Thoughts had while washing dishes on New Year’s Day :P

I remember the old right-wing slogans of personal responsibility from the 1990s. I think what’s appealing about them is, well, yes, we all tend to think that people should have some amount of self-reliance, self-actualization, autonomy, critical thinking skills, that sort of thing.

My “dish washing thoughts” were along the lines of, libertarians think this comes from the self, either innately or through hard work; American-style liberals/progressives think it must be taught; perhaps anarchists value it but see it as something both nurtured by systemic processes, and coming from the self.

This question of “how one matures” is generally a pretty personally interesting one to me, as a self-described late-bloomer. How did I come to this late, and can nurturing processes be designed to inculcate a sort of self-aware, self-creating, critically thinking pragmatic ironism in humanity in general?

As Graeber talks about focusing on managing diversity by maintaining egalitarian processes, I can’t help but ponder what sort of social guidelines and cultural structures (pedagogical methodologies & theories?) would be best at nurturing the development of the sorts of individuals who understand and choose egalitarian processes? Generally, how do cultural groups attempt to “reproduce themselves,” and are the successful, and how and why? Specifically, as an example, how can anarchists make more of themselves? How do you maintain an open society across generations?

Also, how on earth can there be so many different kinds of cheese?

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