Michael Sylvester wrote:
> Btw,lots of people in Daytona Beach are puzzled by the misbehavior
> of college students during Spring Break.They remark: how can
> these folks are going to college and yet they behave so stupid
> and dumb.
> I also feel that the educated should transcend cultural imperatives.
This last statement is probably the norm these days - but if we transcend this
current norm for a minute, I think we can make a case for the opposite. No doubt
intelligence arose as an adaptation that had a social function. It permits
communication
and cooperation. Many of the side benefits of intelligence - poetry, literature, art -
serve a social function as well. We expect those with more intelligence to "fit" into
their group better than those with lower intelligence.
An opposing argument is that intelligence allows us to entertain different social
contracts and engage in social trangressions (after Crime and Punishment - a reminder
that not all culural imperatives should be transcended!).
Education (apart from intelligence) serves the needs of the group. Societies
pattern
the their education after what society needs. The current push for cultural diversity
and sensitivity can be viewed _not_ as a transcending of our culture - but the epitome
of our current cultural imperative which - in a global economy - stresses communication
and cooperation between diverse peoples.
(sorry for deleting the rest of your message) One way to explain male
undergraduates' "uneducated" behavior on spring break (loud, obnoxious, dangerous -
jumping from windows, etcetera) is to liken it to peacock feathers. They are totally
illogical, unnecessary, and risky. If natural selection were the only consideration
they
should have disappeared from the gene pool. But they evolved as diplays to attract
women
(Darwin's "sexual selection" mechanism). Empirical question: Do men who fling
themselves
out of windows - and live to tell about it - get more dates?
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
John W. Kulig [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://oz.plymouth.edu/~kulig
Plymouth State College tel: (603) 535-2468
Plymouth NH USA 03264 fax: (603) 535-2412
---------------------------------------------------------------
"What a man often sees he does not wonder at, although he knows
not why it happens; if something occurs which he has not seen before,
he thinks it is a marvel" - Cicero.
