[Peace-discuss] Corn Festival -- RE: Sweet Corn Fest Fri & Sat!

[Laurie Solomon]

Stuart,

That would be a legitimate question if all things were equal which they are 
not; and at one time, I might have agreed.  I have long ago given up on the 
efficacy or education alone as an effective tool (particularly in the case 
of its use by the underdog or minorities).  It takes much more than mere 
education or educating.

However, on another note, if it is true that we are all products of our 
education as you suggest - although I see us all as being products of a much 
broader and informal social process of socio-cultural socialization which 
takes place long before any formal education and when the young members of a 
society  cannot read, write, talk, or comprehend sophisticated media 
propaganda - formal education and mass media propaganda merely serve to 
reinforce the basic socio-cultural norms and values that we have been made 
to internalize as we are growing up, except possibly in the cases of 
immigrants to a society who may have internalized slightly different norms, 
values, and beliefs as to the proper ways to act and think. But assuming 
that we are all products of education and that anti-war groups have as much 
right to engage in educating as other groups, one should be asking the 
question of  why the anti-war groups are any different or better than their 
opponents in both their educational practice and content.  Are not they also 
engaging in a form of brainwashing?  Isn't it just a case of my old man is 
tougher than your old man?  It appears to me that if one engages in the same 
sorts of brainwashing practices (e.g., educating) as one's opponents, then 
one has become the monster that one is fighting and is no better than one's 
opponent for all practical purposes (disregarding ethical and moral beliefs 
in the righteousness of one's content which the opposition also sees as 
being true of their position and content).  In the words of Sancho Pancho in 
Don Quixote, "whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the 
stone, it is going to be bad for the pitcher."  Brainwashing is brainwashing 
regardless of the content; and uncritical acceptance of the content of any 
brainwashing that leads to the lack of questioning of one's own premises as 
well as those of others comprises the production of mental midgets and moral 
idiots in my book.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Stuart Levy" <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 12:27 PM
To: "Laurie Solomon" <ls1000 at live.com>
Cc: "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>; <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>; "Stuart 
Levy" <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>; "Carl Estabrook AWARE" <galliher at uiuc.edu>; 
<davegreen48 at yahoo.com>; "Bill Strutz" <bill.strutz at gmail.com>; 
<rbkutz at gmail.com>; "Ron Szoke" <r-szoke at illinois.edu>; "MartyneConrad 
Wetzel" <mc-wetzel at hotmail.com>; <dharley at illinois.edu>; "Jenifer 
Cartwright" <jencart7 at yahoo.com>; "Karen Medina" <kmedina67 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Corn Festival -- RE: Sweet Corn Fest Fri & Sat!

> On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 12:22:17PM -0500, Laurie Solomon wrote:
>> Here, I guess we differ.  I do not think is as clear cut and easy a 
>> matter as
>> brainwashing.  The mere fact that they are so easily brainwashed, so
>> unquestioningly dogmatic and uncritical, and so inclined to come to the
>> defense of the corporate ideology even when it is clearly against their
>> immediate interests suggests to me that enlightenment of them would just 
>> be
>> another form of brainwashing with a revised dogma.
>
> Well, we're all products of our education, right?  Why shouldn't anti-war 
> groups
> participate in educating the population?
>