Stop for the School Bus

I mentioned briefly the other day that we are raising our children with a wrong image of how the world works. This reminded me of another pet peeve I have: school busses. In this country, if a school bus pulls over to drop of children, all cars on both sides of the road must stop and wait for the children to get off the bus and possibly cross the street.

I have no doubt this law was introduced to save the lives of countless little brats that never learned to cross the street responsibly. I also have no doubt countless lives were indeed saved. What are we teaching these children though? Are we not slowly conditioning them to believe the world around them has to come to a standstill and wait for them to "cross the street?" Hm... How about a nation that thinks is the most powerful in the world, and expects other countries to stop until it "does its thing" over in that oil-rich desert?

Well, that's probably an exageration and a bad analogy, but my point is, we are teaching these kids that it is OK for them to expect everyone else to watch THEIR backs. I see them streaming out of these busses and dashing across the street, assuming (correctly) that all cars have stopped and it is OK for them not to check for traffic. It gets worse, too. Not long ago I was driving on a 6-lane large street in one of the big cities around here. A schoolbus stopped at the sidewalk, right on the corner of an intersection, and unloaded its precious cargo. About 10-15 kids in their mid teens then leisurely started crossing in all directions, straight through the middle of the intersection, while cars on all sides are waiting. When I say leisurely, I mean SLOOOOWLY, with an obvious attitude. Mind you, these are not first graders, but older kids we normally tend to almost regard as adults. What will they act like when they are "actual" adults?

I see the same kind of thing every morning on my way to work, as "crossing guards" stop the traffic, red light or not, so that the poor helpless children get to where they're going. What happened to teaching our kids how to wait for a green light, check for traffic, and so on? Is it truly surprising that we see a complete lack of responsibility and sense of self-preservation in our adults when this is how we educate our children?

I grew up in a different part of the world where there were no schoolbusses. My school was on the opposite side of the large city. In first and second grade my mother would drive me to school before she went to work every morning, and then back home at noon on her lunch break. In third grade I started going and coming back on my own. It was a 10 minute walk to the subway, 30 minutes or so on the subway, and 10 more minutes to the school. On this daily commute of mine I would cross all kinds of streets, small and large, manage my own subway money, and make sure I didn't get crushed on the train (it was PACKED every day). There were thousands of other kids, just like me, doing the same thing every morning. There still are, in many other places around the world.

Does the kind of cocooning we practice with our American kids today save lives? Does it prevent injuries? Sure. Is the damage and permanent scarring we inflict to their minds worth it, is it worth it to us as a society? I don't think so.

Desilusions

There is a new popular song on the radio. I don' t know what it's called, but it goes something along the lines of "you're beautiful ... and I'll never be with you, and I don't know what to do."

Sadly, this is yet another item of mainstream culture that reinforces stereotypes which, in my opinion, has damaging psychological effects. The song is popular because we all identify with it. We've all been there--seeing someone we are attracted to on the street, on the subway, in a restaurant. We are attracted, don't do anything about it, and know we will never get to meet that person. Later we lament about how unlucky we are to not have met someone like that.

My first impulse was to shout: why can't we have songs that teach us to WALK up to that beautiful woman or hot guy and TALK to them? I then realized this song I am hearing on the radio actually bothers me for a different reason. The message is, hey, there's this gorgeous chick on the subway, she's with someone else, and I'll never have her.

So what, I say? There are a million other women out there you probably would find just as attractive. You will never meet them. If you did meet them and end up having a relationship, how long would it last before your thoughts move on to the next attractive woman that you just spotted on the subway?

Unfortunately movies, music, and advertising all reinforce the concept that there's this one person we will be happy with. Guy gets girl, and they live happily ever after. The End. Why do all movies end like that? How about one where guy gets girl, they live happily together for two years, and then the relationship slowly degrades due to routine, boredom, lust for other women, etc.? How about art that reflects life, rather than art that promotes an idyllic image that is simply unattainable?

I propose that by reinforcing these stereotypes and by allowing ourselves to endulge in the pleasures of this dream world we are doing a lot of damage. Daydreaming is pleasant and probably important for our psychological well-being, but are we not raising our children with a wrong picture of the world? Guy does not always get girl. Girl and guy do not happily live ever after. Grow up, move on, and accept your reality.

To go full circle, back to our song now. Yes, the girl is beatiful. Yes, you will never meet her, even though you probably COULD do something about that. The point, however, is that it DOESN'T MATTER if you meet her or not. She is one many other attractive women you will come across in your life. Stop lamenting about her and move on to the next. Was this love at first sight, was this the one that got away, your only chance of meeting the one single person that would have made you happy? Oh please...

M Theory

I am watching a TV documentary about M theory, the lastest incarnation of string theory. I am surprised at how much it bothers me that it falls short of offering any answers, and instead introduces yet more complications to an already complicated universe. Until now, the philosopher in me had to deal with the idea of a big bang. With M theory, big bangs could be happening all the time not just in other parallel universes, but also in our own, every time a neighboring brane collides with ours.

I have no doubt there may be interesting solutions to various unsolved problems in M theory, but do we really need to complicate the (multi?)verse further? What is the point of this? Stephen Hawking noted once that he is not interested in the events before the big bang because our laws of physics, our time and space, did not exist prior to it. Thus higher dimensions are outside of our reach.

M theory also postulates that it may be possible to communicate with other universes located on parallel branes by using gravity waves, which apparently can escape any single brane and travel to a neighboring one. If such an exotic concept ever becomes reality, would we be able to communicate with itelligent species in other universes? If the laws of physics are radically different there, would communication be possible at all? Common reference points would be inexistent. How would we establish common language?

This line of thought brought me to our brains. It's amazing how we evolved to the point of reflectling about our own universe and our place in the greater scope of things. The way David Darling puts it, the universe is reflecting on itself through us. The fact that us, with our insignifficant life spans and abilities, are pondering these questions is mind boggling. Ultimately though, what good is it? Our civilization will eventually come to an end. It has to, it is only a matter of time, even if that is a very long time. How many more intelligences like ours have evolved before and vanished? How many more similar questions were asked, answered, and then forgotten forever?