlers