Curiosity Over Pride (FYI: To comment, send an e-mail to scifidink@gmail.com)

Friday, August 14, 2009

Exposure: Typhoons, Virginity, and Home Schooling

( These subjects belong together. If we tackled them individually we'd tangent ourselves to all sorts of other manifolds on the fractal map.)

1) The island of Taiwan just got slammed by over 7 feet of rain. They're scrambling to recover. This natural disaster furrows my brow more than most because I really like islands. I've always wanted one so that I could build the perfect culture. A hidden utopia that obnoxious people couldn't physically locate and invade. Of course, with global eco-destruction and satellite communication my dreams of isolation (along with fantastic waterslides) are absurd.

2) Deb (the site's resident pornographer) brought up virginity a while back. Recently at a hotel I found the Bible (ubiquitiously stuffed next to the local phone book in a desk drawer by the Gideons) and flipped through it. Honestly, the number of references to punishing non-virgins was terrifying. These people were obsessed with virginity. In the evolutionary morality book I mentioned a while back it spoke of "honor killings". This concept is huge amongst herding cultures. Not agressively defending your herd against thieves could literally result in starvation. Its not as big of a deal amongst farmers (thieving some of the harvest was rude, but the land would still be there to grow more). So the author insinuated that the herders who wrote the Bible considered women their sexual flock; thus honor killings.

3) The concept of home-schooling makes me nauseous (full disclosure of bias, yes?). Will it always fail? No. Does public schooling always succeed? No. But I still feel the group is better off with public schooling.

Its a heuristic error to take an anecdotal example and over-extrapolate. But its fun and it feels good. So. My parents wanted educated children. They themselves had education to transmit. Seems good so far. It would have been a disaster. Even in our relatively emotionally-functional family there would have been rebellion, treachery, bribery, etc. In short, drama.

Many parents sadly don't care about education and just send the kids to school everyday to be rid of them. Many vain parents would vastly overestimate their knowledge and ability to logically transmit the knowledge. In an already emotionally dysfunctional family adding education to the mix would result in murder-suicides.

In summary, items 1,2, and 3 have similar lures and almost inherent self-destruction.
The dream: In sterile isolation, perfection can be created. No exposure to other people, bodies, or thoughts which may cause questions and exploration.
The reality: Most likely, your isolation will fail and resentment will flow. If you succeed in isolation, you're creation will be too vulnerable to survive on planet Earth.

12 comments:

Debra said...

Ummm, dink, since when did I become a....COW ?????
This is a rather insulting idea....
I think that MEN are rather obsessed with virginity in general because... there is really no way to mark that first time in your anatomy, is there ?
Whereas, in ours... there is that troublesome hymen that gives the whole thing away. (Well, theoretically at least, no mind that you can lose your "virginity" on a horse, that doesn't count.)
Homeschooling is the recognition by certain individuals that the Enlightenment ideal of mass education has its own particular disadvantages. Major disadvantage : learning occurs best, generally in one on one relationships, or in very small groups. Rousseau advocates home schooling, and justifies it very well. (No snide comments, Thai.) His argument basically, is... why DELEGATE the responsability of the education of your children to a third party whose interest in it is not as vital as is your own ? Personally, I think he has a very good point there. And you should know that when you delegate the responsibility for the education of your children to the social body itself ( a form of representation), there is no reason in hell why YOUR interests as an individual will be upholded in any way or form. School is not to educate children. It is to create and cement national identity. Yes, well, this IS a rather cynical statement, but I hold to it. I wish that I had known this earlier, believe me.
I think it fair to presume that home schooling will create children who are extremely individualized, and singular people, with perhaps less pressure to conform, although I will not swear to this.

SS said...

And considerably less social skills, I really don't see it at all!

SS

Thai said...

Probably another zero sum issue ;-)

Debra said...

So....who says that SOCIAL SKILLS are the be all and end all of human existence, anyway ?
And who says that you HAVE to acquire them at SCHOOL ?
I certainly didn't.
And I ended up "getting" them anyway.
Thai... if you throw down that zero sum trump card TOO often there won't be any discussion. We will just articulate that "zero sum" mantra like the Hindu "OM" and that will be the end of it....

Thai said...

I know. I was just playing ;-)

Dink said...

"since when did I become a....COW ?????"

To some, millenia ago. To me, never.

" a third party whose interest in it is not as vital as is your own?"

False assumption; there are some really fertile, yet unfit for parenthood, humans out there. Though I've not spawned, I'll always support public schools because 1) selfishness (I believe it increases the percentage of people who will keep me happy), and 2) altruism (though perhaps I developed this through a genetically selfish evolutionary path, it feels genuine at my perception level).

"that zero sum trump card"

It can be zero-sum on one manifold (ex. individual), while totally lopsided on another (ex. group, genes, etc.). Little differences on one fractal plane can scale up to huge differences on another...

Debra said...

So... where's Okie ?
I invite you guys to go check out his outstanding blog that he has not been keeping up, unfortunately, but I definitely understand.
I hope that he will import some of his stuff over here, because I'm too lazy to go read it over at his place...
You hear that, Okie ????

OkieLawyer said...

OK, I think I can comment now. This is a test.

OkieLawyer said...

Ha!

You've done it now!

OK, I will put up a post soon. There is something I have been wanting to get off of my chest for a short time now. I don't really feel like writing tonight, but I will tomorrow.

Thai said...

Welcome Okie!

You will have to keep everyone company while I am go for a few weeks- off to Montana for summer vacation FINALLY!!!!!!

Everyone have a great few weeks and I will "talk" to y'all when I get back

Hasta luego

Debra said...

Welcome Okie, bye bye for now, Thai. Have fun out there with all those cows and meese and grizzly bears (depending on where you go of course..., ;-) for zero sums too... How long is a few weeks, Thai, does that mean that I have to correct my European friends' ideas (notice that CORRECT apostrophe...) about the ridiculously short duration of American vacations ? Are things... CHANGING in the land of the Protestant work ethic ?????
We are busy at work on our redecorating with no plan of course !!! lol.

Thai said...

Hey guys, having a great time in Kalispell Montana.

How come there is no comment feature on (I assume Okie's?) post?

Okie, my response

Dink, what is wrong with the comments section?

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