Spaceship Earth... Can It Be Achieved?

I must say that today's discussion took some turns for the.... Weirdness? I think that subject of Cultural Pluralism and the topic of Spaceship Earth hit some nerves. That or some people were arguing for the sake of arguing. Either way we had some interesting analogies and examples brought.

What I gathered from Neil Postman's chapter on Spaceship Earth was that we need to be culturally aware of how different parts of the world affect each other; it's all one big ecosystem. Most of the arguments tossed back and forth were whether this was a practical goal. Would it be possible to do when half of the "ship" are for it and the other half are against it? Does that not defeat the purpose? As some in the class stated, it's an all or nothing pursuit. I'm not so sure if this is the case.....

How do movements come about, since that is what the Spaceship Earth is all about: a movement? I think we forgot the principle of the ripple affect. A riot can occur if someone is loud enough and forceful enough to get others to believe him. All it takes is one person to say, this is what needs to be done, get some people to support them, and go from there. If one person talks to two people, who each talk to two more, who they in turn talk to two more people, you've affected at least 15 people! I don't think you need to start a major revolution with every single country for this to work. There are some famous people who did not get show their works until after their death. Bach, for example, was not appreciated during his time, but 100 years after he died people realized the talent.

I don't understand why it would it bad to teach kids early about respecting other cultures and coming to understand how we relate to, for example, China. You could show them their clothes, shoes, toys and show them the word China. Maybe they are not able to grasp the concept of space, for to them it's just a couple inches on the map for us. But in reality, I'm not sure I even can conceive space. I'm spoiled by instant technology. I don't think we should give up on teaching kids different truths on sharing and taking turns. If every kid does not want to learn or apply what he learned, should that be a reason for not teaching other kids? I heard the phrase, "Don't build them up for failure." Tell that one to Thomas Edison, Susan B. Anthony, or Moses from Exodus in the Bible. All of these people went against the flow, but did they give up? No. Why? Because they had hope. Why would it be bad to give hope to children? They are the future. They are the ones that are going to take care of us when we are old.

One of the reasons why they didn't give up was because of competition. Competition for survival. Competition to invent something no had before. I don't think it's practical for us to live in peace. We can strive for a utopian world, but chances of it ever occurring are slim. Take the Middle East, for example, there is so much strife there and conflict for them to ever appreciate the world around them. I think we need to have a balance. Strive for right, but understand the way will be tough. It's a jungle out there.