Social Theory Part 1

Social Theory

Thoughts On Society And The School System

Part 1

Man, as he is now, is a pack animal. However, society as it is has to much conformity in it to foster independent thought. Due to the great number of problems with the educational system, the problems in society grow with every generation that is released from school. More emphasis must be put on the individual instead of the group and improving the individual to his or her potential, regardless of social class.


You must move away from the masses mentally in order to escape the emotion and be able to think clearly. However most people take this to far when they do this, and go into exile.


When you are isolated you are able to think. You are able to tale a full view and assess your situation and think of life in general. Just like when you are in prison, all there is to do is think. But, the longer you stay on the fringe the harder it becomes to go back into society. When are away from people for to long you begin to conceive strange and perverted thoughts. What happens is you degrade your condition and fitness when you leave the group because you were used to living with the authority of the group. So few of us have self discipline, we rely on discipline from others.


We lose our social intelligence, or never get it, if we do not go out into the world. Isolation in small doses can have good effects on the mind, but if your off the streets for to long you lose out on staying updated on critical information and social skills. Being able to get along with others is a form of intelligence, and you are not exercising yourself completely if you are not using it. The problem comes from when people take social intelligence as being the end all of life as part of cultural programming.


The social group relies on the thinking structure of others in order to think and make decisions, and they are rewarded externally, this creates problems once more when you are separated from the group. This also in part hampers innovation, because the group believes it has reality figured out, and everything that cannot fit into this picture will be rejected, even it if can be proven. The group contributes to the stupidity of it's members. When people reach 30 years of age they have become completely imprinted by the group, and therefore a new generation is needed to innovate things for a short time period. The older peoples have come to accept reality as it is, and do not question things because others do not question them, they are reliant on social programming and the authorities thinking for their own decisions.


The greatest problem of society is that it puts pleasure seeking actions and various distractions over productive work and freethinking. This is because the masses are not in control of their emotions or aware of themselves. It uses the 9-5 work and raising a family as a distraction and a way to fit further into the group. Because having children is a cultural norm, the parents may not be suited/want to raise their own children. And workers who self motivate are more productive.


They have not yet developed the ability to regulate their emotions and think logically. Therefore things like hydraulic theory (Freud), which says that the stronger the emotions, the more chance a person has to act on it becomes true. I am of the opinion that regardless of the strength of the emotion, you still have the ability to control your emotions. You are responsible for yourself, no excuses.


They avoid philosophical and serious discussion in favor of pleasure, distractions, and most of all the group. Self motivation is not taught in schools, so the people must rely on authority for it. Emotional control is not taught in school, so government/employers/teachers must do it. These people who are reliant on the group do not want to be free, they can't handle control over there lives because they are to afraid of what would happen if they were isolated and forced to think for themselves. Another thing our schools must teach is the logical fallacies that are used, so that they can see through propaganda and opinion and be able to think correctly. Scroll down to midpage and you can find a list of what I am talking about: http://www.trufax.org/general/beliefsystems.html People need to be able to identify this stuff in arguments, and be able to defend themselves mentally from this shit.


And while we are at reforming the schools, we should allow students who show that they have an understanding of the core knowledge the school is teaching to learn something they want to learn on school time. The short time I did spend in school I was always asked to not go faster than the group, to stay in the same place. After awhile, I gave up altogether and they put me into the retards class. Now, what if I complete a test for the day an hour early, and learn about Plato for that extra hour? Why shouldn't I be able to do this? Can anyone actually give me a reason why I shouldn't be able to?


Sartre believed that action that is done unintentionally cannot be considered action, even though it occurs in the world. Where does this put those people who are constantly thinking of things, and spend a large part of their free time thinking about work, kids, money, and other things (while not solving the problem)? Well, the work that takes some of there time is not as bad as having it on your mind all the time. What you end up with is a person that spends most of his time inside of his own head, visualizing bad things, which has negative effects on his mental and physical condition, and doesn't live life much. I believe much of this worry is not needed, it is just the mind wandering because your bosses have aligned your self interest with their own. We are taught to some degree to think critically, but we are not taught awareness. It's a funny thing, but it is a useful skill to keep your mind from wandering. So many people in this world simply take this awareness for granted. How do we teach focus, awareness? Well, we can start with yoga breathing exercises. Just try to keep your mind on your breathing for 15 minutes, and each time your mind wanders bring it back to the breathing. Do not talk, or scold yourself, just focus on the breathe.


Our education system focus's only on people who are skilled with using there left brain (logical/fact memorization/competition), and discards the 50% of the population that makes use of the creative/emotional right brain. Also, the system works better for females due to the fact that males are more geared toward action, we don't like to sit in one place listening to a lecture. We are ignoring emotions instead of teaching people to control them for themselves. The teachers are acting as the controllers in the school system. And, instead of being able to explore your own interests you are forced to go by your teachers plan you. "Conform, because thats the way it is", is the attitude we have right now. Now with outsourcing, foreigners can do our left brained work, leaving most of our left brain developed society out of work.


What is needed is a new philosophy for policy for society, and an overhaul of school systems, for starters. Before we implement any more changes to minor social issues or systems, we should improve the quality of individuals in the society. And the each new generation is educated in the school system. I want a people that thinks for themselves, and does not need an authority group, such as government, to tell them how to live. Maybe I'm just a dreamer.