A Learning Experience 2: Hard Lessons by Christopher G. Nuttall Read Free Book Online Page A

analyse it.  Furthermore, you are ... conditioned to accept social attitudes that are examples of doublethink, simply contradictory, or simply make no sense at all.  Your graduations depend more on how well you adhere to the orthodox line of thinking rather than your grades, per se .
     
    “Schooling in the Solar Union teaches you the basics – how to read, write and access information – and then concentrates on developing your ability to think critically.  You might know that two plus two equals four, instead of five, but if you don’t understand the background you may not be able to reason out that two plus three does equal five.  You are not expected to regurgitate vast quantities of information, because such information is always at your fingertips.  You are expected to use that information to actually think .”
     
    Martin considered it.  He’d never done very well on his exams on Earth ... and yet he’d passed anyway.  It hadn't taken him or his fellows long to realise that it didn't matter how much work they did; they still passed the exams.  And they’d played up in the classrooms, because it didn't matter either.  They'd known, on some level, that they were doomed.
     
    “Many of you will be angry when you work out how badly you’ve been screwed by the system,” Scudder said.  “But anger will not help.  Now, you have the opportunity to make up for what you’ve missed.”
     
    He paused, again.  “But the problems you experienced in your schooling on Earth, I’m afraid, are signs of a more fundamental problem affecting the governments on Earth.
     
    “The earliest governments made no bones about their true nature; they were rule by the strong.  None of the Romans ever bothered to justify their conquests to themselves.  But, as human society developed, coming up with excuses for taking and holding power – and for some of the most awful crimes – started to tax human ingenuity.  Everything from religion to Social Darwinism was used as a justification for war, conquest and, most importantly of all, government .”
     
    Yolanda held up a hand.  “Social Darwinism?”
     
    “In essence, the concept that the strong had rights over the weak,” Scudder explained.  “A strong nation, being strong, would have the right to conquer a weak nation, because the weaklings couldn't defend themselves.  This was often tied into racism; one race considered itself superior to the other races, so the way it treated them was justified by their own superiority.”
     
    He smiled.  “As you can imagine, the concept started to fall out of favour when the ‘strong’ started to become ‘weak,’ he added.  “Most of them were horrified at the thought of being treated as they had treated others.”
     
    Martin had to smile, then sobered as he reasoned out the implications.  A rapist might use Social Darwinism as an excuse to rape.  If a woman couldn't fight him off, she was weak and her rape, therefore, was justified.  It was a sickening thought.
     
    “But most of you,” Scudder said, “will have only experienced the governments of what was once called the West.”
     
    He settled back in his chair.  “There is a fundamental flaw in the government’s approach to human life,” he said, smoothly.  “That is, put simply, that it exists to take care of the population.  By this standard, the average man or woman is nothing more than a legal child, regardless of age, a child who cannot be trusted to make decisions for himself.  The government therefore sees itself as the parents, the people who must make decisions for their children.
     
    “Some of the politicians actually believe this to be true, that they and only they are the ones who can make decisions for their people.  They actually mean well ... but then, we all know what the path to hell is paved with, don’t we?”
     
    “Good intentions,” Toby Kingworm muttered.
     
    “Quite,” Scudder agreed.  “Other politicians