Stinky lives
Extrapolating on the robot story, in which undocumented Mexican high school kids out-engineer MIT experts:
I stumbled on the robot contest story right at the same time as I was reading a student's observations on the documentary Spellbound. Both of these stories are about contests that in some ways are quintessentially American (by being contests, for one thing, but also by being so American-dreamy), and it's telling that immigrants did so well. Lots of confirmation of Sara Mahler's point that cultural constructions of "america" and "immigrant" continue to be intricately and contradictorily (word?) bound up with each other.
The David-and-Goliath engineering angle on Stinky also reminds me of Secrets of Silicon Valley. Dealing with labor and the digital divide in high-tech world, this doc shows how insane this annual soap-box derby race gets when venture capitalists start sponsoring cars. The robot-building kids who beat MIT at their own game echoes how some kids from the "wrong" side of Palo Alto get into designing a car, but the robot story is even more Cool Runnings (who gets to be John Candy?)-- except they won!
The heartbreaker is at the end of the Wired story, when it becomes clear that being undocumented is going to stop these kids' education at high school. The author points out that for undocumented students, higher ed means no federal aid and out-of-state tuition no matter where you go, so at least $50,000 cash for a state school. It may seem like a stretch, but to me this leads directly back to the rumblings about an impending draft. The Stinky story is evidence that we already do have de facto conscription into the volunteer military.
Not that Stinky's builders mention this at all, but enlisting seems to me to be an obvious response to this kind of situation, and the only evident way for talented kids to pursue their passion for building and ideas. It's pretty clear that the need to replenish the military with warm bodies is a vulnerability of empire. Holding out carrots like the possibility of accelerated naturalization or legal residency and free or at least attainable education is what keeps recruiters in business. Anyone who would oppose a draft out of self-interest ought to be profoundly concerned about the plight of folks like Team Stinky.
I stumbled on the robot contest story right at the same time as I was reading a student's observations on the documentary Spellbound. Both of these stories are about contests that in some ways are quintessentially American (by being contests, for one thing, but also by being so American-dreamy), and it's telling that immigrants did so well. Lots of confirmation of Sara Mahler's point that cultural constructions of "america" and "immigrant" continue to be intricately and contradictorily (word?) bound up with each other.
The David-and-Goliath engineering angle on Stinky also reminds me of Secrets of Silicon Valley. Dealing with labor and the digital divide in high-tech world, this doc shows how insane this annual soap-box derby race gets when venture capitalists start sponsoring cars. The robot-building kids who beat MIT at their own game echoes how some kids from the "wrong" side of Palo Alto get into designing a car, but the robot story is even more Cool Runnings (who gets to be John Candy?)-- except they won!
The heartbreaker is at the end of the Wired story, when it becomes clear that being undocumented is going to stop these kids' education at high school. The author points out that for undocumented students, higher ed means no federal aid and out-of-state tuition no matter where you go, so at least $50,000 cash for a state school. It may seem like a stretch, but to me this leads directly back to the rumblings about an impending draft. The Stinky story is evidence that we already do have de facto conscription into the volunteer military.
Not that Stinky's builders mention this at all, but enlisting seems to me to be an obvious response to this kind of situation, and the only evident way for talented kids to pursue their passion for building and ideas. It's pretty clear that the need to replenish the military with warm bodies is a vulnerability of empire. Holding out carrots like the possibility of accelerated naturalization or legal residency and free or at least attainable education is what keeps recruiters in business. Anyone who would oppose a draft out of self-interest ought to be profoundly concerned about the plight of folks like Team Stinky.
posted by cultcrit at 9:37 AM
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