Re: Social Engineering (was: Different patriarchy Model)
Gerold Firl (geroldf@sdd.hp.com)
9 Jan 1995 18:05:06 -0800
In article <mccombtmD25q0G.AwA@netcom.com> mccombtm@netcom.com (Todd Michel McComb) writes:
>You are not being objective if you begin with the judgement/implication
>that other cultures (or, in this case, sub-cultures) ought (in
>whichever sense of the word "ought") to be more like yours.
I'm puzzled as to how this implication was transmitted. I was noting that
afro-american culture has been comparitively unsuccessful at socialising
its members in such a way as to avoid incarceration. Most people agree that
the slammer is no fun; I don't think I'm being particularly ethnocentric by
using criminality as a measure of social disfunction. Do you disagree?
If you find my perspective less than credible, listen to what black
residents of urban areas have to say. A large percentage are quite
dissatisfied with their living environment. I'm not saying they need to be
like me. Change is needed, certainly, but that doesn't necessarily imply
that black urbanites need to start acting like engineers. In fact, I would
say that the only effective kind of change which could have a chance of
improving our ghettos would have to be an organic outgrowth of the
indigenous culture. An alien outlook can not be foisted on people from the
outside. It won't take root. But cultures can learn, borrow, assimilate;
cultures always do. American culture more than any. And afro-americans are
part of american culture. They will develop solutions to their problems. But
it takes such a long time, from the individual perspective, that we just
can't help trying to accelerate the process.
>Whether you do this or not is something for you to think about, but it
>appears to many of us that that is exactly where you always begin.
Again, I find that a curious perspective, since I am quite dissatisfied
with many aspects of my own culture. I don't even think my own culture
should be like mine; why would I say that someones elses should?
--
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=---- Gerold Firl @ ..hplabs!hp-sdd!geroldf
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