From: blancw@pylon.com
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 94 21:22:51 PDT
To: sdw@lig.net
Subject: Re: Alt.Gvmt.Immorality
Message-ID: <199409050422.VAA28301@deepthought.pylon.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Responding to msg by Stephen D. Williams:

>There are some theories that various 'power' segments 
>of society  actively cultivate a particular working 
>model for their own benefit.  Foremost, of course, are 
>Clergy, lawyers, and gov.

Well, reading books like the one from which I took that quote 
would alert one's attention to the fact that there are many 
working models of human nature possible, and that one should 
not merely take the one given out in school or at church or by 
whomever.  I think that when one realizes that these models are 

all the product of our own human reasoning, then the idea of 
liberty & freedom becomes more meaningful, as one realizes that 
there are choices beyond the views created by one's elders or 
leaders.

>I've always thought and recently espoused that there 
>should be classes  from the beginning of highschool on 
>philosophy and sociology.  I  suppose the problem would 
>be which philosophy and whose spin on things  the 
>schools would encourage.

I think this would start a big fight in the public schools as 
to which philosophy or sociological works to use in the 
classroom.  

However, in classrooms per se if there were a general 
presentation of the concepts and discussions on the human 
ability to develop comprehensive views of the world, then 
everyone was turned loose in the library, each person could 
begin their study of any of them and proceed at their own pace 
& interest.  At the very least they could become aware of the 
source of the images of human nature which surround us and 
could better evaluate what it means to live & act within any 
particular system of operations.

>I just think that too many people don't think of 
>themselves on the  'meta' level.  (Thinking about what 
>they think and do and why.) 

The opportunities for this kind of thinking are greatly limited 
to what the church and politics provide as a frame of reference 
 (not that the libraries aren't open and available for budding 
curiosities).  It was from browsing through picture books of 
other peoples & reading about how other cultures arrange their 
existence, that I developed the comprehension that there are 
different methods of doing things in the world, that there is 
such a thing as choice, and that not only cultures but 
individuals can arrange their affairs according to their own 
ideas of success.    

Blanc