[log in to unmask] wrote:

> I just have a concern in general that if we teach our kids things that aren't
> true, they have difficulty later in distinguishing what is.

So, my son who says he is a cynic, but I'm not sure I believe him, tells me
recently that the educational process is such that in first grade they tell you
about George Washington, or whatever, and in 2nd grade they tell you that
everything they told you in 1st grade about George Washington was not authentic,
that it was something of a lie (is a simplification of the truth actually
authentic?), and that this process of providing untrue information year after
year eventually leads to a "higher" education where presumably the student is
being told something that is more true than not, but that after having been told
so many untrue things what they actually end up with, if they are alert, is not
believing anything that they are told.

What concerns me, in particular, is that not many people have an opportunity to
get very far in the process of cyclical lies and refreshing reinterpretations,
considering 6 billion population, and therefore I'm concerned that the world is
full of people who believe various levels of untruths that other people have told
to them. And these are the people that many of us do business with on a daily
basis. Then, there is always the perplexing question, as to where do we as
individuals sit on this procession. Are there people out and about that have a
closer approximation of true information than we have? Does Alan Goldspan really
know the truth? Are we in the top 5% of truth, presuming our intelligence, or are
we more like at the top of the botom 30%?

A recent quandry I have been exploring is the "true" case of the dummy Santa
thrown into the upcountry creek that adults misinterpret as being a real
decapitated human and they panic and call out the police and EMTs (not in the
normal course of their lives encountering very many decapitated humans or Santas
this is a new experience with new information requiring split second decision
making on minimal information) and the reporters report in the local newspaper
where the otherwise innocent kids, who some of them presumably believe in Santa,
get to read about how Santa's pants were down around his ankles and he was
wearing purple underwear with little panda faces on it. A likewise stuffed Mrs.
Santa was found nearby, in this case without underwear and leading to all sorts
of speculation as to the nature of foul play.

][<en