Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
- Messages
- 8,227
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- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
Steve, I'm often not sure where you are headed with some of your threads until you post a few times to clarify. I may still be wrong but I think I know where you are headed.
I think that thinking people do evolve in their attitudes as they gain experiences. Some people are stuck in a rut and wouldn't recognize a new idea if it hit them over the head with a 2xheavy. Others can learn from their experiences. Gifted people can learn from other people's experiences. I wasn't very good with other people's experiences.
My attitudes on a lot of things changed. I grew up outside a lily-white East Tennessee town. Some of my attitudes changed when I spent two summers high school aged in a program that was 80% black. When I went to college and the army some of my friends looked different from me, had different religious beliefs, or some were pot-heads or even stranger addicts (I did not use the stuff though I did enjoy an adult beverage). When I started work I lived a lot of the time in South Louisiana with strong cajun and creole influences. That was an education for an East Tennessee boy.
When working I had to mentor/train new college graduates, male and female. From some of the questions she asked me and some of the conversations we had I believe at least one of the young ladies trusted me. It was obvious she had it harder than her male counterparts. I saw that in other people too but she really drove that home with questions about "how do I handle this". I worked with and associated with gay people. They were not bad people.
I worked overseas in several different countries on different continents with different forms of governments. Socialism doesn't scare me, it's not communism. Some of the people living under socialism are some of the freest thinking people I've ever seen. Yes they pay high taxes but the average standard of living and disposable income in Denmark is higher than our average. Until I lived there and saw it for myself, I would not have believed it. I've also lived in a former communist country that had a "president-for-life". That's not a place I would want to live. I also lived and worked in a country where anarchy was rampant, a very weak central government. Inside the camp with armed guards where I lived and worked it wasn't that bad but I would not want to live on the economy.
Steve, I think it is very accurate to say many of the ways I think and act today have evolved tremendously from when I was a kid on the farm.
I think that thinking people do evolve in their attitudes as they gain experiences. Some people are stuck in a rut and wouldn't recognize a new idea if it hit them over the head with a 2xheavy. Others can learn from their experiences. Gifted people can learn from other people's experiences. I wasn't very good with other people's experiences.
My attitudes on a lot of things changed. I grew up outside a lily-white East Tennessee town. Some of my attitudes changed when I spent two summers high school aged in a program that was 80% black. When I went to college and the army some of my friends looked different from me, had different religious beliefs, or some were pot-heads or even stranger addicts (I did not use the stuff though I did enjoy an adult beverage). When I started work I lived a lot of the time in South Louisiana with strong cajun and creole influences. That was an education for an East Tennessee boy.
When working I had to mentor/train new college graduates, male and female. From some of the questions she asked me and some of the conversations we had I believe at least one of the young ladies trusted me. It was obvious she had it harder than her male counterparts. I saw that in other people too but she really drove that home with questions about "how do I handle this". I worked with and associated with gay people. They were not bad people.
I worked overseas in several different countries on different continents with different forms of governments. Socialism doesn't scare me, it's not communism. Some of the people living under socialism are some of the freest thinking people I've ever seen. Yes they pay high taxes but the average standard of living and disposable income in Denmark is higher than our average. Until I lived there and saw it for myself, I would not have believed it. I've also lived in a former communist country that had a "president-for-life". That's not a place I would want to live. I also lived and worked in a country where anarchy was rampant, a very weak central government. Inside the camp with armed guards where I lived and worked it wasn't that bad but I would not want to live on the economy.
Steve, I think it is very accurate to say many of the ways I think and act today have evolved tremendously from when I was a kid on the farm.
