Amy writes:
Hannah Arendt, who is a
proper philosopher, said it in proper philosophical language: "This is why men,
no matter what they do, are always conditioned beings. Whatever enters the
human world of its own accord or is drawn into it by human effort becomes part
of the human condition" (The Human Condition).
One might say that there is
not much difference between 'human conditioning' and 'brain-washing'. Except
that 'brain-washing' is a derogative term and therefore attributes a negative
moral value to what has no more to do with morality than the law of
gravity.
But then we are conditioned
by our judeo-christian culture to pass moral judgments whether or
not morality is involved. Do we not make of our all-powerful god an all-loving
god? Which is something of an oxymoron. The Greeks did not have such problems,
their gods being a rather nasty lot.
Whether or not we approve
of our upbringing we have to be brought up. And let us not forget that our
children will judge their upbringing just as we do ours, i.e. according to the
dictates of their generation! For, if there is a 'conditioning' which may
be qualified as 'brain-washing' it is that of the 'isms' of each generation. I
have known a fair number of them during my long life: marxism, freudism,
feminism, atheism, multiculturalism, rights of man, climate change, etc. all of
which is very honourable as long as it does not ossify into its 'ism'.
My 'isms' being mainly
determinism, relativism and scepticism. Not very constructive, I confess. But
that's who I am.
Amy
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