So a right bastard who calls himself my friend introduced me to hotforwords.
Hotforwords is the channel used by Marina Orlova. Marina is a philologist. But what is a philologist? Fortunately, her specialty helps explain that, but to sum up it basically means she studies word. What is important is that she dresses up in cute outfits and tells people about the origins of words.
So basically, using the idea that sex sell, and a little humor she has become one of the most viewed youtubers. And people might actually learn something. The slogan "Intelligence is sexy" may not be the common belief, but it should be.
Have you ever wondered why inflammable means flammable? I did and she told me. OK, a mad Cuban told me first, but that doesn't really prove my point, so let us ignore this inconvenient fact. She may not be able to pronounce all the words, but I love watching her talk.
Some time before I heard of this site I (and likely thousands of others) had a similar idea. In my case it was in response to reading the old Burger opinion on obscenity.
"The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. "
I thought to my self, I should really make pornography that, during various sex acts, needs to teach the viewers about the first amendment, obscenity laws, and famous freedom of speech court cases. I never got around to this project. I did eat pizza and drink a lot of beer so clearly, I did all I could for the project. But even this poor abandoned project is just a symptom of the point I am staggering towards.
Sesame Street and School House Rock both taught quiet a bit using music and a little humor to educate. Numerous other entertainment venues were also used. My big question is, why not more? In the War on Stupid, why are we not using every weapon in our arsenal? Sex, drugs, rock and roll. Why aren't their sex laden rap videos that teach us multiplication tables or hard core pornography that discusses the history of Panama? Why doesn't junk food teach us the metric system?
Sadly the answer is simple. We (the great big giant we that makes up society, not the little we of you and me) don't value education. We pay lip service to it, but not much else. We ignore the powerful effect a little wickedness could have on education in favor of pseudo morality and ignore the idea that every dollar well spent on education could save us billions on law enforcement.
OK, maybe not billions. But I would probably know better if my sociology teacher gave me a lap dance to a heavy metal song about socioeconomic theory.
Sincerely,
the undereducated and over opinionated Emo Ball
