History, Religion, Education, and Chest-thumping. What think ye all?

[Navidad]

Oh my! I think this is gonna be a long post! Sorry! I value your thoughts and inputs.

Intellectually and spiritually, I have three interests, yeh even passions in my life (besides my wife!) . . . education, religion, and history. I have learned much from and about each. I continue to spend hours and days learning, teaching, and writing about these three.

Each has its own body of knowledge, practice, and, yes, means of revelation. Each has its own truths. Each has its own fringes. Each has its own rules, zealots, bigots, dogma, and, yes, pretenders. Then there is the large group of the faithful in each.

Education, especially public education, is very important to me. Ideologies in various forms have sought to dictate its methodology. The ideological and methodological have gathered, seeking to take it over – sometimes about this academic strategy and sometimes about that ideology. In the process, the focus on learning and educating the flock (students) is lost as the adults thump their chests and declare their truths to be thee truth. That is sad and disrupts the primary mission of public schools. I speak and write against chest-thumpers in education who malign, normalize, and generalize those who don’t join their camps.

Religion in all forms is very important to me. Religion is and contains faith, beliefs, ideologies, and trust, mixed with truths. There are the faithful who proclaim they have uniquely or directly from the source garnered its specific truths. In the skirmishes that result from that, religion’s primary mission may be obfuscated and lost. Zealots gather, bulwarks are mounted, bucklers and blades are brandished. Stephen Jay Gould tells us that the Protestant side of the reformation alone may have cost 100,000 lives. The faithful often develop fringes. The fringes separate, gather more faithful and become a new norm, often with the same original core beliefs intermixed with what was the former fringe. It happens in all faiths. The faithful thump their chests and declare their truths to be thee truth. That often disrupts the primary mission of faith. I speak and write against the chest-thumpers who, in so doing, normalize and generalize about the other (those of differing faiths or communities within the same faith).

History is a passion of mine. Like faith and public education, history requires accurate interpretation. Like in every other aspect of life, the faithful gather and hand-select their facts from the history facts barrel and use them to support their own apriori truths. In such a manner, they add new or more truths and declare the whole new mess of pottage as “thee truth.” Those who do not believe the same need beware. History becomes both a weapon and a medicinal for the partisan and pundit. The faithful gather and thump their chests, declaring their historical facts to be thee truth. I speak and write against normalizing and generalizing chest-thumpers in history.

In conclusion 😃 , I must add that the one who speaks against chest-thumping must be especially careful to guard against their own chest-thumping. So often, a mission to still the waters may simply stir them up. A passion against chest-thumping becomes a form of chest-thumping in and of itself. Our own needs, blind spots, beliefs, and certainties get intermixed, and in the words of the original Pogo (not our own kind Pogi), we meet the enemy, and they is us!

 

 

Best wishes to all.     

Edited March 25, 2023 by Navidad

[MustardSeed]

21 minutes ago, Navidad said:

 

 

In conclusion 😃 , I must add that the one who speaks against chest-thumping must be especially careful to guard against their own chest-thumping. So often, a mission to still the waters may simply stir them up. A passion against chest-thumping becomes a form of chest-thumping in and of itself. Our own needs, blind spots, beliefs, and certainties get intermixed, and in the words of the original Pogi (not our own kind Pogi), we meet the enemy, and they is us!

 

 

 

Best wishes to all.     

 

I suspect, written for me 🤗  I’ll take it to heart, thank you

Edited March 25, 2023 by MustardSeed

[Navidad]

32 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

I suspect, written for me 🤗  I’ll take it to heart, thank you

No, I wrote that for me! These are long-standing themes in my life going back forty years. This forum and my continual interaction with others have simply made me more aware of my own blind spots. I am grateful for that.

[MustardSeed]

4 minutes ago, Navidad said:

No, I wrote that for me! These are long-standing themes in my life going back forty years. This forum and my continual interaction with others have simply made me more aware of my own blind spots. I am grateful for that.

 I meant I saw myself in what you were saying 😍 .  Not that I actually suspected you were targeting me specifically but rather I can see myself in there. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by MustardSeed

[The Nehor]

3 hours ago, Navidad said:

Oh my! I think this is gonna be a long post! Sorry! I value your thoughts and inputs.

Intellectually and spiritually, I have three interests, yeh even passions in my life (besides my wife!) . . . education, religion, and history. I have learned much from and about each. I continue to spend hours and days learning, teaching, and writing about these three.

Each has its own body of knowledge, practice, and, yes, means of revelation. Each has its own truths. Each has its own fringes. Each has its own rules, zealots, bigots, dogma, and, yes, pretenders. Then there is the large group of the faithful in each.

 

Education, especially public education, is very important to me. Ideologies in various forms have sought to dictate its methodology. The ideological and methodological have gathered, seeking to take it over – sometimes about this academic strategy and sometimes about that ideology. In the process, the focus on learning and educating the flock (students) is lost as the adults thump their chests and declare their truths to be thee truth. That is sad and disrupts the primary mission of public schools. I speak and write against chest-thumpers in education who malign, normalize, and generalize those who don’t join their camps.

Religion in all forms is very important to me. Religion is and contains faith, beliefs, ideologies, and trust, mixed with truths. There are the faithful who proclaim they have uniquely or directly from the source garnered its specific truths. In the skirmishes that result from that, religion’s primary mission may be obfuscated and lost. Zealots gather, bulwarks are mounted, bucklers and blades are brandished. Stephen Jay Gould tells us that the Protestant side of the reformation alone may have cost 100,000 lives. The faithful often develop fringes. The fringes separate, gather more faithful and become a new norm, often with the same original core beliefs intermixed with what was the former fringe. It happens in all faiths. The faithful thump their chests and declare their truths to be thee truth. That often disrupts the primary mission of faith. I speak and write against the chest-thumpers who, in so doing, normalize and generalize about the other (those of differing faiths or communities within the same faith).

 

History is a passion of mine. Like faith and public education, history requires accurate interpretation. Like in every other aspect of life, the faithful gather and hand-select their facts from the history facts barrel and use them to support their own apriori truths. In such a manner, they add new or more truths and declare the whole new mess of pottage as “thee truth.” Those who do not believe the same need beware. History becomes both a weapon and a medicinal for the partisan and pundit. The faithful gather and thump their chests, declaring their historical facts to be thee truth. I speak and write against normalizing and generalizing chest-thumpers in history.

 

In conclusion 😃 , I must add that the one who speaks against chest-thumping must be especially careful to guard against their own chest-thumping. So often, a mission to still the waters may simply stir them up. A passion against chest-thumping becomes a form of chest-thumping in and of itself. Our own needs, blind spots, beliefs, and certainties get intermixed, and in the words of the original Pogi (not our own kind Pogi), we meet the enemy, and they is us!

 

 

 

Best wishes to all.     

 

[mfbukowski]

3 hours ago, Navidad said:

I speak and write against normalizing and generalizing chest-thumpers in history.

 

In conclusion 😃 , I must add that the one who speaks against chest-thumping must be especially careful to guard against their own chest-thumping. So often, a mission to still the waters may simply stir them up. A passion against chest-thumping becomes a form of chest-thumping in and of itself. Our own needs, blind spots, beliefs, and certainties get intermixed, and in the words of the original Pogi (not our own kind Pogi), we meet the enemy, and they is us!

Yep.  You should read this often. Hang it on a mirror somewhere

Oh, and that was "Pogo".

Thump thump

[Navidad]

56 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

Yep.  You should read this often. Hang it on a mirror somewhere

Oh, and that was "Pogo".

Thump thump

How right you are!

[mfbukowski]

If you don't thump your own chest, who will?

I ain't gonna wait to do it 'til the paramedics do it for me. 😰

[mfbukowski]

4 hours ago, Navidad said:

This forum and my continual interaction with others have simply made me more aware of my own blind spots. I am grateful for that.

You're welcome!

😜🤪