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Friday, April 02, 2010

"Teabonics"

I was looking at a series of photos about "teabonics", which is a photo story of the signs used by Tea Baggers in demonstrations, or when they assemble in posse comitatus for intimidation, or possibly to support GOP politicans yelling invective, or exhorting their crowds to further insurrection.
( "Teabonic" is a title the photographer used to describe the language and spelling of the signs, obviously punning on "Ebonics", which was a study of the language of Urban American Black People. I never understood why an ancient Greek word "ebon-" would be used for this purpose, but I suppose it was originally a nod towards Academe. Since it may be seen as a derogatory pun, I disclaim it all ahead of time.)

Within the same 24 hour period, I have viewed various examples of scrimshaw, carved and inscribed by sailors.

My question is why seamen of the 1800's seem to be more literate than modern day Tea Bag demonstrators?
Posted by Montag at 5:41 PM

2 comments:

Ruth said...

I don't know anything about how educated those seamen were. I just googled 'scrimshaw sailors 1800s' (came up with http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/objectdescription.cfm?ID=22), and it sure is beautiful. Do you assume they were not well educated? Do we think we are, here in the U.S.? I ask genuinely.

Are their literacy skills a symptom of POV?

Maybe putting teabaggers out to sea would provide time for reflection, thought, going inside to see if there's anything there.

Saturday, April 03, 2010 7:53:00 AM
Montag said...

I went to the site, and they were nice pieces. For some reason the ones I was looking at had more writing about this and that - whaler folk talk.

Education is a paradox: the wealthier we get, the more abject is the state of education.
Education among the poorer people is fast disappearing, while that among the wealthy often concentrates on schemes to defraud the rest of the country ( Wall Street, e.g. )

Everything thought, written, and spoken should be considered as Art, and we are artists of our reality.

Sunday, April 04, 2010 5:41:00 AM

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