![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiaa posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
talkpoliticsWestern culture, no doubt, has had a lot of ups and downs over the last couple of centuries, but the anchor for it was the concept of an orderly world, which has rested upon several core principles:
1. Consistency in natural law
2. Use of the scientific method
3. The logical pursuit of truth
4. Peer review, critical thinking, and skepticism as a balance to 'science by decree'.
These concepts reached their heyday in post-WW2 America. Engineers and scientific researchers leapfrogged one advancement after another, dazzling everyone with their ability to harness natural law as a tool.
But to some, these things were not seen as a harnessing of laws of physics, but a creative and almost godlike power. A mystique built up around the fields of engineering and science, and it was a magnet to young people in pursuit of a career. The fields of technology were major draws in the middle of the last century in the US. Breakthroughs in medicine, manufacturing, computers, and just about every part of human life has been positively affected by these technological advances, and families encouraged their children to be part of that growth and advancement of humanity.
The technological advances brought unprecedented prosperity and relatively luxurious conditions for even the poorest in the nation. And as often has happened throughout history, with prosperity comes complacency and growing lethargy. Hard work loses its appeal, and easy living seems to be an easier route. Why work hard if you don't have to?
And as the culture has declined, so has the magnet for technology. Fewer and fewer American youth desire a career in science or engineering. Non-productive elements of society have taken center stage. Sports, entertainment, celebrity worship, money shuffling.. these things are valued and esteemed over the mundane and difficult scientific disciplines.
Now, what was previously the most scientifically advanced society on this planet is in a time of anti-science. Social issues and cultural manipulation is taking place, of course claiming truth or science as a basis. But instead of open scrutiny, mandates. Instead of the scientific method, decree. Instead of logic and critical thinking, truth is declared and propaganda has become the new goal. Truth becomes what the various types of authority and/or establishment says, rather than something based on reason or facts. Critical thinking is not encouraged, just memorized dogma. History is not taught as dispassionate facts, but to mold a belief - without the need of a Cold War for that. Conclusions are presupposed, and memorized, instead of arrived at by research and thinking. THIS is the greatest failure of American education, which once was a beacon of classic liberal thought... Now, it is just another state propaganda tool.
Thoughts or rebuttals?
1. Consistency in natural law
2. Use of the scientific method
3. The logical pursuit of truth
4. Peer review, critical thinking, and skepticism as a balance to 'science by decree'.
These concepts reached their heyday in post-WW2 America. Engineers and scientific researchers leapfrogged one advancement after another, dazzling everyone with their ability to harness natural law as a tool.
But to some, these things were not seen as a harnessing of laws of physics, but a creative and almost godlike power. A mystique built up around the fields of engineering and science, and it was a magnet to young people in pursuit of a career. The fields of technology were major draws in the middle of the last century in the US. Breakthroughs in medicine, manufacturing, computers, and just about every part of human life has been positively affected by these technological advances, and families encouraged their children to be part of that growth and advancement of humanity.
The technological advances brought unprecedented prosperity and relatively luxurious conditions for even the poorest in the nation. And as often has happened throughout history, with prosperity comes complacency and growing lethargy. Hard work loses its appeal, and easy living seems to be an easier route. Why work hard if you don't have to?
And as the culture has declined, so has the magnet for technology. Fewer and fewer American youth desire a career in science or engineering. Non-productive elements of society have taken center stage. Sports, entertainment, celebrity worship, money shuffling.. these things are valued and esteemed over the mundane and difficult scientific disciplines.
Now, what was previously the most scientifically advanced society on this planet is in a time of anti-science. Social issues and cultural manipulation is taking place, of course claiming truth or science as a basis. But instead of open scrutiny, mandates. Instead of the scientific method, decree. Instead of logic and critical thinking, truth is declared and propaganda has become the new goal. Truth becomes what the various types of authority and/or establishment says, rather than something based on reason or facts. Critical thinking is not encouraged, just memorized dogma. History is not taught as dispassionate facts, but to mold a belief - without the need of a Cold War for that. Conclusions are presupposed, and memorized, instead of arrived at by research and thinking. THIS is the greatest failure of American education, which once was a beacon of classic liberal thought... Now, it is just another state propaganda tool.
Thoughts or rebuttals?
