HUMAN NATURE - It's Not All It Should Be....

In the new world order, where education is critical to the success of our civilization, we will need to teach civics.

We will need to teach integrity, and decency, social responsibility and social skills, life skills, and quite likely a few other elements of a successful society, that we are not teaching now.

Another among those, and one that gets overlooked in these types of discussions, is tolerance.

We don't have tolerance for one another.

Some of us tend to feel, that the world should reflect our personal beliefs, as if our own viewpoints were the only viable ones.

We tend to go right for an argument.

It needn't even be a valid argument.

Just so long as we can find a way to register disdain.

And blow off steam, frankly.

We frequently don't consider, that there might be more information out there, or more to the story, or other valuable points on the topic, from different perspectives, that we likely know nothing about.

We're a bit lazy when it comes to consideration and thoughtfulness.

We only believe what we 'know'.

We only hear what we believe.

And the issues that we really care about tend to be completely self-serving.

We hardly ever concede to the notion that we could be wrong.

We are so fervorous and exuberant about our viewpoints, that right or wrong, we become intolerant.

And also, intolerable.

We don't know how to live comfortably with the differences we encounter.

We refuse to stop and think before we react.

We hardly ever use time to reflect and reconsider.

We hardly ever open our minds to open-mindedness.

We hardly even care about what others believe.

It's not that we do this on purpose.

These reactions come naturally to humans.... to question, defend and justify.... first.

With no pause for fore-thought.

Which is not ideal.

But it's part of human nature.

That is why we need to incorporate these kinds of instructions into every person's education.

ALL of us!

Most especially our children.

Our tendencies toward our human nature generally need to be overcome.

Else-wise we would all be flatulent and cranky. In public. All the time.

No one wants that.

We should value our diversity of thought.

At it's best it is instructive, and to do so demonstrates human grace.

But to do this we must respect each other.

And care enough about ourselves, to rise above our baser instinct to argue with, and to vent at, one another.

Respect, grace, and tolerance.

It can be taught.