Friday 20 February 2009

Brain Washing, Education, Values and Democracy


The worry is that any one organisation could brainwash a section of the population and attain a majority, thereby controlling the country. This may be easier to do with young, malleable minds, and makes me wonder about our system of education. Yet it's clear that participation in a modern education system, including alternative sources like online Master's degrees or vocational programs, are practically required if today's youth want to have comfortable future lives.
As a society, are our values inculcated in us through our education system?
Teaching values seems to me to be essential if we are to teach right from wrong, but then who chooses what is right and what is wrong? Maybe the only way to overcome this is to encourage children to think for themselves and to feel empathy for others. But that in its self is a value shaping statement.

Maybe a different way of looking at it is to itemise what values are required to make Interactive Democracy work:
  • Freedom of thought
  • Freedom of speech
  • Empathy for others
  • Critical respect for the majority decision

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