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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (117557)	12/18/2000 4:59:27 PM
From: willcousa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

My wife, a teacher, says you know a serial killer by age seven or eight. I grew up in a small rural town and there were some very mean people there. The lesson to be learned was how mean some people can be. We also had the other end of the spectrum; thank heaven.

To: Neocon who wrote (117557)	12/18/2000 5:14:16 PM
From: Johannes Pilch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

This is exactly correct, and it leads me to wonder if Rousseau meant exactly that human individuals are born moral and morally accountable. Could one with mental power as great as Rousseau completely overlook the behavior so evident in children? Perhaps his point was much larger than this. It is one thing to have natural impulses beyond one’s control (such as the impulse in a newborn to cry), and quite another to have conflicting natural impulses and the ability to choose between the two. I think Rousseau was concerned with cognitive man, and the influences upon his choices. He made some wonderful generalisations concerning human interaction and society. It is unfortunate that he tried to quantify them to essentially discount civilization. Upon reading him, I remember thinking it most incongruent that he virtually lauded noble savagery when it has no potential to allow the expression civilization affords.