John Callan wrote:

> I disagree....I think.  One is not born with the ability to recognize
> bullshit...it is either an acquired taste...or an acquired skill...or perhaps
> an acquired allergie...In any event, it is acquired and taught to the
> uninitiated.  The teacher does have responsibility and can be expected to take
> responsibility to control the bullshit to which his charges are exposed.  (If
> we aren't careful this learned conversation will disintegrate into another
> discussion of blue cocktail dresses.)

But where does this responsibility of the teacher derive from? Is it a
responsibility the teacher elects to take on? Or is it one imposed from the
outside via a peer group? I don't believe in universal "shoulds", though at one
time I was taught that I should. If one is not born to recognize bullshit, then as
well, I don't think one is born to recognize non-bullshit either. I've certainly
suffered teachers who filled my head with bullshit, some of it having rather
serious consequences in my life -- and they meant well. And I have fallen prey to
bullshit without the direct assistance of any teachers. As a parent I feel a
responsibility to teach the children in the family the acquired family knowledge
of anti-bullshit. My son asked the other day if my talking nonsense to the dog was
the way he was brought up. I remember my wife and I, mostly I, used to spend a lot
of time excitedly pointing in different directions and telling him to look at the
camel. There never was a camel, and that was the point of the lesson. If we did
come across a camel we would probably not tell him about it either. Our intent was
that he would learn to look for himself and not believe everything he was being
told. It may have worked, or not, but he does seem to have a youthful mastery of
bullshit. The acquired allergy applies as well to learning to be functional. My
consideration is that intelligence is the ability to survive. One false move and
you extinct yourself.
--
][<en Follett
SOS Gab & Eti -- http://www.geocities.com/~orgrease
Bullamanka-Pinheads website
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A0=bullamanka-pinheads