h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry McKay.
I read about the first 4 pages, and the last 3. As I'm on a pay-as-you-go dial up connection at the moment, it would be too expensive to go through every page.
The whole issue of acceptance in children is very odd - the reasons they pick are often invisible to adults, and even when they are visible, they often seem very arbitrary. There is, particularly as they grow older, a tendency for children to pick on 'the different one'. But it normally takes a prejudiced adult to make the kids pick on 'those n*****r kids', or the ones with a different religion, rather than the single child with a peculiarity.

It's past my bedtime and I still haven't reached posting 100, so I'm sorry if this has been raised.

Some years ago I read an SF story about a kid who was wise beyond his years and able to solve any problem. (I think.) He grew up to be saviour of the world. It turned out that he had a very mixed racial inheritance, his forebears covering every human subgroup that our intolerant imaginations could devise. Can't remember whether he survived his success.
Ring any bells with anyone? I'd love to read it again.

Don't remember that one, although it rings a faint bell. I seem to remember that if all races were mixed equally, the resulting *look* would be remarkably like the people of the South Pacific, which works for me since they are generally quite gorgeous looking.

I also was thinking about the nature/nurture debate and wondered, if an individual never met *another kind* of human until they were much older and had not a word spoken about races as they grew up, would they be predjudiced when they finally met someone different than them?

Nah not prejudice. Curious I bet!

Doesn't pre-judge, mean you have to think you have some info before meeting?
Prejudging someone to have more positive attributes than oneself, is also a prejudice.

The book sounds a bit like "Ender's Game"...

H.

remember this

hate has only enemies - has many friends

When someone makes a judgement on an issue or a person without taking any steps to learn the relevant facts, that is also pre-judging.

- when they look at someone walking down the street and assume one thing or another to be true

- when a policeman doesn't ask any questions before bashing someone on the head

- an employer who "screens" candidates based on their name without actually interviewing them

"an employer who "screens" candidates based on their name without actually interviewing them"

Ever wondered why so many female writers use their initials (P.D. James, J.K. Rowling)? It's because a female name on a manuscript immediately makes it less likely to be accepted.

The only known counter-example of this is Mills & Boon, where the opposite is the case.

Apparently.

I think there is something to be said about a child's ability to hear and listen to his or her instincts (in regard to the people he/she meets.) As adults we have learned to ignore our instincts. But I think we should allow our child to listen to and follow their instincts. My niece, who as a toddler always had an affinity for men, did not like a particular male family friend. It turned out a later that he was actually a violent man. Maybe my niece somehow sensed this, even though other adults could not or would not. I struggle a little with the balance of letting my children listen to their instincts and trying to teach them to be accepting. So I think there are times when we need to prejudge people for our own safety.

I think there is something to be said about a child's ability to hear and listen to his or her instincts (in regard to the people he/she meets.) As adults we have learned to ignore our instincts. But I think we should allow our child to listen to and follow their instincts. My niece, who as a toddler always had an affinity for men, did not like a particular male family friend. It turned out a later that he was actually a violent man. Maybe my niece somehow sensed this, even though other adults could not or would not. I struggle a little with the balance of letting my children listen to their instincts and trying to teach them to be accepting. So I think there are times when we need to prejudge people for our own safety.

I think we all instinctively make judgements about individuals we encounter, be they based on handwriting, name, smell, appearance, activities and so on. Many of these can be irrational and may or may not be borne out when we get to know the person better.

What we need to guard against is prejudice of a type of person according to a certain charactertistic e.g. skin colour.
I wonder if there is a certain instinctive wary attitude to people who are different from us in appearance & culture, evolved as a safety mechanism - until we know if they are friend or foe?

"I wonder if there is a certain instinctive wary attitude to people who are different from us in appearance & culture, evolved as a safety mechanism - until we know if they are friend or foe?"

From a tribal perspective, it is very important for survial to be able to differenciate between 'us' and 'them'- ornaments that mark a person out to belonging to one particular tribe, a particular colour of beads on a necklace perhaps, or specific colours and designs on a shield. Even today, different colours and designs of uniforms on idffernent country's Armies. I suppose skin colour coiuld be seen as an extension of that, you're different, so you must be Them, not us, so it's safest to assume you're an enemy until proved otherwise.

I make judgements about people from the first moment I see them. Based on clothing and other appearance, more seriously their body language, the way they talk and the general 'vibe' of a person. But I'm aware of this, and unless I feel very threatened, wont take any action until I know a lot more about them. My judgement is based on previous people I've met with similar charaterisitcs - but it is just a guess, and as every person is unique, I wait to learn about this person ,if its an environment where I'm ever going to talk to them.

Strangly enough, I am totally opposite. I seem to have a form of voluntary "colour/race/appearance" blindness. I truely don't actually notice anyone's appearance until long after I start talking to them - could be because I'm virtually blind as a bat and don't rely on sight much, or because perhaps I don't CHoose to see people thru' sheer panic, incase I cannot rely on the sight I see. I don't know. All I know is that If I don't like a person it's because I don't like 'em - not because of their race, creed or colour. They could be green for all I care. As for being "a;llowed" to breed with who we wish... deary deary me. My kids are a product of Protestant British and Catholic Gaelic (Irish). Ok, they're pinkish, but my my my, the cultural differences have blended beautifully. I could almost say I have two wonderfully rounded and balanced human beings. And, I might add, THEY won't even *think* of considering asking permission as to whom they can create new human beings with. Didn't this sort of thinking go out with the ark - or am I being overly naive?

Lovely! Witchone.

You are obviously the mother that very sadly PYT never had but should have had.

az

Thank you for the compliment!

Alas, I apparently I am the sort of mother EVERYONE slightly warped should have had but didn't....

God alone knows how I became that - I came from the most disfunctional and perculiar familly you can envisage.... I'll do an artical on it on day. With a bit of luck you'll cry your eyes out with tears of mirth. There's very little I can't make a joke out of.

Anyway, lets continue sorting the world to rights!

...another thread I thought had died turns out to have moved on...

You and your children are very lucky. And also anyone who meets them.

A friend of mine (ATFIM) has a girlfriend (TYS) who can't tell her parents about him because they will not approve of his religious views. Its causing no end of greif, not least because the reason is almost entirely arbitary.

These'll be the first social constructs discarded come the revolution.

What a nice crowd of people there are out there! Sorry Acid override, you'll have to do a bit of translating for me - ATFIM? TYS? I'm not sure what those intial stand for - please educate me. It always strike s me as so very silly that people get all knicker wetty over something as personal as religion - "my" god has a sense of humour and understands me perfectly simply because man makes "god in his or her own image!!! Or thats what I believe, anyway. I don't expect anyone else to believe in "my" god... but then, I don't expect anyone to co-erce me to believe in theirs, either. It's not an intensly held opinion, I simply opt for the easiest and most practical belief I can to make my life as comfortable as possible. As I said to a Wicca friend a few months ago, "Gwen, would you DIE for your beliefs?" When she'd finished laughing she said "Certainly not!" (and this is a real life psychic and got the hang of it witch (rather than a practicing one, like me). "Frankly, neither would I" I said. "There's buggerall point in dying for a belief, I'd sooner live for one, wouldn't you?" And when Gwen had finished cackling, she said "I'll make a witch of you yet!" A frightening thought.

Are you really sure people would be lucky to meet me and the lads? Well, the lads, yes, they're great fun and good kids. But me? Naw... I'm too busy giggling and staying out at my friends and bossing their friends into submission and generally being eccentric to be much of a mum really. I think my kids like me - and their mates like me, too because I make them laugh and feed them! Do tell me what those initials stand for, I'd like to know. Cheers.