Michael Ferry, the new Knowledge Officer, left Woonsocket because there was no opportunity
for further advancement. RIDE to the rescue with a new position - Knowledge
Officer - to provide Mr. Ferry with another rung on the ladder. He is probably
a very nice fellow, but the zombification process is a certain outcome. He will
be embalmed in RIDE's institutional mediocrity. I am sure Gist has chosen
carefully and the Knowledge Officer will abdicate any thoughts that are not
distilled dogma. He will become a true believer, and Knowledge will continue at
RIDE, as in the mainstream culture, for that matter, to slither into the
Orwellian sea of irony. I'm a bit ambivalent about this memo exemplifying
Orwell's fear that truth will be denied to us. Rather, I think Huxley was
closer to the mark when he wrote in Brave New World that the truth,
facts, and knowledge will become irrelevant. We are a nation where passivity
rules and higher levels of cognition are becoming a vestigial process. Ralph
Nader tells a story about his father asking him about what he had learned in
school. The conversation always ended with the old man asking young Ralph if he
had learned to think or to believe. At RIDE, I'm certain the latter will be the
optimal path for another rung on Ferry's ascent rarified stratosphere of
education reform. I pledge allegiance to...
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