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Revisiting this essay from @pluralistic & I am reminded of a primary school teacher I happened to fall into coversation with. She mentioned that there were a number of #Native kids in her class. She was struck, whenever there was a lesson or an exercise that called for kids to compete against each other, the Native kids just Would Not. Their way was to arrive at a consensus, & there was just no way to shake them loose of that.
https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/08/three-freedoms/#anti-fatalism
Interesting... that was always one of my big philosophical disagreements with the other kids in school (starting in kindergarten): I never wanted to "compete" or fight; I wanted to work together to build stuff.
A big thing I hate about sports is the competition. Come up with a sport that employs physical prowess & skill, but in ways combined with others to accomplish a common goal, & I'd be there with bells on.
But the way sports are framed in our culture: Nope, No, nuh-uh, not for all the money....
@cavyherd That's the thing I always liked about Frisbee: you could just play it for the fun of throwing and catching a thing that flies magically over long distances. ...but then of course they have to make a Competitive Sport™ out of it...
Because of course they do....
I would so love to hang out with some folks whose default was cooperation. It'd be a fascinating experience....
I'd especially love to learn their consensus-building practices.
One of the points from the Davids' book Doctorow reiterates is that a lot of the cooperative/egalitarian features in the US culture/gov't structure is directly cribbed from Native practice.
We need more of that.
@woozle @cavyherd @pluralistic
That imposition of adult value systems onto children explains a lot about how those children turn out.
Paul Allen passed away at 65 in 2018.
His book makes note of the constant competitive games at the Gates's Puget home in summer.
Microsoft & Bill Gates and the "Don't worry about AI & climate change" crowd was formed out of that ruthless "Ender's Game" molding.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/may/02/paul-allen-microsoft-bill-gates-ideas
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/17/tech/paul-allen-microsoft-legacy
People who think constantly winning is their due
I really really really want somebody to find an excuse to get #CoryDoctorow & #HeatherCoxRichardson on a stage to have a conversation. The interference between their two viewpoints & knowledge bases would, I'm almost certain, precipitate out some •very• interesting thoughts & insights.
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