Back dated rants: Education, politics & social order

May -, 2005

[Gentle reader, please note that this is another excerpt from my increasingly voluminous journal. Sections may seem to flow less then ideally, but this is to preserve privacy. For the same reason names have been changed.]

[...]

Literacy should be taught the same time as intermediate verbal skills. One could tie phonetics for verbals to the phonetics for the literary, but I don't know how much success you could get with that. With three-year olds, you should beable to do some basic reading,writing, and mathematics. I think counting to twenty and reciting the aphabet is more then reasonable.

Somewhere, some how giving children value became lip-service. They get robbed of their opportunities by people who are so selfish. It is heart-rending.

Now, let's put the social status of caregivers, teachers, governesses, and nannys aside for a moment. With that, put aside the debates of public versus private education and brandname versus generic products for children.

Why does our society feel that athletics and computers are more important then reading or mathematics? Why are athletes the socially acceptable role models. Why is the educated person regarded with suspicion and contempt? Our problems competing in business on the international stage is a result of our subborn culture of ignorance. We encourage sloth and sloveness. We fear the wisdom of the people from the school of hard-knocks almost as much as we fear the educated man. Our soceity is so ... broken.

Why do I say broken? Well, I suppose I must clarify society ... no, I need to explain the role of society as I see it. The role of our society is not to preserve the status quo or enforce some set of moral rules. Society is the frame where in individuals engage each other. It ultimately serves as a place for growth and healthy development of individuals. We cooperate for the good of the group because it raises the standard of living for the individuals.

We're currently stagnated. Cooperation is shattered becuse people focus on themselves. Ultimately, this harms us because we can not bring ourselves to raise the standard of living. Complancency leads to a failure to maintain our growth or our current status. Humans are generally egocentric. They fail to recognize the efforts that game becore to create the current setting. They also fail to see how their actions have a long term effect. Now, the degrees of this egocentrisim will vary. It is maturity and social interactions that draw people out of that innate egocentrisim.

Religion is one of them mitigating factors, too. It is an element that is fading out of our culture in ways that ... undermine our [cultral] stability. Relgion needs to be an organic and responsive thing that allows for us to continue to grow and live. Failure to do so brings the demise of that religion and the destabilization of the associated society. Part of the reason why Rome fell was becasue their society imploded. Decadance and social decay is the cancer of success. I hate to say it, but some hardship is necessary. Be it hardship to an individual for their growth or hardship to a nation/society. It is the bitter that makes us recognize the sweet. It is also the burden that makes us strong. The trick lies in recognizing when the bitter over powers the sweet or vice versa.

[text here] added at the time of posting.