----- Original Message -----
From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 5:14 AM
Subject: Re: A physical object that exists also for an
evolutionarypsychologist



> But back to teaching undergraduates: There is no physics apart from
> physicists.  There are no grades without teachers and school
> administrators....  (As Bertolt Brecht proposed: The reason the
> Catholic Church did not like Galileo publishing the Copernican
> theory in the vernacular is that if the people learned that the
> earth is not immovable, the people might start thinking the
> social order is not immovable either.)
>
> "Yours in discourse...."
>
> +\brad mccormick
>

Hi Brad, I found your above quote of Bertolt Brecht very enlightening.
Especially that the Catholic Church wanted folks to believe in the
centrality of the earth in the solar system.  But the second part of the
quote:  the fear that people might start thinking of social order as not
immovable -- hmmm.  This idea causes me much confusion.  The movability of
social classes has been present for at least the past century or so but in
most socialistic countries this type of social stratification did not work
because some folks were always "better" than others.  And during the reign
of Mao, the wealthy from the cities were sent to the country and the
countryfolk embraced city life.  Did this type of juggling work?  I expect
it didn't, even for the countryfolk.  Both groups would have been most
unhappy (and unproductive as well).

Brecht wrote during a time when our world was divided between the good and
the "other".  Now the new millennium world has everyone all mixed up and for
the most part pro-capitalistic (as opposed to socialistic).  IMO, this
social situation taking place in the new millennium has made everyone
"equal" and "not equal" at the same time.  And in order for the world to
realign itself into a workable group, it would appear that firstly the
groups will align with nationalism, then with family social groups, then
with education -- a world class stratification will take place based not so
much on money but perhaps on scholarship.  Is this wishful thinking on my
part or do you also see it as a possibility turning into a reality?   This
question is addressed to brad or to anyone else.

Gerry