The Evolution of Socialist Ideas and Principals

The Evolution of Socialist Ideas and Principals





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Tags: Anarchism, Communism, Marxism, Socialism

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I have not a bloody clue why the Hutterites are against swimming lessons, and as for them being peacefully, well they are suppose to be, but the reality in our bar when they sneak off the colony, is not that way. They have tended to be some of the worse for picking fights as they are so arrogant in their belief that they are superior, as everyone else is going to burn in hell. The worst thing about them to me, is that they treat the women and girls worse than their cattle.
While they don't, to my knowledge, have bathing suits, but still go swimming in a dug-out that they set up with a diving board, I don't think the issue for them is bathing suits. The offer to teach the kids to swim was made with the intent of doing the teaching at their dug-out, so no one would be requiring them to ware anything other than their normal swim ware - their under ware. The problem is the little kids drowning when there is no older kids to supervise them. The older ones learn to swim on their own, or drown.
There are many strange things about Hutterites, like the sight of them decked out in old style home made cloths, but driving new 4x4 trucks or large passenger vans (owned by the colony). When they come to buy things, it's always the men, and they will refuse to deal with a women. When they come to our shop, for instance, to buy our broken bags of caustic soda (used to make soap), or the like, they resist talking to my boss, Janice. Wayne, my other boss and Janice's husband and business partner, has forced them to deal with her or fuck off, but they still resist it.
What I experienced in Nicaragua was just a slight taste of what the campesinos (peasants) life is like, and the experience of the poor in the Americas is not like anything else in Europe, Asia or Africa. Nor do I assume it to be. The Sandinista Front at that time, were trying to bring basic literacy to the Campos, as well as teaching them basic health care. Unfortunately, the American backed counter revolutionary guerrillas (the Contras) were doing all they could to destroy this. Many health care workers and teachers were murdered by them. Most of the old (pre Columbian) cultures in Nicaragua had been destroyed over a hundred years earlier. In your country, the roots of each tribe's culture is much older, and even the add on parts from Islam are much older.
As I said before, education, without the taint of religion is one of the most important thing we must strive to achieve world wide, for human culture to evolve.
I think the most influential teachers are not found at school, but rather at home. What do you think would happen if even 1% of mothers could be reached?
Unfortunately, many bad influences can come from the home though.While I recognize that converting the parents to think rationally, and pass that ability for critical thought on to there children, this is not always possible because of the demands of the economic realities that most of us live in. But when I say that education is most important, I do not mean it in a strictly academic school based setting.
These are interesting questions Mac. Huge questions. I have no idea what the answers are to any of them. However, since you asked them in the interest of discussion, I will give it a go. I think with any overwhelming problem, you have to break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Apologies in advance for solving the worlds problems in 5 paragraphs or less.

1.) I'm not sure that anyone can agree on what are dangerous memes vs. benign memes, but I do know that if you want beliefs to change, you will have to change the culture that espouses them.

In my line of work, I have to make change happen frequently on an organizational scale. What we do is find a group of innovative people and convince them to change first. Those people convince others to change, and so on. Probably 1 in 20 people is willing to change their routine drastically without much resistance.

Those people will change, and then talk to others. Then you get a group of early adopters. This is where you succeed or fail in making a long term change. If the early adopters don't like the change, failure is pretty well imminent because they will spread the news that the change is negative and then other people won't comply. The trick is to focus your attention and efforts on this small group.

You need to be well organized, have a clear message, and have people available who are good leaders. You also need adequate resources to make something happen.

2.) There was a UN resolution signed in 1970 promising that wealthy nations would contribute .07% of their gross national income to developing nations. Member nations have not necessarily followed through but there are still billions of dollars in aid going to developing countries annually. Beyond that, charitable donations from individuals and corporations are also made in the trillions of dollars each year. Distribution is very difficult unfortunately. Recipient nations also bear some responsibility for aiding in distribution of resources and that doesn't always happen. There are greedy a-holes all over the place.

Check it out:

Excellent! This is the sort of thing I was hopping to see show up in this discussion! :}*
Mac, you keep mentioning education as the key to a more enlightened citizenry. As an educator in the United States I am curious as to what the Canadian educational system is like. In the U.S., our national ideology is reflected in the extreme inequality of inner city and wealthy suburb schools, lesson plans are structured more towards behavior management that learning, and assesment is based on effort not knowledge.

This is a topic that I feel very passionately about and I could go on and on (and on and on), but I am more interested in what you have to say about what the condition of public education is in Canada.



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