Because I Said So!

in #ramblerant5 years ago (edited)

Were you ever told as a kid to do, or not do, something? I'm pretty sure we all had that experience. Was the only reason provided ever just, "because I said so"? Probably, on occasion. And I'd wager that never really seemed like an answer.

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Perhaps there isn't time for a long, involved conversation to explain the intricacies of every situation to a curious child, but good rules need reasons, not just "because I said so," and you probably recognized that yourself as a child. Appeals to authority should be something we recognize as wrong on an instinctive level.

Now, as adults, we are treated in the same infantilizing manner by politicians. "Do as we say, because we said so, or else." But now, we are adults. Presumably, after twelve or more years of education, we should have some capacity to understand the whys and wherefores. But no, the State consists of people who demand unthinking obedience.

Our parents presumably had our best interests in mind. Ideally, they are stewards of our lives and liberty as we develop into adults capable of weighing matters and taking responsibility ourselves. But governments did not birth us. Governments are not in any way our guardians. Governments are usurpers with false authority.

"Because I said so" simply doesn't cut it. Neither does, "But it's the law," "Well, that's what the Governor decreed," or any other variation on the same theme.

Rediscover your inner toddler, and start asking, "But why?"

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Our society's education systems and parents should really do better to foster divergent thinking in children, because I think the lack of critical awareness and emotional intelligence in adults is a direct result of these unhealthy relationships with authority figures that's being established in young people.

Politicians say: Because you elected me. Which I never did...

It's my turn to be in charge, do as I say, or violence!!

We are all just waiting for our turn to dish it out.

Speak for yourself 😉

Lol, nah, I had my turn and it went badly.

Presumably, after twelve or more years of education,...

We never had any education, it was all indoctrination.
Theories so insane and convoluted that you just had to believe the teacher.

  • The earth's center is a big ball of magma
  • Man evolved from apes (although our similarities are only superficial)
  • The speed of light is fixed and maximum so space has to curve so these things can remain so.
  • Capitalization changes words to proper nouns.... except when used in the constitution.
  • The civil war was all about slavery. Although most southern people didn't own slaves.

We aren't taught reason and logic.
We are indoctrinated with convoluted "I told you so's"

Its "I told your so's" all the way down.

We may derail this conversation beyond repair from here, LOL!

Thing is, the geologists do give their arguments for a spheroid Earth with a molten center, and they are verifiable. They make accurate predictions, too. I haven't yet seen a flat earth claim or hollow earth claim that could withstand scrutiny.

The evolutionary biologists say humans and other primates evolved from a common ancestor, not that we evolved from apes. Whether there is merit to the field is another matter entirely, and irreducible complexity combined with modern DNA/RNA genetic science seem to raise significant barriers to my layman's perspective, but don't mischaracterize an assertion in order to dismiss it.

Technically, physicists say there is a maximum speed of light in a vacuum, not that it is fixed. There were headlines a few years back about slowing light to a standstill in laboratory experiments. But they don't say, "just take my word for it," they publish their data and methodology so it can be tested.

The English language is always changing, and even a bit more than 200 year ago, the rules differed in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. It is fair to point out that legal usage differs greatly from colloquial usage, but that is just a subset of my concerns about the presumptions and deceptions of political authority.

The civil war was definitely about slavery. The South definitely seceded primarily due to slavery based on their own secession documents and rhetoric, but there were other issues which encouraged those outside the slaveholding aristocracy to support the cause, too. Meanwhile, Lincoln didn't fight to maintain the union in order to abolish slavery, he wanted to maintain the union for revenue purposes and nationalistic pride.

Few things are as simple as school teaches, and politicians lie, but that doesn't mean everything taught in school or uttered by government bureaucrats is absolutely false.

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First thing they see when they walk in their first classroom, is that big globe, with all the countries on it.
Astronauts don't see countries. They're not real. That's mental abuse.