Archive: GRUUST issue 4

Here is the spirituality con 2012 issue of GRUUST (issue 4).

Safety is Making Us Stupid by Dylan Grinder

Safety is Making Us Stupid

How over-protective safety measures may inhibit learning

By Dylan Grinder

                Have you noticed that see-saws, jungle gyms, and other dangerous play structures
been disappearing from playgrounds? This is due in large part to the safety concerns of parents and
the fear of litigation possessed by city government. Being afraid of getting sued may not be the best
motivation, but parents seeking the safety of their children must be doing the right thing, right?

Wrong.

                An article published in the journal of Evolutionary Psychology by Ellen Sandseter of the
Queen Maud University of Early Childhood Education and Leif Kennair of the Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, posits that risky play is an evolutionary development built around protecting children
from situations they are incapable of handling, while incrementally expanding the limits of what
they can handle. Dr. Sandseter says of jungle gyms “children approach thrills and risks in a progressive
manner, and very few children would try to climb to the highest point for the first time they climb.
The best thing is to let children encounter these challenges from an early age, and they will then
progressively learn to master them through their play over the years.” Put simply, playing in slightly
dangerous environments helps a child learn to assess danger level and personal limitations while
providing a feeling of entertainment and personal success. Not only that, but Sandseter and Kennair
write that “our fear of children being harmed by mostly harmless injuries may result in more fearful
children and increased levels of psychopathology.”¹ If that weren't enough, "surfaces designed to
reduce the risk of head injuries may not be effective in dealing with commoner playground injuries (long
bone fractures); [and] children may take more risks in apparently safer environments"² leading to an
increase of playground-related injury.

                Meanwhile, off the playground, critical thinking is becoming a rare attribute. People fail to
separate fact from opinion on a daily basis, being easily swayed by pathos- rather than logos and egos
(see  Aristotle’s Appeals). In fact, a study of 2,322 students conducted by Richard Arum of New
York University states that over the course of two years in college there were “no statistically significant
gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills for 45 percent of the students in the
sample”³ which reduced to 36 percent over four years.

                What if these two issues are related? What if all those safety labels you see everywhere
telling you not to hold a chainsaw by the wrong end and not to put a plastic bag over your head
are leading to a decrease in self-awareness and problem-solving ability? As a society, we have
become so used to warnings of potential danger being plastered on products that we assume things
aren’t dangerous because if they were, they wouldn’t be legal. This inability to think for ourselves
- to assess danger or tell logic from fallacy - is a serious issue compounded by many factors, and
it seems likely to lead to a future where people can’t learn from their mistakes and we don’t make 
educated decisions. Many things in the world can hurt you, to think otherwise is foolish. Don't
overprotect children to the point that they don't learn anything from playing; don't assume that
everything without a label is safe; and instead of blindly;avoiding something risky, think about it
and assess for yourself how dangerous it might be.

Kenyon Supp by Benjamin Siegel

Kenyon supp 2: Along the edges of ancient maps it used to say “Here there be monsters”. What does it say on the edge of your map and why?

            I let alone the frayed ends of dreams cut short by morning. It adds to the realism and the mystery of it all. I am an atheist-- my only faith is my faith in unobscured truth. I don’t pretend to know much.

            I’m surrounded by a dynamic ocean of seven billion, of whom I have a solid understanding of only about a hundred-- “All The Others” lie outside the edges of my map. Even then I can’t name the favorite colors of those I know-- (some people even like orange!) --much less anticipate their thoughts. I do the best I can, of course, but I can’t speak French and my dad can’t speak Starcraft. When will girls take the feathers out of their hair? It’s like birds knowing which way is south. I can’t begin to feel it.

            Epistemologically speaking, I’m shipwrecked in my skull and everyone else is somewhere at sea, beyond my reach. They, or, for you, we, are chaos in action-- we can’t be forecast, analyzed, or mapped. Tomorrow is an avalanche of seven billion dice. Care to bet? Care to appeal to the unpredictable?

            On my map, the greatest obstacle to communication is seasickness. When we meet new people, we show off a bit but limit ourselves to seem predictable to each other. There’s no security in befriending enigmas. And besides, meaningful exchanges are hard to facilitate. Sympathy, analysis, humor, and enthusiasm are of varying importance to different people-- and it’s really quite the challenge to communicate universally. Nonetheless, I see tremendous value in what I do. An individual who can’t make himself or herself heard and understood is powerless to make the world a better place. Artists, writers, and we speech and debaters all speak to the void that most people shy away from, the void of crowd surfing and angry boos.

            There are far greater challenges than high school can offer waiting beyond the edges of my map-- languages, controversies, books, and infinite other forays into darkness. I plan to charge further into the great unknown. Wish me luck.

Archive: GRUUST issue 3

This is the third issue of Gruust. As it was made for Elections con, it is the largest yet!



Click here to download the PDF

Tradesies by Casey Lynn

We are sitting at a bench

Like the children sitting in the lunch rooms at school

I look over to you, when I think you can’t see

I see what is in your hands today

It is your heart.


You hold it in your still hand as it beats

For all the world to hear and watch

And spy


You look up and over to me

Surprised at my gaze

You hunch over the blazing organ in your hands

Ready to push it back inside

Cushioned by your lungs

Hidden and alone

Beating only to the darkness


But I act quickly

I do not mean to judge

I smoothly reach inside my own chest

And grasp my own heart


I hold it up to you letting you see it for yourself

Let you hear the independent drumming it creates

There are birds watching us.

But I say anyway, for the whole lunch room to hear

“Tradesies?”


You look at me

Unsure why anyone would want your heart

Your living breathing beautiful heart.


But then you smile

So big it chases the birds away

And you accept the offer

And we trade.


We spend the rest of the day sitting in the sun

Listening to the seagulls squall

And to the children as they play.

Archive: GRUUST issue 2

This is the second issue of GRUUST. This time I've hosted it using Google docs. You can either view it there or download it by pressing file > Download original.

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