---

On Pedagogy

^{Published 2017-05-28 on Minds}

It is not the purpose of pedagogy to instill virtues or qualities into the youth; it is not in the power of a system to do so; education cannot transmute the strong into the weak, or vice versa, and those that do are roundly abusive. The purpose of pedagogy is to select amongst those qualities already present in children of a certain age, which to discourage and which to encourage, and to guide. These are in Freudian terms the prosocial behaviors, even the discordant ones, and the antisocial ones, but the statement could be applied to any scheme. Up to a certain age, it is possible to change not the essence of a child but their formed person, what predominates in them, in the daily conduct of their lives, and a virtuous society will not 'deprogram' them by appealing to their baser nature, and degenerate them as an instrument to other ends.

This is the only way to a better world, without death, without selecting along the lines of essence. It is the only hope for salvation for the vast majority, and that is to be taught. It is thus difficult, slow, and uncertain, requiring at all times and all facets the greatest of efforts and wits. Thus, it is very unlikely, and at the utmost a marginal part of the greater arc of history.

Only, note, in societies which historically followed either of these routes to an absolute, did any polity, any popular creature worthy of esteem and enfranchisement emerge. These are the northern councils, subject to incessant harsh survival, who chose amongst themselves; and the southerly democracies, who put every free child through the most holistic of schooling as a rule, so that each was fit to vote. The noblest of societies, without monarchs or tyrants, are those who are devoted to the value of the people, and many cultures in all climes have understood this, through one means or another.

As for us, well, look about us, at humans panicked of replacement by machines, and you will see how much we have valued both selection and education. They are scarce fit to guide themselves in life, let alone in civilization, and there is no want to educate them. The only way then must be through selection, and the ossification and decay of the rest.

[Index]