Alas, even the best of intentions can go awry when one tries to impose them on other people – or even sometimes when one tries to inspire others to follow by example. (I sometimes wonder if the universe resents our trying to impose perceived ‘laws’ upon its nature and behaviour, and rebels…)

On a related note, one of the topics in J.M. Straczynksi’s Babylon 5 series was the idea of ‘mind-wiping’ convicted criminals and re-programming them with new personalities and memories so that they could become ‘useful’ members of society – and the moral questions that raises, and the problems that can arise when the process is undone and the person starts remembering who they were before.

Make a good sf short story idea, though, wouldn’t it…an experiment going wrong, initially to immunise people against believing in internet spam perhaps…

jason mate, I see what you’re trying to say, but unfortunately ‘mental immunisation against bad ideas’ sounds rather chilling – it brings to mind Dolores Umbridge taking over Hogwarts in the Happy Rotter series, and the Magisterium guys cutting away children’s daemons in The Golden Compass. Logic is a useful tool, but it can also trap you in very dark places.

I suppose one of the many problems facing teachers is that by the time children get to school age they have already acquired any number of attitudes and ‘superstitions’ (for want of a better word) that one might want to educate out of them; and then as they go through school one has to compete with the influence and pressures coming from their peer group and the (non-school) environment and society they’re growing up in (most humans want to become part of the herd).

Of course I’m not advocating that you should take babies away from their mothers to ensure that they get the ‘right’ pre-school education during their first five or six formative years. Hey, glenda’s written books about that. 🙂

(And all this from comment about cats … I love this blog!)

And they should be taught to recognise marketing ploys and the way people can be manipulated.

I used to think it was bizarre that working scientists could have any such nonsensical beliefs. Now, I realise that such flawed thinking occurs in almost everyone. Practising the scientific method doesn’t help if it’s not applied to all aspects of life.

“Education is the answer” people say. But sometimes I wonder why education doesn’t seem to work as well as we expect.

I know nuclear physicists who still believe in ghosts here in Malaysia.

Once I was standing next to one of Albania’s top scientists – he was taking us around sightseeing to a Roman ruin. He knew I was a birdwatcher and pointed out a Little Owl in a tree. I had my binoculars and looked at it. After a while I lowered the binoculars and he asked, ‘Have you finished?” I thought he meant “Are you ready to move on elsewhere?”, so I nodded.

At that, he picked up a rock and threw it at the bird. (Luckily it missed). I gaped. “Why did you do that?” I asked.

“They are evil birds, bringing bad luck,’ he said.

I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

Sometimes I think humans are best described by Alice in Wonderland, when she remarked that sometimes she believed six impossible things before breakfast…

People can believe the most contradictory things all at the same time. They can behave in bizarre ways which are totally illogical. It drives me crazy!!

For the not reader : It’s quite obvious that for people, a dog is more ‘male like’ and a cat more ‘female like’. Cats are not used in the suburban to frightened people, or to show you are someone dangerous , but pitbulls has been and all dogs alike ! I’m not exaggerating. People are not all cat’s killer for sure.

But who loved the most the Hale Berry film ‘catwoman’ ? womens or mens ?

I live in a big town called Bordeaux, and of course most of the people are not so narrow minded. I’m not telling all french are so stupid, but most of them forget about this strange part of France. A vernacular France which doesn’t want to be open-minded, where people still dirty Jewish graves, insults the north because of one serial killer, insults black football players, as in Italy, and where people working to clean up our commons parts are most of the time not speaking well french… In an other hand we are strongly, and mostly for the equality, and the liberty, and fraternity.

I’ve been losing a cat in a small town. The kids had played with this 2 month cat as a ball… I’m not the only one.

In Switserland even if it’s now forbidden, skins from cats are supposed to heal from rheumatism…

Let’s see about the futur success of the new deodorant from ‘airness’ for MENs in France! May be things are about to change if Publicity tell us so !

Like everywhere in the world France is in between new way of life and old way to see things. May be a little more new things comparing to other cultures.

I’m sorry , i’m too talkative, but it’s part of my life and i strongly react about this ^^

That’s an interesting comment on Frenchmen, though. I guess the idea that cats are for women and dogs are for men goes back to the woman/kitchen-home and men/hunting/outdoors thing. If it is really true that a high proportion of men don’t like reading about things perceived as “a woman’s thing”, the question becomes more disturbing, though, doesn’t it? (Girl cooties – love that).

I wonder if we women are guilty of the same thing? No books about, um, what? Dogs? Cross that one out. Hunting, climbing mountains, boxing, drug-dealing, car-racing, the wild west, buddies, silly risk-taking – nope. Can’t think of anything I will give an automatic dismissal to on the grounds that it is supposedly “a man thing”. Can you? Ok, maybe a car engineering manual…