I think this is why "race is a social construct" has become such a common retort. If it's not real, then it saves you the discomfort of having to talk about it
There seem to be two definitions of racism. The original one was to consider every man or woman to be equal whatever their race and this is what we oldies aim for.
The modern definition is to be race-blind, so even a mention of race is deemed racist. Personally I think this is insulting cos it implies that race is something to be ashamed of.
Most people are proud of their race and its heritage so this is something to be celebrated.
Well, I can. But, actually, I doubt that I would waste my time with the idiots who apparently were in your class/seminar. People under a certain age - probably 40, or perhaps 50 - have never had a decent education, just a brainwashing process, So they cannot absorb facts or logic because they KNOW already everything it is important to know.
Actually, I have one in my own family - my youngest daughter, who attended a grammar school in the 1990s. Unfortunately it was a period when I was abroad a lot and I was not at home much to learn what was going on. She has married someone younger than herself and works in a woke London organisation so the weird values and ideas of the Establishment are constantly reinforced rather than countered. I have given up talking to her, just to keep the peace in the family, for my wife's sake. The close relationship I had with her in her pre-puberty years has vanished.
I will just say here that much of what is identified as Racism is actually Culturalism, but race is an easy, lazy identifier. We rarely if ever dislike a person because of their race, but we do find many cultural practices of others alien or abhorrent - and we don't want them imported into our own culture. So we are branded Racists. But that's the standard of argument used by the Woke. As for sexism, this is another modern idea that the sexes are virtually the same, that a female can do anything a male can, and to deny it is sexist. I guess this is why the Woke love transexuals - living proof of the interchangeability of the sexes. Nutcases, all.
No - well, I damned well wasn't. Nor were the boys and young men I mixed with. What we had was the belief in our immortality, or at least we would never get old. "Hope to die before I get old" as the song went. Well, some did but others survived, as I have so far. Anyone who thought they knew it all was, in those days, regarded just as a braggart. Nowadays they are conceited asses.
Actually, we had respect for many of our elders - our teachers, our parents, for example. We knew they knew a lot more than us. But now ability to handle a mobile device is about the only thing that matters - and in that I am deficient.
Just to add, many of my teachers had fought in WWII, a mere ten years earlier. Tales of the Eighth army in N Africa and the long struggle up the spine of Italy enlivened our Latin lessons, the fight across Northern France in '44, and the arrival in a defeated Germany from others. These men had our respect - no simple university graduates these with no experience of life. But then, most of the men when I was a boy, had had wartime experience where hardship had helped form their characters.
I was in IT (or programming as it was called then) and you had to be arrogant cos your job was to do things that had never been done before. Every day.
as for elders: I was bulled at school so for two years felt I had more in common with the teachers than other pupils. Wasn't until I got restreamed into the 6th form that I was surrounded by other kids who I considered my equals.
Well, you do sound an arrogant so-and-so! It doesn't square with your claim (first post) to regard everyone as equal. I'm glad I never came across you!
Inner thoughts and how we present ourselves are not always entirely in agreement. :-)
And I said "aim for" I didn't say achieve!
I try to regard all people as equal, but this usually fails when they open their mouths and start spouting ignorant, naive, rubbish. (I'm sure I do the same from their viewpoint.)
I think I'm with you on the last para. I don't assume I am any better than the next person - until I get evidence to the contrary. Even so, just because some one says something I don't agree with or know is wrong, I don't think I am better. More knowledgeable perhaps, but not better. What makes a good person is not knowledge but generosity, thoughtfulness, concern for others, and acting on these instincts. Knowledge and how to best apply it are factors in one's usefulness to society, but these are not necessarily the "best" people.
Getting into philosophical realms so had better leave it there.
I think this is why "race is a social construct" has become such a common retort. If it's not real, then it saves you the discomfort of having to talk about it
There seem to be two definitions of racism. The original one was to consider every man or woman to be equal whatever their race and this is what we oldies aim for.
The modern definition is to be race-blind, so even a mention of race is deemed racist. Personally I think this is insulting cos it implies that race is something to be ashamed of.
Most people are proud of their race and its heritage so this is something to be celebrated.
No
Well, I can. But, actually, I doubt that I would waste my time with the idiots who apparently were in your class/seminar. People under a certain age - probably 40, or perhaps 50 - have never had a decent education, just a brainwashing process, So they cannot absorb facts or logic because they KNOW already everything it is important to know.
Actually, I have one in my own family - my youngest daughter, who attended a grammar school in the 1990s. Unfortunately it was a period when I was abroad a lot and I was not at home much to learn what was going on. She has married someone younger than herself and works in a woke London organisation so the weird values and ideas of the Establishment are constantly reinforced rather than countered. I have given up talking to her, just to keep the peace in the family, for my wife's sake. The close relationship I had with her in her pre-puberty years has vanished.
I will just say here that much of what is identified as Racism is actually Culturalism, but race is an easy, lazy identifier. We rarely if ever dislike a person because of their race, but we do find many cultural practices of others alien or abhorrent - and we don't want them imported into our own culture. So we are branded Racists. But that's the standard of argument used by the Woke. As for sexism, this is another modern idea that the sexes are virtually the same, that a female can do anything a male can, and to deny it is sexist. I guess this is why the Woke love transexuals - living proof of the interchangeability of the sexes. Nutcases, all.
I've written another post about how culturalism is often mistaken for racism.
https://raggedclown.substack.com/p/cultural-loss
I'm sorry to hear about your daughter. I hope you are able to figure it out with her at some point.
"they KNOW already everything it is important to know"
Of course we were never like that when we were young!
No - well, I damned well wasn't. Nor were the boys and young men I mixed with. What we had was the belief in our immortality, or at least we would never get old. "Hope to die before I get old" as the song went. Well, some did but others survived, as I have so far. Anyone who thought they knew it all was, in those days, regarded just as a braggart. Nowadays they are conceited asses.
Actually, we had respect for many of our elders - our teachers, our parents, for example. We knew they knew a lot more than us. But now ability to handle a mobile device is about the only thing that matters - and in that I am deficient.
Just to add, many of my teachers had fought in WWII, a mere ten years earlier. Tales of the Eighth army in N Africa and the long struggle up the spine of Italy enlivened our Latin lessons, the fight across Northern France in '44, and the arrival in a defeated Germany from others. These men had our respect - no simple university graduates these with no experience of life. But then, most of the men when I was a boy, had had wartime experience where hardship had helped form their characters.
I was in IT (or programming as it was called then) and you had to be arrogant cos your job was to do things that had never been done before. Every day.
as for elders: I was bulled at school so for two years felt I had more in common with the teachers than other pupils. Wasn't until I got restreamed into the 6th form that I was surrounded by other kids who I considered my equals.
Well, you do sound an arrogant so-and-so! It doesn't square with your claim (first post) to regard everyone as equal. I'm glad I never came across you!
Inner thoughts and how we present ourselves are not always entirely in agreement. :-)
And I said "aim for" I didn't say achieve!
I try to regard all people as equal, but this usually fails when they open their mouths and start spouting ignorant, naive, rubbish. (I'm sure I do the same from their viewpoint.)
I think I'm with you on the last para. I don't assume I am any better than the next person - until I get evidence to the contrary. Even so, just because some one says something I don't agree with or know is wrong, I don't think I am better. More knowledgeable perhaps, but not better. What makes a good person is not knowledge but generosity, thoughtfulness, concern for others, and acting on these instincts. Knowledge and how to best apply it are factors in one's usefulness to society, but these are not necessarily the "best" people.
Getting into philosophical realms so had better leave it there.