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You have to realize the fact that humans have some really annoying bugs. a) The first one is the fact that we want (mostly) to help each other and make each ot

by sannee 11y ago

You have to realize the fact that humans have some really annoying bugs. a) The first one is the fact that we want (mostly) to help each other and make each other happy. This looks benign, but combined with b) can be really irritating b) Humans are bad at empathy. You might enjoy humanistic education or sports and so you automatically think that everyone else does too. This probably worked fine for our ancestors (getting torn apart by a cave lion is something no-one would like) but kind of breaks in modern society. Different people like different things, keep that in mind.

ctdonath 11y ago
You missed one critical bug: c) Most humans just won't "do it". As a child, student, teacher, and parent I've realized that most tasks really aren't that hard, and by far the greatest hindrance to expedient success is an irrational unwillingness to "just do it".
allendoerfer 11y ago
I think a bit different about humanism. I think a basic humanistic education is more like a drivers license for society. Know nothing about WW2? Well, you should not be allowed to vote, because it could turn out really bad for all of us. Democracy can be really dangerous without proper education. What does all technical excellence mean as long as the Middle East is a clusterfuck? Most really big problems have little to do with technology.
- devonkim 11y ago
  The reality is that most people that vote do not know all that much about anything materially helpful from a geopolitical standpoint (many politicians themselves included I'll assert) and are basically low-information, single-issue voters that get pandered to in elections, unfortunately. While some arbitrary criteria is needed to keep people voting on issues that they have no information about (although I argue many 15 year olds are better informed than many 51 year olds, the average 15 year old is definitely not while we have some debate on the 51 year olds), establishing some "knowledge test" or something similar for voting is how we lose the basic foundations of democracy. What really needs to be done particularly in the US is increased voter motivation because low turn-outs are not helping anything at all here. People don't want to talk politics out of "politeness" or something other passive policy and the country continues to have trouble talking about hard issues without leading to emotionally charged methods of "argument" that have led us to the current state of things with low voter engagement and politics devolving into a minstrel show of democracy.
- codingdave 11y ago
  Are you truly proposing a limit on voting rights based on educational achievements? I think that is a road that will lead to an elite class in our society, limiting political power to those who grew up in poverty or had other struggles. We already have enough problems with an elite class within our economic power. Lets not extend that elitism into governmental processes as well.
  - allendoerfer 11y ago
    I did not. I just wanted to say, that we should try to educate children, because they will be allowed to vote as adults.
    - codingdave 11y ago
      Thank you for clarifying. I must have been thrown off by your exact words of, "Well, you should not be allowed to vote"

by sannee 11y ago

ctdonath 11y ago

You missed one critical bug: c) Most humans just won't "do it". As a child, student, teacher, and parent I've realized that most tasks really aren't that hard, and by far the greatest hindrance to expedient success is an irrational unwillingness to "just do it".

allendoerfer 11y ago

I think a bit different about humanism. I think a basic humanistic education is more like a drivers license for society. Know nothing about WW2? Well, you should not be allowed to vote, because it could turn out really bad for all of us. Democracy can be really dangerous without proper education. What does all technical excellence mean as long as the Middle East is a clusterfuck? Most really big problems have little to do with technology.

devonkim 11y ago
The reality is that most people that vote do not know all that much about anything materially helpful from a geopolitical standpoint (many politicians themselves included I'll assert) and are basically low-information, single-issue voters that get pandered to in elections, unfortunately. While some arbitrary criteria is needed to keep people voting on issues that they have no information about (although I argue many 15 year olds are better informed than many 51 year olds, the average 15 year old is definitely not while we have some debate on the 51 year olds), establishing some "knowledge test" or something similar for voting is how we lose the basic foundations of democracy. What really needs to be done particularly in the US is increased voter motivation because low turn-outs are not helping anything at all here. People don't want to talk politics out of "politeness" or something other passive policy and the country continues to have trouble talking about hard issues without leading to emotionally charged methods of "argument" that have led us to the current state of things with low voter engagement and politics devolving into a minstrel show of democracy.
codingdave 11y ago
Are you truly proposing a limit on voting rights based on educational achievements? I think that is a road that will lead to an elite class in our society, limiting political power to those who grew up in poverty or had other struggles. We already have enough problems with an elite class within our economic power. Lets not extend that elitism into governmental processes as well.
- allendoerfer 11y ago
  I did not. I just wanted to say, that we should try to educate children, because they will be allowed to vote as adults.
  - codingdave 11y ago
    Thank you for clarifying. I must have been thrown off by your exact words of, "Well, you should not be allowed to vote"