Philosophy Adjunct Begins Every Class with Rage Against the Machine Song
Some men just wanna watch the world learn.
The bell rings. Ready to blow some adolescent minds, he clicks the space bar and unleashes a locomotive of 90’s Nu Metal. Sporting his trademark leather vest, he struts in front of the classroom, arms folded, head nodding to the beat.
“Are you ready to question the status quo?” he asks rhetorically.
Scribbled on the whiteboard behind him are the words, “NOW YOU DO WHAT THEY TOLD YA? Not anymore. Welcome to PHL 2000.”
The students share stunned glances — unaware the enlightenment has just begun.
Rather than bending to the wills of the establishment, this modern Socrates begins every semester with a powerpoint featuring his vegan lifestyle, PHD dissertation topic, and the fact he used to be in a band.
Yes, I will be using profanity. If any of you have a problem with that, I suggest you drop now.
Unwilling to subscribe to any political party’s ideology, he finds the antipodal nature of our political climate fruitless and advises his students to check out BBC news and avoid FOX at all costs, a network “for lemmings.”
While some question his radical pedagogy, this teacher insists his methods are sound.
“If there’s a better way to teach Kant’s belief that ‘appearances are to be regarded as mere representations and not things in themselves’ than RATM’s ‘Killing In the Name’ I haven’t found it.”
If you listen closely, you might be able to hear him giving instructions for a 500-word essay responding to the deeper themes in The Matrix or Blade Runner — all before rolling his backpack back to his Ford Pinto, off to free the minds of more lost freshman.
