In trust of our children.

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
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I got this quote from another forum.

I’d like to talk more about this if anyone would like to.

Anyways the quote…

I think it’s more important than ever for us to again ask: What is the role of the philosopher in society? I mean… you’re here right? Is the future really that depressing for you? It certainly isn’t for me but I hope to keep it that way as best I can and then possibly work on improving.

I mean, we’re all semi-educated -and in my case partially coherent- people who’ve been around for a little while at least. Imagine yourself now as a young kid in the classrooms as they exist today in an average American school. :

Take the average High School today and really examine what he knows, if anything. Most are filled with bits of common sense, juvenile movie quotes and knowledge about material objects will be outdated before you even read this. Do you want a mob of those punk kids you see on the street every day grow up to be the ones electing a President of their caliber to run a nation? Are you insane?

The internet; or more precisely what will be set into motion out of the internet’s slow pre-ambled steps, is so much more a part of all of the west now than I think we realize. Many of us have been nerds so it’s not as noticeable (or at least I didn’t see it… again I’m slow) but the internet is the third section of our brain – the external sum of all human knowledge; but more importantly is that self contained within this data-pool is also the sum of all knowledge on how to disseminate it.

I mean, does it not seem to make more sense to introduce children to the concept of philosophy at the earliest stage possible? – to focus on this?

Newborns will automatically share food with each other if left to their own devices – greed is taught into them. What I mean to say here is that I feel like by capturing the essence of what the child is when they are young an uncorrupted they can use the internet in a loosely constructed curriculum originating from their philosophy to fulfill their well-established personal will. When this happens no amount of occult TV brainwashing would work because armed with common sense, logic and other basics, and complete revamp of any sort of linear based schedule, the mischievously subtle methods employed today would be rendered ineffective at best, and laughable anywhere after that.

I find it funny… . This would be so easy to implement, it would solve so many problems: let the kid with ADHD into school un-medicated, pure, and let the councilor watch them engage the internet in a controlled environment which fosters brilliance instead of problematic pharmaceutical mental zones, etc.

Imagine the online commercials:

This type of free expression is what the new world seems to be around – finding a relative home of like-minded people from which to express collaboratively like we’re doing here now.

…

I worry, though, because the US is a dictatorship, and if the wrong thing happened now it’s gulag camps for dissenters like me and most of you. By dissenter I mean anyone intelligent who shows original thoughts; or sometimes simply people with a large enough vocabulary to communicate a contextualized definition of the new religious words like ‘Homeland Security’ ‘Radical’ and/or ‘Terrorism’.

Human expression runs in direct opposition to corporate gain; but this is only under the current, fraudulent monetary system. I think that’s something that we all recognize but perhaps don’t realize the implications of. Corporate gain in this model implies controlling the act of invention itself and suppressing anything in accordance with the most effective/greedy economical/moral system one could conceive of. We should not be content to live in a robotic world of illusions and uncertainty when we don’t have to. Here look at yourself here expressing -you- in the spare time you have. We can keep human expression and technological progress it all starts with money.

But where do we get the money for these paradigm shifting eduction reform programs which would then reform the money system with? Those who created that money system might snicker amongst themselves at a question such as that one.

…

What i do know is that while it’s sort of a foreign thought on occasions as we get older, let’s just suspend things for a second and picture two hypothetical worlds just for the sake of it:

The second scenario seems like quite the mess of a situation but yet when you really look at it it’s one of those situations which is constantly trying to self-correct. It takes work to keep it that messy and the workers are self actualizing faster than ever in that scenario as time goes on. It gets harder and harder to get people to continue to believe they need paper and flashing lights more than they need their ideas – that they are savages who cannot change.

It’s simply not true.

I say we trust in this generation of kids – the ones we have have a chance to affect change in the system for. Give them a fair chance and see what human nature really can do when left free to roam the folds of vast creative Noosphere expanses we’ve enveloped ourselves in. One shot.

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O_G,
I gladly respond because I admire your thoughts and wonder why you aren’t around more in the philosophy forum. These kudos are not given so that you will accept my opinions; they are recognition of what you give.
I’m a socialist in the sense that if I and several others were stranded on a lifeboat with only one loaf of bread between us and starvation, I’d insist on equally dividing the bread.
Yes, philosophy should be taught in schools. I once presented Darwin to a tenth grade class and was overwhelmed by the variety of reactions I got. Variety in oulook is the only safeguard we have against opinions that solidify into us vs them absolutisms. I see much hope for the world in young people, if only we could challenge them to think for themselves.

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Thanks :slight_smile: I’ll try and be around more.

Yes I see this as so true – especially in a world of seemingly increasing subjectivity in a way that has never been seen before.

For example one might argue that the world is even more objective than ever as you can log onto the internet and find the definition for nearly any word or concept that’s ever been ushered on earth.

But wait… what’s this?

We now see that the one definition is actually but one of many, if not a great many. Wiki is constantly changing, evolving and so is the rest of the peripheral definitions and concepts which surround that hulking giant. It may have been harder to find a standard Britannica Encyclopedia definition of some obscure word in the past but when you did, it was more or less the only option because

A) There wasn’t the ‘rest of the internet’ in some book sense – or at least not nearly as accessible.

B) As the result of A) the people one could communicate with were also less likely to have previously disseminated the same type of concepts before that are being inquired about.

In further defining and elaborating through multiple (geolocational/temporal) perspectives information seems to slide down into a type of pyramid of what I see to be essentially agreement at the tip giving way to the wider disagreement at the bottom. It is not to say that the majority who are ushering around the agreement ‘tip’ (Wiki) are ‘right’ as that’s a silly thing to say in a philosophical conversation, but just to point out that there is actually a depth now which offers confusion, but ultimately the ‘right’ answer for the philosopher who happens to be looking.

It is this confusion we should we encouraging, I think, as it’s the basis for the battlefield in this new era. I say teach IC, Evolution, Global Warming(s) and -don’t- pin these kids down to any sort of absolutist determination. Let them return to us instead of us coming to them with a right and wrong test sheet.

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Back when I was in grad school (during the time of the dinosaurs :smiley: ), a prof stated that Aristotle was the last human to have encyclopedic knowledge. Not so!. A. may have had encyclopedic knowledge of Greek culture; but he had no idea about what the Chinese were thinking then. Nowadays we have a world made smaller by global communications devises and yet we still know little about what the Chinese are thinking. We get exposure to Chinese culture via their written literature and state-sponsored propaganda. With computers we can ask individuals in China what they think; but I’m not sure we can get a straight answer. In short, we should teach critical thinking from day one. All of the information one can possibly amass becomes useless if not applicable to living experiences.
Many cultures other than USA realize children can learn algebra and geometry in grade school. Consequently, these cultures are surpassing us in technology. Globalization does not necessarily lead to standardization. It shows success or failure in the transmissions of knowledge.
I appreciate your pyramid concept and the comparison of Wikipedia to Britannica.

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I pretty much agree with everything here. The school system is in dire need of re-vamping. It was largely designed to create factory workers (school starts at 9, stand up when the bell rings, move to the next station . . . right down to lunchboxes, I mean, come on). That was an excellent system for when the American economy was based on factories but for good or for ill (mostly ill, IMHO), America has moved away from a production economy. It would make sense to shift our educational focus away from that model as well.

That said, I think it needs to be alted by degrees, not a complete overhaul. Everything that is needed is pretty much there for people that are willing to take advantage of it. Now the trick is to make people take more advantage of it. I agree that teaching philosophy would be a useful first step. I also agree that cultivating our original minds is a good call.

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It is freedom, after all, if there is such a thing. People can become enthralled with their wants to a point that nothing else matters. Who is to say this is a bad thing?

The key is to keep your wants in perspective. Once you get beyond food and shelter and clothing, everything you want is just fanciful toys. As long as you realize this, there is nothing wrong with wanting material wealth.

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Welcome aboard! A material girl? Oh my! :smiley: Add to your synopsis what effect your acquisitions have on others. Or do you care?