Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
LOL happ- want a laugh?
I once yelled at my dad, at the age of 14, to QUIT demanding I think like a 30 yr old! That stupefied him for years, made him examine where I was coming from better, and improved his ability to get his point across to me. We were friends after that impass, but it was a hard habit for him to break.
There are many degrees of blindness happening online that's a mixed bag. We have no gender, race, religion, or anything that defines us traditionally in this medium until we announce who we are with words or betray ourselves via cultural stereotypes.
Being completely honest with ourselves- we don't know who we're speaking to in this wide arena, so it makes it harder to communicate in some ways. Other ways it forces people to focus on merits of argument alone. I have more faith in the latter, but beware of imposing expectations. They have more to do with your personal preferences and less to do with the larger reality we need to collectively understand. Pure academic education severely limits the range of thought required to solve problems nowadays. Know what I mean?
I've been chastised by 2 ladies
Yes, a parent needs to assure & encourage the child [anyone ever watch the "Nanny"?
For example, the Parade magazine insert in the Sunday paper has an article on the Hubble telescope & how it has taught us that the universe is 14 billion yrs old. Then someone posts that "creationism" should be taught in public school!
Sorry, didn't mean to come off as chastising. It's important to acknowledge the limits of our perspectives, even among what is considered the 'elite', is what I was I was trying to say.
In my view, forcing schools to teach creationism will only result in children scrutinizing that with logic (rightfully so) and abandoning it as BS wholesale. Net effect of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The more faux religious rigidly cling to literal interpretations of poor translations, the more empty their church halls become. That's a shame, because the true meaning of religion is getting perverted by political antics. If only they had used half of their resources vesting in truthful scholarly translations, many of the issues plaguing christianity would be resolved for the sake of the greater good, and remain true to embracing tolerance that jesus was consistently teaching.
I can tell you from catechism experiences, kids know how to mindlessly chant back what you want them to say long enough to pass a test, but it won't have much credibility in the practice of their own lives when facts don't reconcile with reality. Good practice of religion requires the querrant to continually question their whole lifetime until moral habits are perfected- antithetical to the notion that religion is for dummies or for those willing to project blame outside their own realm. That is sadly not what is promoted in american churches, to the detriment of the truly religious.
I think it was good order and discipline in classrooms to have a minute of silence (to be used as the child chose internally, prayers or daydreaming) prior to class starting. Teachers being sensitive to the amount of time required for them to accomplish that were rewarded themselves with children being patient with the teachers. IE common courtesy and mutually respectful conduct. Abolishing that practice in some overdone notion that it was forcing religion was inappropriate. Children need that time to redirect their attention to what is most important, away from the bustle of socialization.
expound on this more please, particularly as it pertains to progressives alone vs all others in political spectrum and your perception of tolerance.
The OP references liberals and progressives -- alone. These folks often engage in intolerant name-calling, categorizing, and behavior but fail to preceive it in themselves. Cf.:red neck, neanderthal, bible-beater, fly over america, amerikkka, trailer trash, dittohead, wingnut, mouth-breather, knuckle-dragger.
A simple question addressing the problem of lack of education & experience. Why should one be tolerant of ignorance? Its like a parent expecting a baby to drive the car. When it is clear that an individual doesn’t have the smarts or ability to make right decisions then they need to be relieved of the responsibility for fear that they & others will get hurt.
Bush clearly is seen as an ill-equipped/"uncurious" man who as president created a mountain of problems for the nation & world. America has been the butt of jokes world-wide b/c we elected a bubbling idiot as our president [though of-course most Democrats did not vote for Bush ever].
So some on this website get all insulted & angry when called "ignorant." That's too bad & I have encouraged many to go back to school, preferably college so that they can better understand the world & gain some skills.
Yes, the educated (wo)man's burden. I agree completely. Kicking and screaming out of the nebulous, subjective abyss into the illuminating rays of enlightenment... sometimes, it's the only way.
I understand the sentiments & also realize harsh words create resentment. It is tedious to repeat words on deaf ears. Parentally, it is like reasoning with a child who is scared of the dark.
It may sound condescending but I can not think of a better solution & that is free education from grade school to post-graduate college. What a service we would be giving Americans. Thankfully the Internet opens many doors if the person is open to the whole picture [not just some small town isolation].
It's not condescending at all. Education (that is, academic) has always been key, but of course that's a starkly bourgeois value. Nonetheless, I have no shame.
I think academics definately has it's place, but lately, pursuit of pure academics is no guarantee of economic competancy. I'd have to say that recognizing all forms of intelligence and promoting their evolution is likely to yield the greatest success as a civilization, and as individuals. No, social promotion programs don't have any merit. Encouraging the wrong tool for the wrong job gets everyone nowhere in a hurry.
There will always be the element of our population who will not achieve competancy in much of anything at all, and forcing them to be rocket scientists with 50yrs investment of education will be futile. I think identifying inherent limitations of an individual and gearing your language to suit them makes sense if you mean to get your message across, but should it mean we dumb down all conversations/language to suit them so as to include them? Not reasonable IMO. Like most things in life, we have to raise ourselves as individuals to meet a challenge. Carrying people there won't change those unwilling learn, and will only detract from the conversation where higher levels can be achieved.
I think academics definately has it's place, but lately, pursuit of pure academics is no guarantee of economic competancy. I'd have to say that recognizing all forms of intelligence and promoting their evolution is likely to yield the greatest success as a civilization, and as individuals. No, social promotion programs don't have any merit. Encouraging the wrong tool for the wrong job gets everyone nowhere in a hurry.
There will always be the element of our population who will not achieve competancy in much of anything at all, and forcing them to be rocket scientists with 50yrs investment of education will be futile. I think identifying inherent limitations of an individual and gearing your language to suit them makes sense if you mean to get your message across, but should it mean we dumb down all conversations/language to suit them so as to include them? Not reasonable IMO. Like most things in life, we have to raise ourselves as individuals to meet a challenge. Carrying people there won't change those unwilling learn, and will only detract from the conversation where higher levels can be achieved.
Economic competency wasn't really what I was referring to (I know that you weren't addressing me specifically). I think the Liberal Arts are very important to the development of the individual in realizing the relativity of being alive in this world, the kaleidoscope of experience that is the human condition. That's what I was getting at. I think exposure and awareness is the key. It is not primarily academic, since it can be garnered in many different venues, but higher education offers the opportunity to progressively arrive at universality, which, for me at least, is of prime importance.
I found my 20 something self years back in the cunudrum of having substantial information to make educated decisions, but not the funds to meaningfully walk my talk, nor the political credibility due to $$$. I had to learn to develop an economic muscle as vital part of participating meaningfully in what's reported to be a democratic society (as if equality were happening passively). In practice our civilization is dictated more by capitalism. Money talks, bs walks harsh reality. It's another form of intelligence IMO, the ability to make money, one taught me by conservatives and accountants speaking unpleasant truths that I came to appreciate.
In a perfect world social liberalism would be tempered strictly by fiscal policies that are self supporting. I think the conservatives & libertarians alike could sleep better at night with those plans. I guess we have to wait until all those in political spectrum give up the idea that bashing each other just isn't working out. Makes lawyers and newsmen rich, makes everyone else exasperated and less prosperous.
I know this seems a stretch, but in the context of this thread question- as applied to real time politics- how can you refuse to tolerate intolerance when it comes imposed from your government, if consequences would mean scenarios of arresting ACLU members representing gitmo prisoners? How can you have intolerance for intolerance when its a corporate policy that spreads throughout an industry which determines whether or not you'll have a career? My answer is financial independence. My answer is self sufficiency.
My answer to liberals is master the game, then nurture your cause from a healthy place where you can better teach a man to fish. High ideals of academia are nice, but bridging the gap from theory to reality by making them materialize is an artform in need of mastery. Being financially beholden to any entity puts your values/ideals at the mercy of political sea changes. Learn from altruistic political activists who died penniless and disrespected. Their cause wasn't wrong, but how they went about it was.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
