[Zinkovich]

Yes! How to affect "apathy" is central to the success of spreading activism for an idea. I think this is a question which has bedeviled all persons who started with an idea for change at some social level in their civilizations. Find it, and all the activist orgs of the world will be knocking on your door. I think usually the agent that kills apathy is accidental -- like Rosa Parks refusing on a specific day to give up her seat just because she happened to be very tired on that day, or that men of strong moral character happen to exist at a particular time in history -- such as Ghandi. IN the case of Ghandi or MLK, charisma and a combination of humility with strenght of convictions may be needed in the right mix -- and again at the right time. Is that something that can be cultured and refined and promoted. I would hopoe so, or to say "no" -- that in itself would be pessimistic thought -- the twin of apathy or contentment with the status quo.

It's amazing how powerful circumstance can really be, isn't it? That said, the attitudes brought on by Martin Luther and the rest, to me, is not only defined by thier strength of character. One thing I noticed central to them was a pragmatic attitude that needs to be cultivated amongst academics at this point.

Which is part of my opinion. Out of all the higher-level college students I have had lengthened discussions with, motivating them to even discuss putting thier ideas to action beyond the conceptual stage is near impossible for me. I believe that if academia even further encouraged activity then it does now we'd have even more ideas, and applications thereof in the works.

Sometimes, when one looks back in history they can imagine how many ideas were lost because people did not apply themselves, or lacked confidence. It's about time ideological progressives gained confidence, which brings me to my next goal I want to work towards: motivation.

How does one draw the ideas out of the intellectual realm and make it reality? The simple fact of the matter is that ideas are most fully realised by the person who learned it from thier own synthesization of knowledge and inuition, rather than form a textbook or from a mentor or teacher(unless they are quite talented). Considering this, I think it would be rather rewarding to seek out those who are on the forefront of innovation, and to gather thier advice and ideas from them, or offer support.

While what I am implying is a network of academics geared towards motivating each other to apply things, I think it must go much further than that. For a good example, look at the recent foundation founded by the veritable Richard Dawkins- where's the community? There needs to be more than sharing of ideology, but also a sharing of ALL of the intellects involved.

Of course, I am not the sort that can do such a thing, as I am not well-educated enough at this point, but I'd like to think this idea would be applied in the future. The benefits would be enormous.

Exactly! But, how do you move a religion towards peace when its scriptures, the source of their religion, promote it, encourage it, condone it, and expect its believers to partake in it?

Most scriptures contradict, giving a mixed message of optimism and pessimism depending on the tone. WIth the risk of outright deception, I imagine somebody could memorize the more optimistic passages of the multiple religious scriptures and make a lot of the more malleable laymen reconsider things about the judgement inherent in thier religious viewpoint.

After that, cultural change/shift would no doubt occur. Whether or not its effects would be permanent, though, is questionable.

I would suggest rather than using their own tenets to move them towards a peaceful view or concept of their religion (which cannot be done because of the contradictions that would arise) and leave the religion still standing on a Neo footing of some kind, it would be best to use their own scriptures in reasoned arguments against it to widdle away at the numbers of adherants to it. I think the bases or kernel of this could be started with formal reasoning classes at a very early age -- like in kindergarten or first grade, which would undermine the gobbly-gook they get from already lost causes such as indoctrinated parents. Plant that at an early age, then in their teen years their rebellion against parantel views will be even more shored up so as to break the chain.

What would help this cause greatly is if one were to able to get a bill for the improvement of basic education passed through congress once and for all. The educational system's low standards are ridiculous, especially on the elementary level. I have seen three cousins go into elementary school for the first time and then proceed to talk about how "special" they are as if they have found religion- one had even come back asking poor mom about god, because the teacher talked to her aobut how "God made her special!". I think this is wrong and elementary needs to move towards teaching actual critical thinking at an early age(yes, it is possible folks. I can give you anthropological examples if you like).

The optimal way to achieve this is require profeciency in general topics at a college level to teach even elementary school.

I think the better thought would be where to place one`s recourses for the most efficient payback. If your parents are so indoctrinated on their beliefs and it would take you 1000 hours of talking to change them, but only 100 hours of talking to change 20 people, which should one choose that would have a broader impact on society? Sure, if your parents are very powerful like Bill Gates, then the pay-off would be worth it, but if all things are considerably equal, you should place your recources of time and effort in another direction for maximum affect. It almost borders on viewing one`s parents as a lost cause in the battle -- but if you view the goal of altruism as a battle, then as soldiers must do, they sometimes have to leave a fallen comrad in battle when the urgency of the situation requires it.

That sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, it is hard to pierce that wall of built up apathy, especially when you're dealing with someone you don't know as well on a personal level. There must be an even more efficient method of making people realise that there are people in the dirt of society, being trampled on by unaware passerbys(metaphorically, of course).

Movies won't work, and neither do books. It's already been tried- so what would be better is something truly momentous and iconic of both the misery of the poor as well as the potentiality of thier future when given aid. Don't ask me what it would be, though, I don't have a clue.

When I was in college there were Young Republican and Democrat clubs that would volunteer for politicians for their campaigns. That may mean ingratiating yourself throught the ladder of command by going door to door, putting up posters and signs or manning phone banks. That is a foot into the door and the way to begin making connections. In politics favors are remembered and rewarded. I regret I didn`t join one of those on-campus clubs.

Sounds like a splendid idea, and luckily for me I am really good friends with the president of the chamber of commerce in in Miami. I'll ask him to pull some strings- hopefully he won't get too upset.

Nihongo dekiru no? Dono gurai benkyou shite iru no? Nihonjin? Oshiete ne. Ohenji o matte iru.

I probably should have mentioned I am going to wind up as a multilingual anthropologist once i'm done. So far I've only studied Protoiroquian(The basis for all Native American languages in m region), and am moving to Japanese this year.

That said, good to know you're proficient in Japanese. I'll be sure to PM you for random bits of advice when I get stuck

Edit: Oh lord my spelling needed some fixing.