I’m So Afraid

I went to a Humanist parenting workshop over the weekend. One of the sessions I went to involved us creating our own country. Our facilitator, Ms. Beth Ciesielski from Bridges for Education, mentioned that most decisions are made because of fear. We scoffed at this. After all, we are all educated intellectual Humanists, right? Turned out she was right. Our decisions about how to create a country were indeed based on fear. Worried about dictatorship and you design a democracy. Worried about a stupid conspiracy prone electorate and you tend to design a critical thinking skills test for citizenship. Even our decisions about agriculture and industry were based on our fears. The only decision not ultimately based on fear was how to design our flag.  Needless to say, that exercise was not only fun, it has given me a lot to think about. Learn more about Bridges for Education here: http://www.bridges4edu.org/