Human Beings Should?

[jeshyr]

Knowing the reading habits and memory capacity of my various friends, I'm sure many of you are familiar with this quote:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Lazarus Long

Somebody posted it where I read it today and it made me think ...

I don't think LL's list is really approriate for 2011 But I can do some: diaper, building, sonnet, accounts, wall, bone, take/give orders, cooperate, alone, equations, problem, manure, program and cook are all ones I've done or participated in substantially. I have seen an animal butchered (cow not pig), ship conned (sea not space) and could do it with practice or a good book. I hope I will die well and hope I don't find out for a very long time. The invasion planning I hope never to be involved in but I am good at that type of thing (supply problems). Don't want to know how to fight well but I would like to be better at running away! Comforting the dying I have never tried but I am good at comfort in general. Wow, I'm not so bad at these...

Comments

[cedar51.livejournal.com]

Let me see how I have faired:

change a diaper, - TICK
plan an invasion, - PART TICK
butcher a hog, - FAIL
conn a ship,- FAIL
design a building, - DESIGN A TEXTILE & WEAVE IT BUT BUILDING - FAIL
write a sonnet,- TICK FOR POETRY
balance accounts, - TICK, HAVEN'T BEEN COMPLETELY IN RED EVER
build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, - I COULD PROBABLY DO FIRST AID FOR A BONE,
take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, - REASONABLE TICK
solve equations, analyze a new problem,- MENTALLY YES
pitch manure, - NOT EXACTLY, DOES TURNING COMPOST COUNT
program a computer,- FAIL, ISN'T THAT WHAT WHIZZES ARE FOR!
cook a tasty meal, - TICK, WELL i THINK SO
fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - NOT SURE I WANT TO DO ANY OF THESE, BUT IF FORCED MAYBE WOMAN'S INTUITION WILL TAKE OVER

but there are other things I'm have accomplished, some I have never expected to ever do...

[melbournian]

I've just returned from a month long adventure and thought about this quote along the way.

Part of my trip was helping a friend build a house, so I gained more experience at building walls and designing buildings. I also helped care for his two young children. I gained plenty of experience in the other areas throughout my adventure too.

Like you I have no experience in butchering hogs, conning spaceships or dying.

[sheramil]

i prefer this one:


The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not.
- philip k dick

[acelightning]

they aren't mutually contradictory. the list of things a human being ought to be able to do almost implies that there are also things a human ought to be able to refuse to do. furthermore, "fight efficiently, die gallantly" could be taken as implying that a human should be prepared to resist tyranny even unto the point of death. (in other passages, Heinlein was rather emphatic about the necessity of resisting tyranny.)

[onceamy]

In my opinion, it is more likely to be necessary to comfort the living after a loved one has died -- the people I've watched die did so in a state of unconsciousness, and were not aware of their pain and suffering.

[jeshyr]

This is a very good point - I know some die nastily but most people don't, especially in the first world in the twenty first century. The living are often those who hurt the most.

[acelightning]

things i know i can do, because i've done them:
change a diaper, write a sonnet, balance accounts, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, analyze a new problem, program a computer, cook a tasty meal.

things i'm pretty sure i could do, and/or learn to do:
plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, build a wall, pitch manure, die gallantly.

things i know i can't do:
solve equations, fight efficiently.

i also think there are quite a few other things that ought to be added to that list, starting with "deliver a baby, repair equipment, find one's way when lost, make serviceable clothing, speak more than one language..."

i have always believed that the more skills a person has, the more different things they know how to do, the better prepeared they are to deal with whatever situations the Universe springs on them. i may be somewhat biased by the fact that i actively like learning new stuff ;-)

[jeshyr]

I am generally in agreement with you here. Those addendums are important ... also "know how to verify information" and something about being able to make a sane choice when confronted by many alternatives (fifty flavours of potato chips, I mean really!)

I do think that skills, like many things, come under the heading where the more you have the easier it is to learn more - both because you have practice learning new skills, and because a new skill is more likely to overlap with an existing one.

[acelightning]

well, in the case of trying to make an intelligent choice among too many varieties of packaged food, the simplest thing to do is to pick the one with the fewest ingredients. usually, the things on a long list work out to flavorings, colors, and flavor "enhancers", plus preservatives to keep all that stuff from going rancid. but if the list just says "potatoes, vegetable oil, salt", you're pretty safe ;-)

alas, most people react to the concept of learning new skills with anything from mild anxiety to screaming panic, which always puzzles me somewhat. one of my LiveJournal friends once said that he had a recurring nightmare about suddenly finding himself in a foreign city, where he didn't know anybody, didn't know anything about the city, and didn't speak the language; he said that he always wakes up in terror from this dream. i countered by describing an actual experience i had - visiting the French-speaking part of Canada, progressing more and more deeply into territory where little to no English was spoken, when my own French was pretty much limited to "where is the toilet?" and "i don't speak French". after a week, i could order a simple meal and understand the weather report on the TV in my hotel room. i found the experience utterly exhilarating! but my neophobic friend almost had a panic attack just reading about my adventure. he doesn't understand how i could possibly enjoy something like that, and i don't understand why it terrifies him so :-(

i think the human race needs more neophiles...

[iosef.livejournal.com]

Never Conned a ship, and building design was only at the level of a Form 2 Student. Also, never butchered a hog, only a deer.