RE: It takes a classroom to raise a village?

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Mar 22 2003 - 12:01:02 MST

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    Michael writes

    > > can you imagine that might be of help to the village after
    > > some inventive people *here* --- be they children or not ---
    > > could really do?
    >
    > I don't have any real specific examples. I was thinking that the kids
    > could discover possible networks that the villagers might normally
    > offhandedly reject due to sociopolitical structures within the village or
    > surrounding areas.

    Yes, things that might be rejected because of the villagers
    cultural "limitations". But let's look at one of Spike's
    examples before I unload.

    Spike:

    > The locals often turned out to be unsuitable
    > construction workers: they had a far too casual
    > outlook on life, wouldn't show up on time, wouldn't
    > show up consistently, would wander off the job in
    > the middle of the day, wouldn't build to any
    > semblance of the plan, didn't understand the
    > English measurement system, etc.
    > ...
    > The idealistic young medical students are driven to a
    > nervous breakdown, because they cannot seem to get
    > the locals to MOVE! The locals won't jump to a clock
    > over there. Pretty soon the students beg for a work
    > crew to come over and BUILD something, before their
    > hitch is over. Often the result is much mutual
    > frustration.

    One of the truly great things about science fiction
    is that you get to imagine being on the receiving
    end as well as the providing end of a lot of shit.

    So we are compelled to imagine how we would feel in
    the shoes of the villagers with their "limitations".

    Suppose that your house were suddenly invaded this
    evening by four of the world's greatest self-help
    professionals, all extremely bright who could help
    you spot all the things in your life that are not
    going maximally well. They would teleport here and
    there throughout your day commenting on this and
    that, suggesting how limited your concepts were of
    what was possible, and trying to get you out of your
    rut and into adopting a more revolutionary attitude
    at every second. Sometimes they'd have to sit you
    down in a chair and practically brow beat it into
    you.

    The most frightful part is that they would be
    absolutely right.

    If you could stand listening to them, and if you
    could just try your hardest to learn what they
    were saying and apply it, you'd be a millionaire
    inside two years, have found many, many more
    totally fulfilling relationships with other people
    and groups, and come to live your life to its fullest
    potential. You'd even lose weight.

    Yet how many of us would press "the button" that would
    allow these four super individuals to descend upon our
    lives in this way? Even if we intellectually *knew*
    that all that I've said above is totally correct (assume
    for the purposes of argument that it is), who would do
    it?

    Damn few of us. So it's the same with all these poor
    "benighted" villagers around the world, who don't see
    the necessity of our hectic work schedules. Hell, it's
    even true of all the non-extropians that a part of you
    would like to grab by the scruff of the neck, shove
    the Extropian Principles in his face, and scream "SEE?".
    "HOW CAN YOU NOT **UNDERSTAND** THIS?".

    Lee



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