All cultures and societies have formal and informal norms and standards that can similarly be formally or informally passed onto future generations. Norms can be smaller for a family or peers, or they can be for a society. These norms can be recognized as objective facts such as 2+2=4, as well as subjective ‘facts’ (things that are not objective but are to be taken as objective); it can also include directing appetitive preferences such as how sexuality is accepted or not (hetero-, homo-, bi-, monogamous, or poly), or even what is the proper temp to cook a steak. These norms run the gamut from moral bases to appetitive bases, what is accepted as ‘reality,’ and can be taught in a school or from family and friends.
The formal or informal passing on of ideas through generations and amongst groups is not dichotomous as they are both used throughout life. There is an interaction between the two. What may be (formally) taught in class may be seconded or discredited at home (informal). There is a commonality in methodology among the two: something is introduced into the mind, stored, assimilated, modified, and acted upon, which is done by others as well and through interactions with each other everyone is constantly either solidifying, changing, or altogether replacing their beliefs. Our thoughts evolve which makes our lives evolve and as members of society, it evolves as well.
The informal is more organic and more open to context and adjustments; the formal is more systematized. It can be the difference between one’s family learning how to use an air fryer to accepting a daughter’s bisexuality, as contrasted against a school establishing or changing curriculum, or a government a law. Whether formally or informally taught, there is a mental construct that is to be shared from one to another. There is an interplay within oneself of all one’s knowledge and experiences, individuals amongst each other, and individuals within their society. Ultimately, it expands further to societies (individuals from each sharing their accepted norms) interacting, who each have all their levels interplay. This mental construct that goes from mind to mind is known as a meme.
Memes ‘compete’ with one another. Memes interact in a circular manner with how the individual is acted upon by the environment, as well as acting upon that environment. Memes either make a belief or tradition become modified, solidified, or replaced. Examples: will adding the air fryer just supplement my cooking knowledge, or will how much I use the air fryer replace some knowledge of cooking with a grill? Will this new song replace my old favorite by a different artist? Will the knowledge of someone’s sexuality change how I perceive them as moral beings? – will discussing it with others change their minds or my own? – will all our discussions change the social perception on that sexuality?
Our education, formal or informal, is the taking of memes of the moment and instilling them into the minds of those being educated who go on and share them amongst their peers and all else. Formal education with curriculum – or law – makes a standard that is resistant to change: if one now sees something learned as incorrect, then that interpretation is what is deemed erroneous. The absolute truth is not relevant as what is relevant is what is socially accepted. For a historic example, Galileo was correct in reality but wrong for what was socially accepted: he was punished for being socially incorrect. It takes time and effort to change the formalized for one is challenging both tradition and the vested interests of those established; it also takes a strong enough and adaptive meme supported by enough people to modify or replace the old meme.
Through the interplay of the shared meme being put out into the environment and from the environment onto the individual can informal and formal changes be made: members of one’s home may see something as good and from enough homes embracing it may spur a recognized authority to set a curriculum or law based around it. For example, at home people may see the importance of critical thinking and want their children taught more of it at school; the administration seeing the practicality and the outside push may enact more courses for critical thinking lessons.
However, that is just one way something may be accepted and only for a time. Evolution is about adaptation and change, and it does not need to be for individual or social betterment. It is about the betterment of the thing, and in this case the meme. Something just needs to be more accepted for the moment and with a foothold may grow. The natural world is replete with species and behaviors that exploit others: see the cuckoo bird and gaslighting, among countless other species and behaviors.
What has been happening over the past decades has been memetic shift that includes a decrease in the formal teaching of objectivity and critical thinking in favor of subjectivity and submission to authority: higher-order thinking supplanted by lower-order thinking and obedience. As prior generations learn and teach the next generation, the accepted memes of subjectivity and submission to authority have continued to expand and become more formalized with those prior generations being the next teachers and politicians. The new generation and memes replace the old generation and memes. This happens even faster with emerging technology that the newer generations being more adept at using it.
Biases always affect perceptions and judgments, but could be checked more when people thought critically and recognized an objective world. When critical thinking and objectivity are not held as that valuable, criticism and review fall to feelings and authority. The increasing memetic spread of subjectivity and submission to authority in education and politics will have long-lasting effects that are objectively felt even if subjectively denied. Galileo was right, even when the authority in society was wrong. The new generations advancing that memetic spread denying reality and embracing their feelings as prepotent in existence are just as wrong and leaves individuals and their societies vulnerable as any who embrace errors.
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