--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sgrayatlarge <no_re...@...> wrote: > > Fair enough, but when does it start to matter to them, and > where do they get the notion of what is the right thing to do?
A good question. Hopefully, in my "ideal society," they never get a lecture on "what is the right thing to do." Especially presented in terms of "Do this and you'll go to heaven" or "Don't do this and you'll burn in Hell." The world has had several millennia to prove the wisdom of either "Promise a reward in the next life if you do the right thing" or "Promise hell if you do the wrong thing." The whole of human history is the result -- an unending tapestry of people doing the wrong thing. It Just Doesn't Fuckin' Work. In my experience, only wanting -- as your own idea -- to do the right thing works. The carrot-on-a-stick promise of heaven or enlightenment has been proven not to work, and the whip of implied hell has similarly been proven not to work. Both merely perpetuated doing the wrong thing. > When one raises a child, do we say well you know the right > thing to do, just do it! I do, with the child I'm helping to raise. > Or are they taught right from wrong, what are good actions > and what are bad- manners, behavior, character development, > do unto others, charity,kindness,goodness, strong value > system. You mean "taught what some people believe are right from wrong, what are the good actions and what are bad manners," etc., right? I think it would be more useful to teach the kids mindfulness, so as to more easily detect for them- selves which actions they perform raise their overall state of attention, and which actions they perform lower it. That's a skill they can use at any time, without having to rely on anyone else's view of "right" or "wrong." > Where did the parents learn these good values/virtues? It has > to come from somewhere... No, it really doesn't. Morality has to come from somewhere. Ethics does not. There is a difference.
