Vegging vs. Geeking [Re: Intelligent Design - the Creationists]

[jporter]

On Oct 4, 2005, at 10:43 PM, Rcfchess at aol.com wrote:

>
>  
> From: Rcfchess at aol.com
> Date: October 4, 2005 10:43:27 PM EDT
> To: artkm at execpc.com
> Subject: Re: Intelligent Design - the Creationists' Latest Wheeze
>
>
>
> Don't think it's really accurate (or maybe it is, come to think of it,  
> in a way) to call it "willful"; people get conditioned to not think,  
> to accept the stupidities that they've been brought up to believe are  
> right and automatic and unquestionable...not that that's acceptable if  
> we want a better world. I suppose you could say it's willful that they  
> choose to remain ignorant rather than allow themselves to at least be  
> open to considering other points of view...this is not meant to be  
> interpreted as being in favor of creationism, which is not a new idea  
> at all, just a phony redressing of old, antiscientific, religious  
> doctrine, which is totally unthinking. That, in a way, is the most  
> obnoxious thing about it: its hypocritical nature, pretending that  
> it's open-minded when in fact it's exactly the opposite.
>  
> RF
>  
>

It seems the great fear- and let's be honest- that's what it is, fear,
of the "scientifically minded" in this debate, is that their children
are somehow going to be indoctrinated with "phony" "old" "anti-
scientific" doctrines, which will somehow turn them into unthinking
automatons, despite the fact that no one is attempting to ban the
teaching of "straight" science in the classroom.

The real underlying cause of this fear, I suspect, has nothing to
do with "truth" or objectivity, but the realization by parents that
the majority of their kids, given the choice,  would much rather
skip school altogether in order to veg out in front of Star Wars
videos, or play video games, often with highly religious or magical
overtones- and this, at a time, when as Neal Stephenson suggests,
we are as dependent as ICU patients on the highly complex
technological  support systems which keep us alive.

	Scientists and technologists have the same uneasy
	status in our society as the Jedi in the Galactic Republic.
	They are scorned by the cultural left and the cultural right,
	and young people avoid science and math classes in hordes.
	The tedious particulars of keeping ourselves alive, comfo-
	rtable and free are being taken offline to countries where
	people are happy to sweat the details, as long as we have
	some foreign exchange left to send their way. Nothing is
	more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be
	masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple
	lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious
	leisure time vegging out.

	If the "Star Wars" movies are remembered a century from
	now, it'll be because they are such exact parables for this
	state of affairs. Young people in other countries will watch
	them in classrooms as an answer to the question: Whatever
	became of that big rich country that used to buy the stuff we
	make? The answer: It went the way of the old Republic.

Parents are scared that their kids are going to opt for vegging out  
instead
of geeking out, as Stephenson suggested in that op-ed piece. Eastern
Science may very well eclipse and dominate Western Science, which
will be the ultimate victory for eastern philosophy, and the cultures  
that
produced it.

jody

Read Stephenson here:


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/opinion/17stephenson.html? 
ex=1276660800&en=a693ccc4ec008424&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss