However, because humans possess a capacity for self-awareness, we have the choice to make an effort to overcome the ingrained habit of dominating each other - and the Biosphere - and our tendencies toward abuse of power.
Throughout this series - which is at its core about power and its abuses - I have maintained that we continue to live within a paradigm of dominance-based culture (man over other men; over women; and over nature) - and that this "mega-culture" is bringing us to the edge of the abyss.
Rankism and Education
Rankism commonly sees other people as objects. It expresses Martin Buber's distinction between "I-It" and "I-Thou" relationships: between seeing others as objects or "things" vs. "sacred subjects."
Philip Slater:
"In a democracy the fundamental goal of education is development. For authoritarians it is obedience... the idea of children becoming curious, creative, or original gives them hives... Society is [seen as] a series of slots, and education a process of molding people to fit into those slots.
"Children are not seen as complex beings of infinite and uncharted potential; [rather] they are a sloppy throng of round pegs in desperate need of being squared up.
"Early in 1989 the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that students taught by traditional methods were unable to reason or think for themselves, and that teachers would have to become less authoritarian for more sophisticated learning to occur. This was no news to good teachers, but will probably be ignored by the authoritarians who so often make educational policy."
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