2285: Follow the Money

[DaveNJ]

Originally Posted by Lanfear

You are all very hung up on having one book to explain everything.

Not really. I'm more hung up on the notion that the only books with moral insights are apparently "all good" or that they need to meet seemingly arbitrary criteria.

That and the idea that if the moral insights aren't "easy" to find then they're not worth looking for.

This doesn't jibe with my observation of a reality in which moral issues are rarely binary.

If you're going to tell someone to throw out one book, it helps to tell them what you think they should replace it with. I've asked for literally any book from Michael several times to no avail. If it's that easy to find books containing deep moral insights without flaws, he should be able to rattle them off.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Lanfear

You are all very hung up on having one book to explain everything.

There will never be a book like that and even if there was it would need to be updated constantly.

Try starting with some Immanuel Kant style categorical imperative and work stuff out from there.

Then if you insist on this discussion being about raising kids start telling them to not hit other kids and share their toys. Read the book about Frederik the mouse with them, maybe a little later try the little prince, keep going till you hit the wave.

In general try and instill that learning new things is a great thing, and while you are at it teach them history. And then more history and then a little extra history and that should show them that things were fucked in the past but we are working on learning from it.
Tell them that dinosaurs lived a very very long time ago - kids love dinosaurs. I certainly did, and it was super logical to me that they lived long ago because they are found deep down in the earth.

i feel like PBS did all of this for me growing up. i paid so little attention in Sunday School, but having no cable as a kid i got daily doses of 3-2-1 Contact, Sesame Street, Masterpiece Theater, Mr. Rogers, biographies and documentaries about people and things to do with space, dinosaurs, botany, history, politics, finance. not to mention hefty gobs of music performances.

they came at it from all angles. i felt like it was a fair enough portrayal of the world and what it means to be human.

[Lanfear]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

i feel like PBS did all of this for me growing up. i paid so little attention in Sunday School, but having no cable as a kid i got daily doses of 3-2-1 Contact, Sesame Street, Masterpiece Theater, Mr. Rogers, biographies and documentaries about people and things to do with space, dinosaurs, botany, history, politics, finance. not to mention hefty gobs of music performances.

they came at it from all angles. i felt like it was a fair enough portrayal of the world and what it means to be human.

Yes well made TV totally is an option, just pay attention to what media your kid consumes and balance it out if necessary.

[MichaelApproved]

Just want to mention that I'm not ignoring the replies to my comments. I'm not replying directly because I think it'd just be repeating the same points I made earlier.

[Keith]

Whew. I hope everyone's okay.