I enjoy listening to BBC Radio 4's social science programme, Thinking Allowed, with Laurie Taylor, because many of the issues discussed are of huge social importance.
However, like all social and political scientists, it seems, Laurie fails to recognise the most basic thing about his discipline and subject matter: the fact that so-called SOCIETY simultaneously represents both our TRIBE* and the ENVIRONMENT we seek to exploit to our own advantage.
* Whether David Cameron's BIG SOCIETY or the GLOBAL VILLAGE/COMMUNITY in general.
Why is it so difficult for social and political scientists, like Laurie, to grasp this fundamental truth (deeply rooted in our evolutionary origins), which underlies our most pressing social, political, economic and also environmental problems?
Re the programme going out now. I have a transcript of the Parkhurst Governor's log of 1825 in which there are several cases of children as young as 8 being punished by being sint down the "black Hole" for lengthy periods as a form of punishment. The "Black Hole" at Parkhurststill exists
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