Schools For Civilization How To

Accepting that the idea on SchoolsForCivilization is laudable, it might not be terribly realistic. Here we're talking about (some of) the challenges and trying to think of plausible solutions for them. There's also a ThreadMess section down the bottom of the page for those who can't help themselves.

Challenge: Without FreedomFromWant, and in particular without adequate nutrition and shelter, no one's going to want to learn physics and diplomacy. So are you going to feed and clothe paupers out of thin air? Where's the money coming from?

The first phase is a military program, so it'll come from military budgets. After that, organized as a monastic system, it should pay for itself.

You're nuts - the military just want bigger and better bazookas.

It is possible to alter that. But it'd take a well thought out plan and all the political clout in the world to change it.

And monasteries get funded by tithes and grants, as I recall. They're not businesses.

They used to be. If the SchoolsForCivilization are going to work, they're going to have to produce productive individuals. Direct their taxes back to the schools.

Why be that indirect about it? Why shouldn't ten hours or so of the week be "Agriculture and Crafts", the results of which can be used to support the school...

"Agriculture and Crafts" is already part of some education. For instance, Montessori education encourages teens to become part of a working farm. Lessons include planning, working together, and budgeting money, time and resources. This is in addition to 'regular' schoolwork (like calculus, ugh).

Challenge: The school system in the West itself presently enjoys a horrible reputation, and only the children of the wealthiest receive anything remotely like an adequate education. Where are you going to get teachers for the "secular monastic system" that's been described?

Well, we have got a growing population of well educated elderly people ...

Um, yeah. Grandpaw, after working 50 years for his retirement, really wants to get his old bones off the sofa and run off to Afghanistan to teach higher math to some illiterate orphans. Right.

Some Grandpaws would do that. But you're right, not enough. So let's TrainTheTrainer instead. We have these hugely expensive prisons full of non-violent dope-smokers, many of them stuck looking at walls for years. There were over 1.5 Million arrests for dope in the US in 2000 alone. Let's give 'em a way out, and a job to go to when they get out. Such prisoners won't be as malleable as the children of our EnemyCombatant?s, but on the other hand at least they're already fed and sheltered. Make their participation in the schools a condition of their parole.

Challenge: Everybody stupid has a fanatical religion. Before anyone jumps in, yes, of course, there are lots of smart fanatics too. So how do you deprogram zealots en masse? And how do you keep our domestic zealots from just turning the whole thing into SchoolsForZealotry??

First you have to take the kids out of the environment of fanaticism.

Great, let's bus 'em to Belgium. Or Tahiti is nice this time of year. And let's also get 'em a spliff of that great ganga you're smoking.

No one said this is going to be easy. It's going to be hard. But it's still worth doing. What's necessary is to find a geographically defensible region of each country to be subjugated, build a nice big wall around it, and use mines and flying drones to police a DMZ of a few miles in all directions.

Do you have any idea what that's going to cost?!?

Nope. And I don't much care. It'll cost vastly less than a few of the bombs and planes and ships we're making at present. If we want an enduring global civilization it's going to cost.

Challenge: Isn't there some way to do this without military involvement?

No, it's an act of war to replace someone else's culture, no matter how violently stupid, with one of your choosing. There is an American organization, the Peace Corps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps), who attempt to bring civilization to the third world. But they only go to peaceful places and their budget is about the same size as the maintenance cost of a single fighter plane. Real SchoolsForCivilization would go where we are not wanted, and convert the children of our enemies into our friends. No one would welcome that with garlands of flowers.

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