IUBio

Education and culture (Was Re: "Abductions" DO NOT exist :They are misinterpreted sleep phenomena)

Jim Hunter jim.hunter at REMOVE_TO_EMAIL.jhuapl.edu
Tue Apr 14 21:15:45 EST 1998


Pepijn Schmitz wrote:
 > 
 > Jim Hunter wrote:
 > 
 > > Pepijn Schmitz wrote:
 > >  > Meaning what? Will a history book tell me that culture _is_ the
same
 > > as
 > >  > power?
 > >
 > >  Do I really have to lead you by the nose through the
 > >  entire "meaning what"? History books are replete with
 > >  examples of human failures concerning the mistaking of
 > >  authoritarian power _for_ culture. The continent which
 > >  teachs us most about that mistake is Europe history.
 > >  It has unbeatable examples of human brutality in the
 > >  name of "culture".
 > 
 > Sorry, I never payed much attention in history class, I can't think
of one
 > example. Could you give me one?



 Sorry, no. I have a policy of never stooping to
 playing word games with mindless questions.
 It's far more valuable to progress in science if
 you can induce the speakers of mindless questions
 to say what you want them to say. It's along the
 lines of lingual hypnosis.


 > 
 > I would also like to say that I don't think it's fair to compare
America
 > with Europe in the middle ages, since America in its present form
didn't
 > exist in those days. You really should stick to comparisons of modern
day
 > America and modern day Europe.
 > 


 History has nothin' to do with culture? Go figure. 
 I'll bet you're wishing culture had a pick-and-
 choose memory.



 > >  > Who's talking about wars? I'm not. Red's not. I'm talking about
the
 > > fact
 > >  > that a lot of kids in the US apparently feel the need to shoot
their
 > >  > contemporaries dead, AND have ready access to minivans full of
guns.
 > > That's
 > >  > certainly not true anywhere in Europe.
 > >
 > >  Your difficulty concerns quantities and facts.
 > >  Kids typically don't get guns from gunrunners
 > >  with minivans full of guns.
 > 
 > I was referring to the minivan that the two kids had waiting for them
when
 > they ran back from the school.
 > 


 Oh. Sorry, I mistook this for a thread about national culture, 
 silly me. I believe you want to post to alt.National.Enquirer, 
 that's where the enquiring minds read about the lastest crime
 scenes.         


 > > The kid's who kill
 > >  people tend to be the children of psychotic
 > >  religious freaks, who have guns. You'll have to
 > >  consult psychologists to be sure, but my guess
 > >  is they apparently feel the need to kill their
 > >  zonked out parents, but can't.

 > 
 > The parents of the two kids from the latest incident certainly don't
seem to
 > be psychotic religious freaks. Don't know about the other two recent
 > incidents. Besides, while we're on the subject of psychotic religious
 > freaks: there's a lot more of those in the US than in western
European
 > countries. Believe me, I know, I'm from Holland so I know the
situation
 > there, and I've been living in the US for almost a year now, so I've
got a
 > pretty good idea of the situation here too. So if they are the cause
of
 > these incidents, that _still_ reflects on the culture of America.
 >


 Of course it does. Weird religion and culture aren't that
 qualitatively that different.


 > >  Just as aside. Can anybody tell why all the
 > >  posts which concern psychology never get
 > >  posted to sci.psychology, but instead get
 > >  consistently routed to sci.physics by mistake.
 

 >
 > I don't know. I also notice that the thread seems to spread across
more and
 > more newsgroups. People keep crossposting articles to new newsgroups
along
 > the way. It may not be in sci.psychology, but it _is_ in
 > sci.psychology.psychotherapy.
 > 


 Oops. My fault. I didn't notice the group list went three
 inches outside the window. It's a rarity then. For some 
 reason a lot of usenet posters mistake physics for psychology.


 > >  > equating military power with culture? I was talking about
culture, I
 > > never
 > >  > even brought up wars!
 > >
 > >  I know you didn't, I did!!
 > 
 > Why? Nobody was talking about wars, why bring them up?
 > 
 > > (I one-upped you on the "!"'s).
 > 
 > :-)
 > 
 > >  > I'm not following... Also, keep in mind that I'm not voicing my
own
 > > opinions
 > >  > here, I'm just following Red's line of thought to its logical
 > > conclusions.
 > >
 > >  Do you really want to do that?
 > 
 > No, not really. But someone has to do it... *sigh*



 You're a brave man, Gunja Din. His opinions on American 
 culture are as good as anybody else's, up to a point. If
 it turns out that strange things happen here because of
 "aether", that's not true.



 > >  > age. I'm excluding the native Americans of course. If the US had
been
 > > as
 > >  > densely populated as Europe was in those times, it would have
been a
 > > _very_
 > >  > dark age, let me assure you. I was speaking metaphorically.
 > >
 > >  The "darkness" had nothing to do with population.
 > 
 > I'm beginning to suspect that you are not being entirely serious
anymore.
 > You didn't really think I thought that the darkness referred to the
 > population, I hope? What I meant was that if the Europeans had
invaded North
 > America before the dark ages, the dark ages would probably still have
 > happened, and would probably have been just as bad in America. This
is why I
 > said earlier that it's not fair to compare America with Europe in the
middle
 > ages.
 > 


 No. I'm not being serious anymore. I'm bowing out. I made
 a try at being serious to start;  but, all the religious 
 null thought going back-and-forth in this thread is making
 me dizzy.             



 > >  > Have you ever even been to Europe? It doesn't seem possible,
judging
 > > from
 > >  > the way you talk about European culture, and the way you seem to
 > > think that
 > >  > Europe is one country ('only one culture' ?).
 > >
 > >  Yes, I have been and enjoyed most of my visits.
 > >  Except the one time that some pissant Romans
 > >  ripped off all my luggage and passport.
 > 
 > I'm sorry to hear that. Did you get it back?

  
 Are you kdding? Who would go to the trouble to
 steal something and then give it back? As far 
 I could tell some of the local Cabineri(sp) were
 in on the scam. I hope you're not staying in 
 New York City while you're here:)


 > >  I believe you said you were Dutch?
 > >  Been there. Didn't get ripped off
 > >  or killed.
 > 
 > Did you like Copenhagen? ... <dodges beercan> ... sorry, just
testing... :-)

 
 No. I liked Amsterdam's downtown area the best.
 There's lots of "strangeness" in that area.

 ---
 Jim



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