[Vision2020] Interfaith Panel Thurs. May 15

[Ted Moffett]

Chas, Kai et. al.

Chas, I assume you are pointing out that the concept of "race" is a social
construction, that is not scientifically valid?  For example, there are not
sufficient genetic differences between a Black African and a person of
Japanese descent to scientifically consider them members of truly separate
"races."

Read on the illusion of race at this URL:

"Race is a social concept, not a scientific one," said Dr. J. Craig Venter,
head of the Celera Genomics Corp. in Rockville, Md.

http://www.augsburg.edu/education/edc210/race-myth.html
--------------------------------------

Kai, as to changing the world to a more tolerant, less hateful, less
prejudiced place, I do not think that greed, anger, jealousy or sociopathic
tendencies are genetically determined to the point where behavior patterns
based on these tendencies cannot be dramatically influenced by education
from birth, resulting in a more peaceful, less hateful, more tolerant world,
though eliminating all sociopathic tendencies and behavior is unrealistic.
Outlets for the "negative" emotional personality traits can be channeled in
less destructive ways.  We accomplish this now with sports and competitive
contests of various kinds that structure aggression and us vs. them tribal
impulses into social outlets that allow these emotions expression without
resulting in lynchings, ethnic cleansing, bride burning, etc.

Raise an entire generation of humans in a safe, loving, economically secure
(food, medical care, etc), educationally rich environment, with examples
being set every day that hate and prejudice are socially unacceptable
(unless expressed in less destructive ways, as I mentioned in the last
paragraph), and I see no reason why that generation would not be a less
hateful and less prejudiced generation than the current one.  Humans are
very herd conformist animals; and much of the hate and prejudice and
violence in the world is learned behavior reinforced by example from adults
and peers.  We could turn this same impulse to herd conformity to lessen
hate and prejudice.

Of course, that odds this will happen in the near future are about zero.  In
fact, it may never happen.  But in theory I see no reason why it could not,
at some point in the future of humanity, even without genetic engineering,
psychoactive medications, or computer chipping people, as Chas mentioned.

Social progress has been made in the US, regarding many human rights
issues: rights for women, African Americans, homosexuals, etc.  This
progress can continue, though I recognize that it could also be reverted.
If the safety nets of economic/political stability became disrupted, humans
can revert to barbarism very easily.  For example, lack of access to food
and transportation resulting from the collapse of the fossil fuel economy,
without realistic alternatives, could turn the US into a survival of the
fittest battlefield.  I don't want to downplay the dark side of humanity.

Ted Moffett

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Chasuk <chasuk at gmail.com> wrote:


> On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 2:15 PM, Kai Eiselein, Editor
> <editor at lataheagle.com> wrote:
>
> > "In the fruit salad, the components are clearly distinct; ethnic
> boundaries
> > are intact, and reflexively "rooted" identities are secure and stable."
> >  Let's take the above statement by Souchon and change it to "...the races
> > are clearly distinct..."
>
> Are you suggesting that we put all of the races into a blender, so
> that we have one race (which, some would argue, is all we have,
> anyway.)?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080514/1d0ca54d/attachment.html