reply to post by spellbound
Do we teach our children racism? Yes. Do we teach our children warfare? Yes.
Do we teach our children to communicate with other people, face to face? No.
Actually, racism and warfare are not taught. They're a part of the human psyche. No tribe of people known to man current or historic was without
tribal prejudice or warfare of some kind manifest. They're human universals. However, their effects can be mitigated through cultural/social tactics
such as an emphasis on recognizing the difference between an individual and a group, and recognizing that prejudging an individual by the shared
tendencies of a group (whether real or imagined/exaggerated/projected) is wrong and unjust. Especially so in the case of racial stereotypes/prejudices
because the individual cannot choose their lineage as they can their religion, political affiliation, etc. I would recommend reading up on
in-group/out-group tribal/evolutionary psychology. There's also a strong case to be made for the continuing decrease in violence in favor of trade,
communication, and education. You were actually less likely to die at the hands of another man in the 20th century, than you were at most other times
in human history.
If anything, the march of technology and the rise of the internet (I suspect) have had a net benefit for reducing racism. After all, here on message
forums, above all other avenues, the content of your character judged long before the color of your skin.
As for face-to-face communications, I don't really see where this factors is - as even before the technological age, the primary social skill
building ground was public schools. This hasn't changed.
Our babies and our young children are growing up brainwashed, ignorant about the history of the world.
As were you, and many others long before technology like the internet arrived on the scene. For those who want to learn, it's a liberating tool from
the tyranny of cultural memes. For instance, did you know that Napoleon was actually fairly tall for his time? Or that Catherine the Great died of a
stroke, and not from being crushed to death by a horse she was supposedly copulating with? That kind of stuff probably isn't taught or stressed in
schools. Some cultural memes are accommodated early on, but dispelled later if the student hasn't lost their will to learn by that point. For
instance, Columbus had no interest in proving the world was round - which was already well known at the time... and it was Magellan who is credited
for first circumnavigating the globe.
However, the basic fact that America has never been a Democratic Nation, but rather was founded as a Constitutional Republic in which leaders are
democratically elected - there's simply no excuse for not knowing something so basic. As John Adams wrote, they founded a nation of laws, not men.
This is something I sure as hell was taught in my History and Government classes. Yet some people still have trouble with this concept. Who do you
blame that failure on? The media? Parents? Culture? The Educational System? The Radio? The Horseless Carriage? The Internet? Rock Music? The loose
morals of the Flappers? Reefer Madness?
It's hard to say. Though a large chunk of the blame I lay ultimately with the individual for not desiring to further their bounds and learn something
new whenever and wherever they can find the opportunity. Especially in today's information overloaded era. Though, care should be taken to
distinguish between credible and dubious sources.
reply to post by XXXN3O
I often wonder about claims that human beings are becoming more intelligent, I really doubt that.
Actually, people today are far more engaged in literature than they have been for generations. It's really a second Renaissance. While we may
criticize such "netspeak" and short stories like that horribly bad (or inverse to win) DOOM fanfiction - consider how often the average person
engaged in such writing activities prior to the turn of the century, what we're witnessing is unprecedented. Most people never really wrote much of
anything non-essential at all beyond their primary schooling. Now, we at least have that engagement on a basic and eager level - as something normal
and common - rather than as an exception.
Texting of course will invade our language. Language evolves and morphs dynamically, and it's only to be expected that it incorporate internet
shorthand/slang every bit as much if not more-so than it has incorporated business/clerical shorthand and slang in daily usage.
[edit on 5-10-2009 by Lasheic]
[edit on 5-10-2009 by Lasheic]
