The Default Position
There are numerous moments where we take things that we instinctively know, but fail to put them together. I support a World Geography class and in that class we got on the subject of genocide. Genocide is one of those squeamish topics that has to be covered, but it is difficult to give its proper weight with young teenage minds.
For some reason my mind immediately went to South Park. In the first episode of their seventh season they ran an episode titled “Cancelled”. In that episode it turned out that Earth was a reality television show in another galaxy. Different species of animals were thrown together purposely to see what conflicts would arise. As you might imagine, this included the various races as well. Obviously, some of the humor was dark and sometimes crude, but the point was unmistakable.
We saw Hitler do this prior to and during World War II. He took over countries he felt had common affinity with his own. The idea was that all Germanic people should be together and a part of one country. As we saw, it also meant that whoever was deemed not Germanic was to be eliminated. We have seen so-called ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Rwanda, and in other locations as well. The war in Ukraine has its seeds in this in reverse. Somehow, Putin believes they belong together because they are the same.
That’s what makes the desire not to teach our history of racism so mind boggling. If you put all of these things together you get the distinct impression that racism, ethnic conflict, and cultural conflict is actually natural. The battle for everyone “just to get along” is not a natural state. It takes constant effort and if one stops making the effort then they fall into the pit of what’s natural.
Of course, this kind of discovery presents its own problems. One of the hallmarks of the KGB and their tactics is the notion of cultural and moral nihilism. It reduces everyone to zero. You’ve done evil things and I’ve done evil things, so you have no right to call me on my evil things. It’s always funny that our collective mainstream media seems to play the same game in attempt to be “fair and balanced.”
The discovery that conflict is the norm ignores those that deliberately try to move beyond the conflict. All people are created equal with unalienable rights and that governments are instituted among people to protect these rights. Those truths are not self-evident. They have never been self-evident. Knowing this doesn’t make our nation’s founding a fraud. Knowing this makes our nation’s founding that much more remarkable.
Knowing this also means that to get to that state of being we have to constantly work at it. If we acknowledge that equality and peace are not natural then we acknowledge that having peace and equality requires constant effort. It means we have to call out those that are not working towards that goal. That means calling out people who aren’t doing it now and it means calling out people that didn’t do it in the past.
It also means that both propagandists and those in the mainstream media are wrong. There are people that fight their own natural instincts every day and just come up a bit short. We aren’t perfect no matter how hard we try. We make mistakes. There are also those that aren’t trying. There are those actively working against peace and equality. They know they are doing it and are relentless in their pursuits. We cannot treat a person with good intentions and a person with evil intentions the same. Both do the wrong thing, but treating those people the same ignores that they are not the same.
Nick, you are onto something. Social/cultural boundaries and geopolitical boundaries are artificial constructs. We could ask the Palestinians about that landmine of 1947 Zionism aka Israel. Or we could ask the First Nations nearest to us.
Howevuh, since the classrooms you support are in TX, Nick, it’s probably not the best advice we could give you to combine the social science of World Geography with the hard science of DNA that proves we are simply one human race.
1Encountered a new phrase today which might be helpful to you, Nick, as you run the gauntlet of advocating for students.
“education gag orders”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-right-s-speech-code-moment/
2Nick, it seems to me you’re drawing some conclusions that fall into the zero sum trap.
3I’ve been convinced for a long time that it’s easier to move people in the direction of tribalism instead of inclusion.
But IMHO that doesn’t necessarily mean nihilism is our natural resting state of mind.
But “those actively working against peace and equality” sounds like an unorganized group of folks on the fringe trying to make themselves heard.
Instead of a massive, brutally coordinated, lavishly funded movement that’s captured a large chunk of the media.
And the brutally efficient coordination is key to controlling the narrative.
It’s not just the worldview.
It’s making it virtuous.
Somehow making it piously reverent, seethingly indignant, and FUN AS HELL!
All at once.
They’re selling the shit out of it.
We had sitcoms and Sesame Street for decades pushing peace and harmony.
But with the advent of social media, they’ve made their tribe nation wide, and as close as the phones in our pockets.
But the fight ain’t over.
Even if that’s what they want us to believe.
Think about it though, if nihilism was out resting state, would Uncle Joe have won the election?
Fair points P.P., I’d actually say that nihilism isn’t the natural state, but what people that follow the communist/Russian way of thinking go with. It’s not at the core of what mainstream media does. They just have a weird sense of what fair and balanced looks like. They think it means levying an equal number of charges at both sides. So, we spend years covering your illegal email server while we spend the same amount of time covering the other side’s blatant fraud and brazen attempts at lining their own pockets.
There seems to be no common sense in evaluating the intent involved. It would be akin to treating the kid who got one answer from a friend on a daily homework assignment the same as the kid who stole all the answers on the final exam. Sure, they are both cheaters in the strictest definition of the word, but who are we really kidding here?
4Re: the desire not to teach our history of racism
5The Cherokee children will learn the role of racism in their history, as will the Seminole, the Arapaho and the Sioux. Black children will experience the same racism without the context of history. Yet we chose to raise a generation of white kids with a significantly deficient education. And some people think that’s a good thing???