Saturday, March 20, 2021

The Spread of Knowledge worldwide

 There is a statement that illustrates how all this has changed over the last 20 years or so.

"A Child with an Iphone in AFrica has more access to real knowledge than President Clinton had as President of the United States".

That really sort of says it all in a nutshell.

When I was 8 or 10 years old if I wanted to know about something I could ask my grandmother but she hadn't gone beyond 3rd grade because she was dyslexic and in the 1890s they didn't know how to teach dyslexics yet in public school or anywhere. So, the next person might be my mother (who did graduate high school before she went to work to support her mother who hadn't ever worked outside the house in her lifetime. She had spent her whole life first raising her 10 or 11 brothers and sisters and then her 3 daughters and then me and that's it. That was my grandmother's life.

My mother might know the answer in other words but if my Dad was at work and I couldn't talk to him because there were no cell phones then. So, if I really wanted to know something I might get on my bicycle and ride to the library several miles away. But, even then the librarian on duty might not know the answer to my question.

This was what my life was like growing up.

And we also lived in a very prudish society then and birth control and abortions were not usually allowed either unless it was condoms to keep soldiers and sailors from getting VD. So, God Help you if you wanted to know anything about the birds and the bees. (which also caused many girls to get pregnant because no one ever told them where babies come from).

One of my two  ex wives was told babies came from kissing. That wasn't very helpful to her which caused her to get married for the first time. However, we were each other's 2nd marriage when we both were 32.

So, you can see what a mess it was before the birth control pill was used that much or abortions were legal.

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