In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the Psychotechnic Institute aims to reeducate individuals and to remake society and temporarily succeeds. The ten-year old Wilson Pete has grown up in an integrate civilization, has been trained in self-integration and, having learned the basics of multiordinal evaluation, knows that he should look at everything twice, think it through for himself and not accept anyone else's word for anything. This training enables him to apply detective skills to the mystery of the four-armed, green-furred alien, Joe.
Some heroes of juvenile fiction are role models for their readers. I suggested to children's writer, Alan Gibbons, that one of his characters, a primary school pupil, was unusually precocious but maybe was intended as a role model but Alan assured me that he thought like that when he was a pupil!
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And, as you recall from the comments I left in the "Terrestrial Society" combox, I was not surprised by how Wace was educated. The recent chaos in US public schools first because of the pandemic and now the madness of "woke critical race theory" are making many of those schools even worse. And I have been seeing signs of revolt by some parents against these failed gov't run schools. More and more I sympathize with the idea of abolishing public schools.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Is this race theory really mad, really in the schools and really making things worse? The US does have a history of racial oppression and inequality which needs to be addressed somehow.
Paul.
In any case, current state educational policies are scarcely relevant to the longer term viability or otherwise of state education as such!
Kaor, Paul!
Yea, the vicious nonsense of woke critical race theory is very bad! It is being used by the hard left to teach hatred of so called white people and contempt for Western society and history in general. Children are being INDOCTRINATED in this nonsense and it is causing some parents to protest and push back.
With the usual caveats regarding some exceptions, public schools in the US have been getting worse and worse for more than fifty years. Precisely because of bad ideas and failed policies.
As for Wilson Pete, what I thought was that simply studying Aristotle's treatises on logic and logical thinking would achieve what was described of him, without needing vague stuff like "integrate civilization."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
The "hard left" I know proclaim black-white unity, not hatred of whites! I was, unfortunately, brought up in a milieu where there was contempt for blacks. I think that each generation needs to reassess its history. We have no idea what people 100 years hence (assuming there are still people then) will think of 2001 but they will probably be able to see things about us that we can't. Sf gives us a perspective on this.
Paul.
2021.
Kaor, Paul!
I meant the hard left in the US, not the United Kingdom! Apparently the leftists you knew were far better people than the ghastly crew we have over here in the States. Where contempt for "whites" is what is being peddled in many schools.
I am pretty sure future generations will regard the current mania for "legalized" abortion at any and every stage of pregnancy with horror, contempt, and disgust!
I agree with what you said about SF and "perspective."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
You might be right about abortion but that is your, and the official Catholic, attitude. We have to try to imagine something different in the future.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
You don't even have to be a Christian to regard abortion with horror, IMO. Since abortion is the deliberate, unjust murder of the unborn, logic is enough to show it is wrong.
As for organizing or imagining matters differently in the future, I like the setup we see on Dennitza in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, in the Technic series.
Ad astra! Sean
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