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> From: Jay Hanson mailto:[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: THE FATAL FREEDOM (was Re: definitions
> Date: Thursday, May 01, 1997 12:08 PM
>
> At 10:59 AM 5/1/97 EDT, brian j. callahan wrote:
>
> >At any rate, I think homo sapiens have an ability we call reason that
frees
> >us to some degree from a pre-ordained pattern of society.  The change
from
> >hunter gatherer to agricultural to industrial societies with large
variations
> >in the social structure in each should show us that.  So let's use that
> >reason to create a society where we can satisfy our natural needs and
> >inclinations while allowing all the other homo sapiens to do the same.
> >Wouldn't that be neato?
>
> You are apparently basing your ideology the misconception that
> people are "rational"[1].
>
> Studies show that most people are not rational.

OK, let's grant that. Hopefully, most people here will also concede that we
are the sum of what is called in short-hand "nature and nurture". Since we
are capable of doing and or learning many "rational" things, including
systematically building an understanding of the world and the universe, we
must have some capacity for being "rational". Wouldn't it follow, then,
that our irrationality may be rooted somewherein our socialization? And if
so, wouldn't the appropriate remedy be to construct a "rational" social
order that promotes the "rational" deelopment of "rational" human beings?

- Don DeBar