tina (tls@ziplink.net)
Sat, 05 Feb 2000 00:02:16 -0500
At 05:09 PM 2/4/00 -0500, you wrote:
>So, I'm like confused. Are you saying that the unapologetically honest
>portayal of our opinions will, in addition to possibly freeing some
>students, cause a bloody war, the economic collapse of the South, the
>creation of a new elitist class of Northerners, and a new underclass of
>Southerners?
>
>If you're not saying that, than are you saying we, as human beings,
>shouldn't do what we think is best because it might have terrible
>consequences? How can anyone, not having been there, say that Lincoln did
>not make the best choices he could have with the information he had at the
>time?
I'm not saying either of those things. I'm saying that the method we use to
implement what we think is best should always be examined to cause the least
possible harm. It still may have terrible consequences, some of them
unforeseen, but the object is to minimize them wherever possible.
>Is this a new sport - Monday-morning quarterbacking of the decisions heroic
>historical figures made that may have had an influence on the colossal
>cascading events of human history?
Lincoln's already been second-guessed by thousands of people. If we didn't
"Monday-morning quarterback" decisions like these, we'd never learn
anything. In large part because of the ill after-effects of the Civil War
and WWI, the US's policy towards losing countries has changed dramatically;
helping rebuild these countries has become more common than not. It's a
pity we didn't figure that out before we trashed half of our own society.
>The way you go about freeing our educational system is by throwing it out
>the window. I thought we had already established that.
Just throw it out the window? And then what? Re-educate the vast majority
over night? Or do you think everyone will just "naturally" fall in? It's
not going to happen. Period. It has to happen in steps of some kind. Or
it's not going to happen at all. That's just the reality of the situation.
T.
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