Comments | mask400: The Latest Five-Year Plan

mask400

The Latest Five-Year Plan

Mar 10, 2006 10:16

I'll find out either today or tomorrow if I got into the Gerald R. Ford School. Whatever you do, DON'T ASK ME IF I GOT IN OR NOT. Don't even mention the name of the president who came after Nixon but before Carter to me. If you hear me bragging and carrying on about how I got in, then you'll know I got in. If I'm silent about it and never bring ( Read more... )

Comments 3

juliandrago March 10 2006, 22:49:38 UTC

i vote we take care of number 4 this summer

lilskatingal March 11 2006, 04:14:27 UTC

why are you disillusioned with the peace corps? i am (-ish) because a.) nothing they do seems to be sustainable and b.) wayyy be promo for the US govt, loookie at our white folks taking care of all these little babies. yours?

mask400 March 11 2006, 19:27:45 UTC

Pretty much the same as you. My anecdote: I work with this one guy whose brother just got back from a two-year tour in the Peace Corps. I asked this guy how his brother liked it, and he told me that he said it was okay, but that there's this whole philosophy that the Peace Corps drills into its recruits that they're going overseas to "educate the savages." This struck me as really unsettling, since before that I'd had a really optimistic view on the PC, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. It was an organization founded by JFK, whose every effort as president was somehow rooted in anticommunism. The thinking in the sixties was that the Third World War would be a war in the third world, and the U.S. needed a crafty way to spread its influence everywhere it could. So, I get this feeling that it's not really about helping the world but, rather, about making the U.S. look nice. Also, like you, I think that they don't really do anything sustainable. The Peace Corps has been around for over 40 years and things in ( ... )