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

[David Casseres]

On 10/5/05, jporter <jp3214 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
>