ACAB
so i was reading about the history of the korean language and how it interacts with korean history, and why promoting accessible education is important to create an equal, egalitarian society. a thread. (1/?)
before hangul writing system (the one that is used in korean to this day) was invented, korean speakers used to write down words with chinese hanzi hieroglyphics, due to historical reasons.
it was really tedious (source: i was learning mandarin and almost fucking died), so a guy named sejong of joseon (in the picture) said "fuck this shit" and either invented hangul or ordered someone to do it.
(2/?)
the system was SO succesful and SO easy to learn that there is even a saying that "a wise man can learn it before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn it in the span of ten days"
and i mean it fucking is, because...
...it's kind of an alphabet. you can literally learn it and read it on the fly - the thing you can't do with chinese since when you look at a hieroglyph nothing tells you how it's supposed to be read unless you know it beforehand.
(3/?)
the problem is though, later this writing system was banned until 1938 by other rulers because they either deemed it an "illegitimate writing system" or because they were mad that now every commoner without an education could critique them and write it down because it was THAT easy to learn.
which really made me think about how we approach education and language and the way we teach things in our society and how that affects our politics and social structure
(4/?)
like, i am pretty sure nobody taught us all that nazism or fascism or right wing politics didn't die in 1945 when hitler decided to revisit his artistic past and paint the walls of his bunker with his grey matter. no, fascism lives on and is actually threatening to make a comeback. and people who support it are trying tactics that people fall for so fucking easily it would be almost ridiculous if it wouldn't be so tragic and sad. nobody taught us this stuff.
(5/?)
what also nobody taught us is systemic racism or queer history or philosophy and ethics and logic and how to manage your life or the bad shit that our countries did
nobody taught us consent or how healthily approach your sexuality or relationships
and when once in a blue moon someone tries to teach us these things they oppose them
they ban the books or jail people
call drag queens groomers or throw dogwhistles left and right
(6/?)
and i think they do it for the same reason those emperors banned hangul
believe it or not but knowledge is power
it gives us abilities to do things we never could dream of before
it changes our consciousness and the way we see the world
it expands it
it gives context to something that was once thought to be a mystery
it provides us an opportunity to connect with those who lived before us even after their death and learn from their mistakes or the knowledge they themselves gathered.
(7/?)
it's like a bright light shining through the darkness of human condition and it widens our perception of the world we live in
and it's important to recognize who wants to restrict the use of this power to a select few.
longish response
@mynameistillian my experience has been; people really like narrative to be clear-cut and wrap up easily.
Having a clear-cut and easily wrapped up narrative fits how public education relies on tests and grades as metrics, *and* how primary/secondary education are by definition going to be superficial survey classes. This is basically trying to jam the sloppiness of history and biology in particular into how you can make math and whatever language into a much cleaner technical exercise.
And unfortunately the whole set up already lends itself to authoritarian mindsets (among other things, because the authoritarians have soaked up a simplified, good-versus-evil narrative and want to believe in such). They're bound to push for more control over textbooks and what's available to read.
