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What a completely absurd and nonsense take. Where does this "purpose" get decided? Some secret cabal that controls the education system? Insane. There are some

What a completely absurd and nonsense take. Where does this "purpose" get decided? Some secret cabal that controls the education system? Insane. There are some flaws in our education system that are likely the result of the fact that it is huge, serves an incredibly diverse set of people, and thus is a very complex and difficult to manage system. There's no secret back room of evil people controlling the populace via an imperfect education system. What a weird take.

enragedcacti 4y ago
I don't endorse the GPs view in totality, but I don't think its necessary to have some secret cabal deciding things in order to have a discussion about the 'purpose' of complex social systems. taking just the example in the OP, parents need to go to work from 9 to 5 to feed their family, so they need their kids to be in school sooner than that so they can get them out the door, so they go to school board meetings and make sure that the start time stays early. No one shadowy is making this decision, its the result of a consistent failure to address the root causes and orient the system towards its intended purpose as part of a larger social system. If I start living in my van to renovate my house, but I never call any contractors or work on it myself, how long is it before I just become a guy who lives in a van? In the same sense as the van, sets of institutions that aren't subject to constant maintenance and orientation towards their purpose evolve to fill whatever broken niche exists by way of stochastic individual action.
- sushisource 4y ago
  That's just not what the word purpose means. Take your example: > If I start living in my van to renovate my house Keyword here, "to". "To" imbues the purpose. If you then completely fail to actually do the renovation, sure, that's absolutely a problem, but the van's purpose was still to help you renovate the house. You just happened to fail at it. Intent matters, and the comment I replied to implies a whole lot of malicious intent that is more likely just incompetence or unpredictable outcomes. The difference is important in understanding how to address the issue.

enragedcacti 4y ago

I don't endorse the GPs view in totality, but I don't think its necessary to have some secret cabal deciding things in order to have a discussion about the 'purpose' of complex social systems. taking just the example in the OP, parents need to go to work from 9 to 5 to feed their family, so they need their kids to be in school sooner than that so they can get them out the door, so they go to school board meetings and make sure that the start time stays early. No one shadowy is making this decision, its the result of a consistent failure to address the root causes and orient the system towards its intended purpose as part of a larger social system. If I start living in my van to renovate my house, but I never call any contractors or work on it myself, how long is it before I just become a guy who lives in a van? In the same sense as the van, sets of institutions that aren't subject to constant maintenance and orientation towards their purpose evolve to fill whatever broken niche exists by way of stochastic individual action.

sushisource 4y ago
That's just not what the word purpose means. Take your example: > If I start living in my van to renovate my house Keyword here, "to". "To" imbues the purpose. If you then completely fail to actually do the renovation, sure, that's absolutely a problem, but the van's purpose was still to help you renovate the house. You just happened to fail at it. Intent matters, and the comment I replied to implies a whole lot of malicious intent that is more likely just incompetence or unpredictable outcomes. The difference is important in understanding how to address the issue.