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As a quick example, some people in France are rioting over standards of education in schools and institutions. It's clear only a percentage of the huge unrest is actually linked to that issue, but let's take just that issue in isolation:
How can it be people totally depend upon society for education?
I can honestly state pretty much all my knowledge to date never came from any classroom, school or institution. In fact, I did very badly at school, especially due to initial learning disability.
The truth is there's no rule of evolution that binds us to state regulated education. A good initial step to explore that reality is to watch the philosophical film (written by Bruce Lee) The Silent Flute.
Social conditioning is the impact of environment and culture on our thinking. The accepted views of any majority tend to permeate the individual, restricting independent analytical, critical thought. Academia is saturated by social bias, where history is either ignored, or re-interpreted to fit with modern elitist policy and social trends. The same thing happens on Social Media. Countless "experts" with huge numbers of followers usually lack any genuine, hard-earned credentials in their field. Instead, they rely upon the norms of social programming, ingrained from earliest school experience.
Even if educational institutions deteriorate, we really don't have to take that as the last word.
The one essential ingredient we need to become smarter, better informed, analytical is summed up in one word: "Curiosity". Einstein quoted it as the only factor that set him apart. Mostly today it's missing except in children, whose innate curiosity gets eroded by social conformism and imposed, quasi religious thinking.
School is indoctrination system with side-effect of teaching you something. Reading, writing, counting are essential. The rest has various value and use. (bad that music was dropped, as other arts that develop the soul and discipline)
But that's not new. Catholic church supported free education here when protestants were getting big. Jesuits started free schools and accepted protestants too, because it allowed them to turn those kids into Catholics. After industrial revolution the schools became tools tot rain workers, thinking that they know a lot, but cannot use it anyhow and being psychologicaly trained to be controlled by the bell, just like in the factory.
Education itself is very useful and essential. Schools however are loosing that value. They socialize, they teach reading and writing (when not in USA, apparently) they teach math which is bloody important. But beyond that we need some completely new system of education. Most of education people use they now get outside of school. That itself is evidence of that.
Social conditioning happens all the time. We can't help conditioning each other, and I don't believe any centralised top-down government indoctrination of the education system exists. Governments come and go, the zeitgeist keeps changing all the time.
When I went to school, we had several conservative headmasters (one of them even a priest), while most of our 'soft science' teachers were progressives, and some could even be called 'leftist firebrands' - except for our asshole psychology & philosophy teacher who was an extremely conservative Catholic. Most of my own social conditioning most probably didn't come from school but from my classmates, and the worst that could happen to you was being ostracised for not conforming to the Code of Coolness developed by ourselves in accordance to what was taught to us at the time but more importantly, what was currently fashionable in teenage trends and music, and let me tell you, it could get pretty suffocating at times; I can feel its reverberations to this day. Years later, at reunions, some even complained about having been 'coerced to blindly question authority' by both their teachers and classmates, having become more conservative in the intervening years.
In my opinion, it's the state's duty to provide a modern infrastructure for its educational system as well as adequate training for teachers. If it fails to do so… the voting age is 16 where I live, and (peaceful) student rallies are common whenever governments publicly contemplate budget cuts. It all works, by and large.
What you address primarily is the concept Pink Floyd was getting at (little wonder, as Sid Barrett was pathologically individualistic). That is, the more obvious social programming.
The real crux of my point also stresses "curiosity" over mechanical processing of knowledge. If you look.carefully, people will typically tell you, "I want to learn such and such. Where is there a course?"
Bruce Lee was very aware of this. He got into.a lot of strife when he criticized schools of Karate or Ju-Jitsu, for mechanical, rote-based, belt-inspired but not free-thinking approaches. Bruce was definitely self-taught in his later life.
Curiosity I think is the way to go. Curiosity makes someone want to learn, above being graded or judged, or pressured into conforming to tradition in any subject. It's not good to depend upon some recognised expert, as opposed to self-exploration and curiosity, especially if you consider knowledge is innate. We all know virtue from vice but far fewer people allow themselves to be guided by their inner potential.
If you want an accurate assessment of education levels near you, set up a retail shop and start selling things. All day long you will hear endless ignorance about whatever you are selling.
Most of my career, my customers have been people in the higher income levels, and most of those positions require education. The same people who passed Caluclus exams and wrote papers about global economics are completely unaware that Paraguay or Namibia exist. If it's not on TV, it doesn't exist, and if it was important last week but isn't on the TV anymore, it doesn't exist. If it's provably wrong and on TV, it will be believed. If it's not something they need to know in order to live, i's a good bet that they don't know it at all.
And nobody cares. They won't be educated, they won't be curious. It's a big stupid herd of cattle, and you either get on a horse and start whipping them into pens to be made into steaks, or you get out of their way. The education system isn't designed to make people better or smarter, its sole function is to physically contain the youth so they don't become delinquent and then trap them in debt so they don't become productive.
If you want an accurate assessment of education levels near you, set up a retail shop and start selling things. All day long you will hear endless ignorance about whatever you are selling.
Most of my career, my customers have been people in the higher income levels, and most of those positions require education. The same people who passed Caluclus exams and wrote papers about global economics are completely unaware that Paraguay or Namibia exist. If it's not on TV, it doesn't exist, and if it was important last week but isn't on the TV anymore, it doesn't exist. If it's provably wrong and on TV, it will be believed. If it's not something they need to know in order to live, i's a good bet that they don't know it at all.
And nobody cares. They won't be educated, they won't be curious. It's a big stupid herd of cattle, and you either get on a horse and start whipping them into pens to be made into steaks, or you get out of their way. The education system isn't designed to make people better or smarter, its sole function is to physically contain the youth so they don't become delinquent and then trap them in debt so they don't become productive.
It may sound silly but I learned a lot from observing cats. Cats are not social animals but evolved a different way. They are viewed often as "selfish" animals but, in reality, cats simply haven't evolved their thinking to "integrate" their perspective within a family.
Human beings evolved as social animals. It's surprising the extent by which something is taken as factual, because communities accept that truth. Peer pressure, if you like. Note too, the story of The King and his Invisible Suit.
Of course, the puzzle will be how to evolve without socialisation, connected to collective survival. What happens is knowledge gets passed down from generation to generation but "conformity" stresses the need for social cohesion over ideas and inventions that conflict. This, Darwin was mocked over his theory of evolution as his new perspective rocked the boat. And Socrates became an outcast for questioning the gods.
A very good education system can minimise the negative effect of social conformity. The snag is this has declined to huge levels in my country. That leaves "curiosity" , which definitely can open the doors to knowledge. We don't really depend upon student funding to gain knowledge in any subject, be it engineering or philosophy. Yet, so many people will take to the streets to.protest, as if the State controls how we think. I think in the mid 1960s, younger people had figured out they could choose their own individuality over the so-called Rat Race. It was a better time for music, mysticism, T.M., yoga and peaceful values.
My goal is to be judged on either success or failure, totally outside of what Plato referred to as "opinio".
"Opinio" (Latin philosophy term) refers to value judgements, not reality. In society (believe it or not) people aren't judged by ability but rather on the basis of reputation, popularity, "recognition" and rubber stamping.
Most hugely followed authorities are followed due to their reputation, founded on social opinion.
Here's the surprise:
Around 90 per cent of the greatest Magi, Alchemists, teachers and esoteric philosophers were community outcasts. Diogenes the cynic philosopher lived in a tub with his dogs and was mentally ill, as well as a great thinker. Socrates became an outcast from mainstream philosophy schools. My favourite, Heraclitus took to the woodlands to live alone but died due a diet of wild berries. Apuleius (my own Punic speaking guru) did manage to to communicate and lecture to audiences, but later faced accusations of witchcraft. He successfully won his court case, then moved on. In modern times, Grigory Perelman refused a million dollar maths award and avoids all publicity as a recluse.
Very many esoteric, alchemist types were not at all popular, though their thoughts lived beyond them. The question could be asked as to whether being a misfit is actually a curse and bonus for psychic ability.
Nice example with bruce lee - i think it's the same classical "manufacturing approach" that was the norm in pre-mass-media-times.
You truly master one skill over a long time of your life & then begin to add own chapters to the book. After being slapped on the hands countless times - to then finally add an own technique, set of techniques or a whole style to stay in martial arts.
I think that should be the same in magick, broadening what is possible, eliminating what is counter productive.
But here we are talking the exceptional individuals - may they just be a great writer or sculptor - or teacher.
There is this complex field of many interactive and multidisciplinary layers - social engineering so to speak.
Many things are true at once - all revolutions were started by a small minority of people - as most innovations were.
What might be good for one set of people might be a waste of resources on another. We are not the same - and at the same time conditioning can do a great deal. So the views of the - to stay very limited and old school here - right are that nature has unchangeable variables, so nature and genetics and cultures that grew over centuries are true - but so are the left principles in some ways, that social and environmental circumstances can change everything for a "subject" - or the society it is forming. In totalitarian forms and other human experiments we see the consequences, often resulting in dystopian or dull ways of existence - or sheer tragedy and death.
So I see different ways unfolding here - the path of the mindless mass forced into survival mode and slop without nutrition - and a mix of self taught almost cyberpunk (in the sense of high tech low life diy open source) and corporate elites that customize their knowledge towards their goals.
And in these times nothing could be more uncertain than these goals - because our whole social paradigms and norms are shattered and reformed as we speak - we will have a dominance of the east over the west - we will have a re-definition of what money, work and wealth even is - we will have a post-ww3-reset that is paired with technical possibility we never have seen before - we already have breakaway tech we have never seen that is developed in secret - and wars always spike innovation like crazy.
So there might just be what we - on the most of the time fortunate side of the word had for some time - the war of too much choice vs. time and attention. And the period where this is still the norm - and then the brave new world style of molding humans as needed.
Home schooling, in many cases, is about not having your offspring dragged into crime riddled neighborhood demographics and so on. That is of course growing like crazy especially in europe - because we are indeed not all the same. And that is the reason we have the riots in europe atm. And that of course is following the social engineering of the elites that prepared this test run to happen.
It's not so hard - it's just war in places abc - then open borders of def - and watch chaos unfold.
I fear that might be where it leads - bigger problems than just education - rather will we be able to sustain even the most basic levels while pretending the elephant isn't standing on the hose that's about to pshhhhh.
So social conditioning is always a part of what we are - but most likely always ends up in the hands of those that want it more than others.
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Oh and btw we are already in the end stages of the human 1.0 - have talked about Dr. Nehls discoveries before - He explains that the combination of fear propaganda + spike proteins create a state of the brain in which the fear or emotional programming needs to overwrite the existing parts of the brain that are the memory of the self - or the self image. So at some point that is all that is left of the "personality".
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It really is that tension between - we are so different from one another - and so similar in the most basic ways.
From what is empirically observed we always had was - but hings were less complicated before mixing culture up.
And still, so much can work when tensions are not constantly artificially stirred up - and sides played like chess figures.
But in education the hierarchical approach clearly serves the different levels of people better than just throwing them in one class for all.
The custom approach of some schools without hierarchy can also work, like the steiner based schools in germany and so on - but at the same time that has to have a certain level of trust and reliability and might not be applicable for all - and is not tested in different cultures.
Universities can be a great example - just like nasa if you want o believe their content - of collaboration towards grater means and ends.
Custom is the way to go in many ways - but social norms are also a very important part to keep an organized society afloat.
Just like conservative things like procreation and family structure, other forms of guardrails are - as far as humans could gather evidence - the ways that should be applied to most of humanity(?) for the majority to function - and for the weirdos to create cool shit, be polygamous and on drugs and in general degenerated or completely monk like figures with mad scientist gold dropping out of their golden goose type of setup.
That might be very old school, but at the same time it hold stuff stable for the new school stuff to emerge.
Also some despotic smart ass could just coup the shit outta humanity and do a great job that gives us some novelty - for the last time.
In time spans we can understand at least.
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One of the best examples about identification with a construct bigger than ourselves is the thing many people don't get about clan mentality that is common is for example pakistan and so on - huge family intermarriage poses big problems that are in fact not compatible with our ways of state.
Britain a long time ago outlawed cousin intermarriage and so on - that has many complex and important consequences -
you have to impress and adapt to find an unrelated partner - you have to see you fellow people as possible collaborators - your possible father in law might be sitting across you in the public transport. So you strive to impress, be polite etc. Then the other part - in clans you do not have to adapt - only your own bubble and their interest matter - every authority might be plotting behind your back - because they also only serve their clan - they do not have to adapt for finding a partner - they get assigned one that is known because its the first cousin - that basically denies the modern state - as the identification with something abstract and of equal rights granted and trust in the fellow authority to do what is correct for the benefit of the state is denied by a construct where your neighbor is your rival and you do not have to adapt for anything because its always done like in the village etc. Way deeper topic than many think.
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Oh btw britain already had it on the agenda to make cousin marriage legal again - not surprising to me, but you can see where that leads.
Social Conditioning is what we are connected to right now, communicating with all of us on a minute by minute basis. We stare at our phones, use social media, watch more commercials telling us what we should like or dislike, who to vote for, how to think socio-politically and often loosely spiritually, how to often protest something because it does not fit one of the many-sided agendas.
So, would you say that you suffer from Social Conditioning? Do you hate others because of the certain way they vote, worship, what they drive, their economic status, race, sex, gender-choice or lack of gender-choice, views on the universe, views on conflicts, certain rights you may believe you should or should not hold, their country, their choice of rights or choice of limiting what you believe are rights, etc. as this list could go on?
In many ways we are all forged from some level of Social Conditioning. Most here would hate my take on most socio-political stances, yet I refuse to discuss them until they directly affect me or my family. I am sure others have their own takes and I firmly believe everyone is completely entitled to their opinions and hate a right to voice them. Now, the question is were you conditioned to believe what you believe or do you believe you came to your own conclusions based on your own thought, and not from media?
A good example is do you wear what you actually like, or are you wearing what you were told through media is "fire?"
George Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man changes himself to suit the world; the unreasonable man changes the world to suit himself. Thus, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
People go to educational institutions only to get degrees to get a job, very few people actually do something on their own and around the world people without education have become successful.
French people need an excuse to riot, remember the dialogue from Penguins of Madagascar when monkeys or some other animals say they would strike and the penguin would say "you aren't even French".
"very few people actually do something on their own"
That's what I was driving at. It even extends to music. I don't forget some years ago my aunt scoffed at my following The Beatles because they were "out of fashion". So?.What about the music? This same thing shocked George Harrison when he went to San Francisco to meet some flower people and hippies. The Beatles "fans" he met turned out to be so high on acid and hostile, it became clear to George they just followed the Beatles as an "in trend". He'd expected to meet creative, music loving people. Harrison then went so far as to describe the San Francisco bunch as "spotty faced youths, bums and drop-outs".
The point being music taste should be personal, not just following a trend.
So, we can learn what we need to know thanks to innate curiosity, which all children have but lose as they age and conform. We don't have to be boxed into a denomination, school or fashion.
