<div>Chas, Kai et. al.</div>
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<div>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."</div>
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<div>Read on the illusion of race at this URL:</div>
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<div><font size="1">"Race is a social concept, not a scientific one," said Dr. J. Craig Venter, head of the Celera Genomics Corp. in Rockville, Md.</font></div>
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<div><a href="http://www.augsburg.edu/education/edc210/race-myth.html">http://www.augsburg.edu/education/edc210/race-myth.html</a></div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>Ted Moffett</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Chasuk <<a href="mailto:chasuk@gmail.com">chasuk@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div class="Ih2E3d"><span id=""></span>On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 2:15 PM, Kai Eiselein, Editor<br><<a href="mailto:editor@lataheagle.com">editor@lataheagle.com</a>> wrote:<br><br>> "In the fruit salad, the components are clearly distinct; ethnic boundaries<br>
> are intact, and reflexively "rooted" identities are secure and stable."<br>> Let's take the above statement by Souchon and change it to "...the races<br>> are clearly distinct..."<br>
<br></div>Are you suggesting that we put all of the races into a blender, so<br>that we have one race (which, some would argue, is all we have,<br>anyway.)? </blockquote></div>