Black and White or Shades of Gray?

Where are the budding “Noble Ones” of the future?

Is there a clear standard of right and wrong, of correct and incorrect, of proper or improper for them to follow and learn from? My mother used to say, “it’s either right or its wrong.” Your room is either clean or it isn’t. I loved my mother, but she could be so frustrating at times! Well, it’s mostly clean; well it’s right enough, correct enough, proper enough, close enough. Imagine if the bank teller told you that about your balance!

What do they say? “Close only works in horse shoes and hand grenades.” Now a days “close” seems to work in everything we do. “Close enough.” A favorite is: “It isn’t as simple as black and white.” Really? Is this true or is this just an excuse for mediocrity? The “dumbing down” process to find the lowest common denominator everyone can live down too, after having given up on living “up” to a higher standard in life.

Your a little wrong.
She's a little pregnant
The earth is a little off its axis today.

The first could result in a "B+" the second, a life style change and the third, the end of all life as we know it. How much is a "little"? I know - it's all relative.

It is interesting though how many "relativisms" have absolutes embedded in them:

She's a little wrong (translation: I'm right)
He's a little black (translation: he's black)
He's physically challenged (translation: I'm normal ie: better than him)

Are we avoiding the truth, afraid of facing the truth, hesitant of offending someone's self-esteem with the truth? Many teachers in schools have lost the respect of their students because the teachers no longer represent an absolute but rather a relativism: The typical city public school student view of the teacher has become - You don't "know" anything. You are not an authority nor in authority over me. I am not afraid of you. My parents don't discipline me and you can't either. You are just another face in the classroom no better than I. I don't have to listen to you nor obey your instruction. In fact I can basically ignore you because you aren't allowed to fail me and if you try I will beat the sh*t out of you.

In the 1960’s Dr. Benjamin Spock was THE authority on raising children. The traditional methods of “spare the rod and spoil the child” and “don’t spoil them with too much attention when they cry” became quite unpopular as Dr. Spock warned us that such acts damage their self-esteem. He spoke against corporal punishment. He advised cuddling and nurturing methods. He urged parents to be flexible and see their children as individuals. I will not argue the pros and cons of his approach. But

Forty years later, what have we learned? What have we discovered?

Ultimately nothing in nature - including human nature, respects relativism because it can't be trusted. Either you are true: true to yourself, true to your relationships and true to your word or not. There really is no middle ground. We generally start out in trust from the first moment we meet another. This seems to be ingrained in us, perhaps as a conditioning in accepting our parent at birth; but if disappointed, as the old but still true adage goes: It is very easy to lose the trust of others, but very hard to gain it back.

The first time a child figures out that you don't actually mean what you say and the meaning of "do as I say, not as I do" you my friend had better have a life preserver because you are on a doomed ship where both you and eventually your fellow passengers (the children) will drown in a sea of mistrust and hurt feeling.

What kind of person will that child grow up to be? The society of Japan is just starting to discover that in their junior high school students. But it hasn't quite yet sunk in to the heads of the parents and leaders of society. There is a feeling that something is wrong but for the people who are starting to "get it" they are trapped in political correctness and the snow ball ride of western educational styles and have no way out. The standard operating procedure here is the lemming system. No one, individually, has the courage of conviction to stand up and say, "Houston, we have a problem."

Again, what kind of person will that child grow up to be? The businesses are starting to see a change in the quality of the graduates coming to them. It is not a positive change.

For example:
He finds it difficult to relate to others – esp their boss; they were the boss in their life while growing up as "latch key kids".
He can’t deal with loss – their virtual world can be “reset.”
He can’t take criticism - they feel offended or cry (no - not the women!).
He can’t take rejection – they commit suicide or go into binge drinking depression and they are discovering drugs.

What are the teachers and leaders of education doing about it? Aren’t they concerned or worried about the future? There is a very interesting mindset in the education system in Japan. You have two forces at work:

1. The educational leaders who were raised in the Marxist principles. Their original goal was to create good communist socialists ready to take over the new Soviet State in support of the Soviet Union. The Union is gone but not the idea. This leads to –

2. The basic Natural Socialist model: Children are adults in small bodies. They should be able to choose, be self directed and free of the repressive authority of the original and flawed culture and tradition. The boys and girls are no different in any way of consequence so they should not be separated or in any way prevented from having completely free and open relationships. They are little adults so don’t scold or discipline them as it will impinge on their self-esteem.

This obviously leads to breakdown and re-arrangement of society. Good or Bad?

What can we do? What is the counter balance to the system as now put in place? There is none. The only counter balance is the ever eroding tradition and culture which comes from a belief in God or gods and the authority and values that stem from that belief.

Children now have little or no connection with the past as they grow up in small "mansions" with no connection with grandparents who are society's storybooks and tradition teachers. Also, their fathers "authority figures" are never at home so they have no authority figure to learn to respect or be guided by.

With “Empirical Realism,” the only logical thought system, so pervasive today, the old way is dying and has nothing but relativism to take its place – this just feeds the two forces above.

Thinking about it