Title: Joe Student Vs The Man
Description: Craccum 12, page 32
Description: Craccum 12, page 32
él_bronto - October 12, 2005 11:51 AM (GMT)
Fucking hilarious. Anyone who's been in the advanced physics lab or had Watkins (gargamel) as a lecturer will understand
templar34 - October 12, 2005 01:34 PM (GMT)
What makes it golden is that I know the guy who wrote it quite well.
And they stuck a pic of Gargamel up on the Physics board (where they show a pic and the name of each member of the Physics department).
And they stuck a pic of Gargamel up on the Physics board (where they show a pic and the name of each member of the Physics department).
Steveo - October 12, 2005 08:12 PM (GMT)
You know Tim well?
He sent me the original last night they cut out the punch line at the end of it, i can post the ending up if you guys want.
He sent me the original last night they cut out the punch line at the end of it, i can post the ending up if you guys want.
Scuzza - October 12, 2005 09:24 PM (GMT)
Please do...
él_bronto - October 13, 2005 11:10 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (templar34 @ Oct 13 2005, 02:34 AM) |
| What makes it golden is that I know the guy who wrote it quite well. And they stuck a pic of Gargamel up on the Physics board (where they show a pic and the name of each member of the Physics department). |
Haha yer, unfortunately it got taken down, but not before it got sent to pxt of the week. :D
Apparently all the staff are referring to him as gargamel now too.
Please post the punch line, hell, post the entire article here for posterity.
I'm sure Dr_Steve would like to see it...
Steveo - October 13, 2005 08:59 PM (GMT)
Ok, i seem to have misplaced the article. Ill check my email for it.
edit: found it
You’re not allowed to listen to music in here!
I reply with an even more irritated look on my face
Why?
Because I say so!
But this is a physics department; you are supposed to base all your beliefs and actions on reason
Yeah well, sometimes you just need to do what you are told
With that, he walks off to the other side of the lab (The lab is very big)
I sit and think about what just happened for about a minute or two and finally mutter “Fuck that!” and put my headphones back on.
5 minutes later, he walks back my way and sees that I have put my headphones back on and approaches me angrily
I’m quite serious you know, there’s no music allowed in the labs
Why not???
There’s no reason why you need to listen to music, you’re just sitting there in your own little world being antisocial; what if a demonstrator needs to talk to you?
I was well angry at this stage and raise my voice a few notches:
That’s a load of crap; if someone needs to talk to me they can come and tap me on the shoulder!
Do you think that you can just tell me what to do, that you can just make up arbitrary rules and make people follow them blindly without giving any rational justification? You just enjoy exerting power over people, making them know that you are above them on the hierarchy!
He laughs patronizingly
I come here to this university, and I pay $5,000 a year and the tax payers of this country pay the other $15,000 by way of government subsidies; you have no authority over me, if anything, I am hiring your services and I should be telling you what to do…
Your lecturers tell you what to do all the time when they give you assignments…
No, they suggest problems which I should do and I do them because I enjoy physics and I want to learn how to do physics from them
Laughs in disbelief at the idea that I do physics because I enjoy it
Give me your name and ID number please; I am going to take this further
Good!
I willingly write down all of my details, hand him the piece of paper and put my headphones back on and turn around and start probing my circuit with the oscilloscope as he walk off in a hissy fit.
10 minutes later Gargamel comes back with the Head of Department:
He says in a calm voice:
You’re not allowed to listen to music in the labs…
Why?
He was clearly not anticipating that question and stumbles a bit before replying
Well, you could be disturbing other people!
If I’m disturbing other people, you can just come up to me and ask me to turn it down…
Yes, but… We’re not asking you to turn it down; we’re asking you to turn it off.
Yes, so, why?
Awkward silence for a few seconds…Stumbles around a bit more…
Ahhh, Health and Safety!
...
Do you really believe that???
Another second or two of awkward silence, his body language suggests he doesn’t believe it at all…
Well, if we let you listen to the music in the labs, we need to let everyone else listen to music in the labs…
So what?
Stands there looking foolish for a couple of seconds; I continue:
This is a physics department, all rules and decisions should be based on REASON; I’m sick of the corporate university paradigm of mass production of education! This goes far deeper than merely listening or not listening to music in the labs…
Yes, it does…
Looking each other in the eyes at this point
I feel very strongly about this, it would be going against my enlightenment principles to submit to authority without there being a justification for it
So you are refusing to follow any laboratory rules?
No, I am refusing to follow those rules which cannot be justified rationally because it would be against my principles to do so
Well I think that’s a dangerous attitude to have; we will have to take this to higher authorities and see what they say
OK…
Gargamel and the HOD then walk off and leave me to finish my lab in peace. I put my headphones back on and try and resume where I left off. Once I finish the lab an hour later I go and send the following email to the HOD (its half taking the piss)
Letter to HOD Physics Department
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that all people have the right to practice their religious beliefs so long as public safety or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others are not affected.
Given that I am a devout member of the church of reason, I was appalled during my laboratory session today when I was not given the right to practice my religious beliefs – namely the right to hold an order from the coordinator to rational and empirical scrutiny. The doctrinal writings from the prophets of my religion (I. Kant, A. Einstein, N. Chomsky for example) state that I should think for myself, question authority, and that unless power structures can be justified, they are illegitimate and should be dismantled. Indeed, strength to reason – how can the sciences possibly survive under the current paradigm of mass production of education?
The lab coordinator ordered me to stop listening to music, when I asked why, he said “because I say so!” when I resisted further and demanded a rational justification, he made up a taradiddle about health and safety and
antisocialism.
I am unaware of any studies which have been done which show that acoustic stimulus from headphones prevents the high intensity, high frequency waves emitted from a fire alarm from being perceived by the human ear, nor am I aware of any studies which have shown that there is anything stopping a demonstrator from tapping someone (under the influence of acoustic stimulus) on the shoulder and asking them a question.
Although irrelevant to the principle of minimalism, I find that I work better while listening to music because it drowns out the ambient conversation from the room. I present a study done by Kings College which has shown that information overload from surroundings can lower the average IQ of people by ~10 points1
Until evidence can be given, I ask that the university grants students the right to listen to music via headphones at a volume which does not disturb others and to grant me the right to practice my religious beliefs at university. If this basic right is not granted, I will need to reconsider my plans to resume my study of photonics at UoA in the second semester.
I await your decision
Some people reading this may think that I was just being an immature, reactionary youth, that I am at the university under their terms and that I should just follow instructions, but I disagree; this mockery of an education system is exactly what is wrong with society.
People are selected for obedience2 from a very early age right through the entire education system, if they don’t conform and submit to authority they are cast out, this in turn breeds a class of obsequious academics who do not question state power, or any power for that matter, they are so propagandized that they can not even think in any other terms outside of what they have been taught at university. This subservience of the academic class is a key factor in how the United States government has got away with so many atrocities (for examples, look at Nicaragua, Philippines, El Salvador, Grenada, Iraq, I could go on) and even closer to home, I think it is easy to demonstrate that this is a likely root cause for the abysmal media analysis of any of the parties policies in the 2005 New Zealand general election.
The very act of me submitting to Gargamel’s supposed authority over me would legitimize that authority; if I don’t stand up for myself then who will?
The further thing which fuelled this incident was the fact that he treated me like a piece of shit on the floor which he could stamp all over; he completely disrespected me by clicking his fingers in my face and being a rude asshole in general and I will not stand for that. It seems likely that he has come from the context of apartheid South Africa and that he feels the need to treat people he thinks are inferior like shit, be it those with dark skin, or those significantly younger than him. He thinks I am a kafir because I am younger than him and I think that is totally unacceptable. Would he have behaved in the same way if I were the same age as him?
It has been about 5 months since I sent the email and of course, I never received a reply. Since then I have been listening to music in the lab every week and have not been told I cannot listen to music in the lab, all I have received are some resentful looks from him when he has seen me listening to music so it looks like I won that round!
[1] http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-.../mg18624973.400
[2] http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/9301-albchomsky.html
edit: found it
You’re not allowed to listen to music in here!
I reply with an even more irritated look on my face
Why?
Because I say so!
But this is a physics department; you are supposed to base all your beliefs and actions on reason
Yeah well, sometimes you just need to do what you are told
With that, he walks off to the other side of the lab (The lab is very big)
I sit and think about what just happened for about a minute or two and finally mutter “Fuck that!” and put my headphones back on.
5 minutes later, he walks back my way and sees that I have put my headphones back on and approaches me angrily
I’m quite serious you know, there’s no music allowed in the labs
Why not???
There’s no reason why you need to listen to music, you’re just sitting there in your own little world being antisocial; what if a demonstrator needs to talk to you?
I was well angry at this stage and raise my voice a few notches:
That’s a load of crap; if someone needs to talk to me they can come and tap me on the shoulder!
Do you think that you can just tell me what to do, that you can just make up arbitrary rules and make people follow them blindly without giving any rational justification? You just enjoy exerting power over people, making them know that you are above them on the hierarchy!
He laughs patronizingly
I come here to this university, and I pay $5,000 a year and the tax payers of this country pay the other $15,000 by way of government subsidies; you have no authority over me, if anything, I am hiring your services and I should be telling you what to do…
Your lecturers tell you what to do all the time when they give you assignments…
No, they suggest problems which I should do and I do them because I enjoy physics and I want to learn how to do physics from them
Laughs in disbelief at the idea that I do physics because I enjoy it
Give me your name and ID number please; I am going to take this further
Good!
I willingly write down all of my details, hand him the piece of paper and put my headphones back on and turn around and start probing my circuit with the oscilloscope as he walk off in a hissy fit.
10 minutes later Gargamel comes back with the Head of Department:
He says in a calm voice:
You’re not allowed to listen to music in the labs…
Why?
He was clearly not anticipating that question and stumbles a bit before replying
Well, you could be disturbing other people!
If I’m disturbing other people, you can just come up to me and ask me to turn it down…
Yes, but… We’re not asking you to turn it down; we’re asking you to turn it off.
Yes, so, why?
Awkward silence for a few seconds…Stumbles around a bit more…
Ahhh, Health and Safety!
...
Do you really believe that???
Another second or two of awkward silence, his body language suggests he doesn’t believe it at all…
Well, if we let you listen to the music in the labs, we need to let everyone else listen to music in the labs…
So what?
Stands there looking foolish for a couple of seconds; I continue:
This is a physics department, all rules and decisions should be based on REASON; I’m sick of the corporate university paradigm of mass production of education! This goes far deeper than merely listening or not listening to music in the labs…
Yes, it does…
Looking each other in the eyes at this point
I feel very strongly about this, it would be going against my enlightenment principles to submit to authority without there being a justification for it
So you are refusing to follow any laboratory rules?
No, I am refusing to follow those rules which cannot be justified rationally because it would be against my principles to do so
Well I think that’s a dangerous attitude to have; we will have to take this to higher authorities and see what they say
OK…
Gargamel and the HOD then walk off and leave me to finish my lab in peace. I put my headphones back on and try and resume where I left off. Once I finish the lab an hour later I go and send the following email to the HOD (its half taking the piss)
Letter to HOD Physics Department
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that all people have the right to practice their religious beliefs so long as public safety or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others are not affected.
Given that I am a devout member of the church of reason, I was appalled during my laboratory session today when I was not given the right to practice my religious beliefs – namely the right to hold an order from the coordinator to rational and empirical scrutiny. The doctrinal writings from the prophets of my religion (I. Kant, A. Einstein, N. Chomsky for example) state that I should think for myself, question authority, and that unless power structures can be justified, they are illegitimate and should be dismantled. Indeed, strength to reason – how can the sciences possibly survive under the current paradigm of mass production of education?
The lab coordinator ordered me to stop listening to music, when I asked why, he said “because I say so!” when I resisted further and demanded a rational justification, he made up a taradiddle about health and safety and
antisocialism.
I am unaware of any studies which have been done which show that acoustic stimulus from headphones prevents the high intensity, high frequency waves emitted from a fire alarm from being perceived by the human ear, nor am I aware of any studies which have shown that there is anything stopping a demonstrator from tapping someone (under the influence of acoustic stimulus) on the shoulder and asking them a question.
Although irrelevant to the principle of minimalism, I find that I work better while listening to music because it drowns out the ambient conversation from the room. I present a study done by Kings College which has shown that information overload from surroundings can lower the average IQ of people by ~10 points1
Until evidence can be given, I ask that the university grants students the right to listen to music via headphones at a volume which does not disturb others and to grant me the right to practice my religious beliefs at university. If this basic right is not granted, I will need to reconsider my plans to resume my study of photonics at UoA in the second semester.
I await your decision
Some people reading this may think that I was just being an immature, reactionary youth, that I am at the university under their terms and that I should just follow instructions, but I disagree; this mockery of an education system is exactly what is wrong with society.
People are selected for obedience2 from a very early age right through the entire education system, if they don’t conform and submit to authority they are cast out, this in turn breeds a class of obsequious academics who do not question state power, or any power for that matter, they are so propagandized that they can not even think in any other terms outside of what they have been taught at university. This subservience of the academic class is a key factor in how the United States government has got away with so many atrocities (for examples, look at Nicaragua, Philippines, El Salvador, Grenada, Iraq, I could go on) and even closer to home, I think it is easy to demonstrate that this is a likely root cause for the abysmal media analysis of any of the parties policies in the 2005 New Zealand general election.
The very act of me submitting to Gargamel’s supposed authority over me would legitimize that authority; if I don’t stand up for myself then who will?
The further thing which fuelled this incident was the fact that he treated me like a piece of shit on the floor which he could stamp all over; he completely disrespected me by clicking his fingers in my face and being a rude asshole in general and I will not stand for that. It seems likely that he has come from the context of apartheid South Africa and that he feels the need to treat people he thinks are inferior like shit, be it those with dark skin, or those significantly younger than him. He thinks I am a kafir because I am younger than him and I think that is totally unacceptable. Would he have behaved in the same way if I were the same age as him?
It has been about 5 months since I sent the email and of course, I never received a reply. Since then I have been listening to music in the lab every week and have not been told I cannot listen to music in the lab, all I have received are some resentful looks from him when he has seen me listening to music so it looks like I won that round!
[1] http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-.../mg18624973.400
[2] http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/9301-albchomsky.html
Hannoir - October 13, 2005 09:52 PM (GMT)
I just read that article this morning. God it made me laugh.
Mr Lanky Bobs - October 14, 2005 02:00 AM (GMT)
brilliant article...almost made me want to keep taking physics...almost...
él_bronto - October 14, 2005 09:28 AM (GMT)
Erm what exactly was the punch line that got left out? To be honest I agree with most of that editing, pity this bit got taken out though:
| QUOTE |
| People are selected for obedience2 from a very early age right through the entire education system, if they don’t conform and submit to authority they are cast out, this in turn breeds a class of obsequious academics who do not question state power, or any power for that matter, they are so propagandized that they can not even think in any other terms outside of what they have been taught at university. [2] http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/9301-albchomsky.html |
Everyone should take a little bit of physics
Steveo - October 14, 2005 09:34 AM (GMT)
The southafrican bit
él_bronto - October 14, 2005 01:16 PM (GMT)
Oh right, I'm not sure bringing his race into it was necessary. Also trying some kind of psychoanalysis on him detracts from the factual nature of the rest of the article. He is on to something though, none of the (very few) girls in the department can stand him due to his behaviour towards them.
Steveo - October 15, 2005 06:27 AM (GMT)
Maybe thats why they didnt print it. The South African thing is a bit of a Stereotype, but you never know
él_bronto - October 18, 2005 12:56 PM (GMT)
Haha well it wasn't pxt of the week but they printed it
:clap: awesome :hilarious:
:clap: awesome :hilarious: