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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Kids need to be socialized in the ideas and values that make their civilization successful. Critical thinking is one piece of that, but we focus too much on it in elite environs. We also need to teach kids to tend to the edifice of civilization we’ve built, not just how to tear pieces of it down.

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This really struck a chord with me as a parent of two toddlers.

“Tear things down” is practically the toddler core competency!

What does it mean for a civilization to be “successful”? The vast majority of our progress has been made off of exploration, slavery and war. The latter fueling the entire tech industry starting with the code cracking computers of WWII and the nuclear holocaust survivable internet. Who is working the mines for the materials in our iPhones, and under what conditions?

It’s worthwhile to teach children the true history of progress and ask if perhaps there isn’t a better way.

It’s almost as if history and humanity is messy, and doesn’t fit into a tidy little box. There has never been a system that was built from the ground up on flawless, utopian principles. The success of our system can be argued in a myriad ways; likewise the failures. I want my kids to understand the greatness of our civilization while doing their part to correct it’s shortcomings. It’s one of my goals, and I hope they take up the mantle.

I hope you’re teaching them the truth behind the origin of the technology and systems of our world. Otherwise you’re spreading ignorance.

Complaining about “wokeness” is to be willfully stupid. Your kids will find out the truth, even if you try to hide it from them.

> We also need to teach kids to tend to the edifice of civilization we’ve built

The truth of that depends entirely on whether that civilization's "success" is something that either can or should be sustained, and that's the assumption that most "woke" people challenge. Very few seek to tear down any part of it without having carefully considered whether it really contributes to long term success.

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