Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 8038 clever stuff is not contributing; it’s draining. Farrell: It’s not a contribution, and it’s a drain, and I will tell you that the automated cars busi- ness is just another way to control the popula- tion. And the cars have not worked too well, with people dying because the automated car doesn’t know what a guardrail is. Elites want ev- erybody driving automated cars so that they can control people more readily. Good luck with that! I don’t have a quarter of a million dollars to spend on an automated car. Fitts: Having people try to run me off the road several times during the litigation, do you think I’m ever going to get into a driverless car? Farrell: No. Do I trust these people? No, not as far as I can throw them, thank you very much. They are exactly right. They need to start giving us something that contributes to human produc- tivity and not to the surveillance state. The sur- veillance state is killing the economy in so many ways. Fitts: Right. I couldn’t agree more. Last but not least, I do want to touch on one of the exciting things that happened in the last quarter – your book on Common Core. I was quite eager to have it published because I was quite proud; I wrote the forward. I wanted to publish it. Farrell: Thank you for that, by the way. Fitts: If you ever doubt how dreadful Common Core is, here is your proof! Joseph, you did a great job of tearing it apart. Farrell: Yes, Common Core is bad as far as I’m concerned and as far as my coauthor was con- cerned. Even though I wrote about 50% of the book, the scaffolding, order of argument, and principal concepts come from my coauthor. He was the one who pointed out to me that Com- mon Core through the assessment process was a vast expansion of the surveillance state. As I dug into this, I thought, “It’s a nightmare on steroids.” Common Core tracks you from kindergarten through high school. Now we hear talks about “lifetime learning accounts.” That’s the latest. You just have to laugh! Fitts: Lifetime learning about you! Farrell Exactly. With all these euphemisms , and they’re just not playing anymore because everybody sees through them. They want to keep you in school all of your life to update the assess- ment. As far as I’m concerned, the whole Com- mon Core individually adaptive standardized computerized test is a loyalty test: Are you loyal to the standard official narratives? In other words, imagine your SAT question, “Who killed President John Kennedy? Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald…” Tests never get into deep analysis and discussion of an event. They reinforce an official narrative and control the information. Fitts: At your heart, you are an Oxford scholar so your approach is much nicer. I look at Common Core, and it says to me, “Are you available for pedophilia, and where can I access your calendar to book you?” Farrell: Exactly! That puts it in a nutshell. What they’re doing, Catherine, is tracking you, and building up a profile of people. The other bot- tom line is that Common Core – the assessment process itself, the tests, the questions – remain proprietary information. Any information given to the government by these corporations is what they want you to learn, gutting real education. I don’t care what technocrats say. Now this technology in the classroom is producing a gen- eration of technology addicts with problems of socialization, with being able to carry on a con- versation, and producing a generation of narcis- sism and psychopaths, who are stupid. They’re reinforcing stupidity, not education. Fitts: There is a new article in the Wall Street Journal that I posted in Top Picks this last week. It will be on the list for the 3rd quarter News Trends and Stories. Two very successful physi- cians – one from Mass General and the other from Cambridge Hospital – said that patient healthcare records have destroyed patient health II. News Trends & Stories “ I look at Common Core, and it says to me, “Are you avail- able for pedophilia, and where can I ac- cess your calendar to book you?” ”