A post on one on my favorite writer's blogs inspired me to write the following comment. With due respect for the opinions of my fellow travelers I post it here for inspection.
Thanks again for the thoughtful and erudite summation of our current predicament. I wish that my abstract life allowed time for a full reflection upon it's implications. I will share a few thoughts before my weekly allotment of home gardening practical learning.
It seems to me a fool's errand to attempt to save or reform the current educational system. Its size and dependence upon large inputs of energy ensure its future demise. I think that education will survive only in forums similar to this one sans the Internet. When life inevitably returns to a predominately local affair only two types of education will survive: the practical and the reflective. The practical 'cause there ain't no way to escape the need to eat, keep warm and find a mate. It is the reflective experience that is the most curious to me.
You have framed the question of man's nature most succinctly. After we are finished meeting our daily needs via practical knowledge we are left with lots of time on our hands. While lions are content to lounge in the sun and groom themselves humans seem to be intent on contemplation and reflection. We have even labeled ourselves as such: homo sapiens, going so far as to add additional ~sapiens indicative of our superior knowledge. I think that from reflection springs abstraction in an attempt to know (reflect) with certainty.
As we enter the Long Descent I look to you and other sources for reflections upon our spiritual future. Are we as a species destined to perpetually exploit the practical benefits of reflection or is there another course where reflection results in reverence and respect for the precarious and wondrous nature of our existence? There is the very real possibility that our exploitative capabilities have already destroyed the opportunity for our contemplative selves to enjoy life basking in the sun, licking our neighbors. I like to think that somehow we come out of this predicament with a profound understanding of our limitations and a deeper appreciation for mystery and the opportunity to love.
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