Patrick Compton:
To what degree are we naturally civilized, homo sapiens as so called, and not upright apes with ego problems, relying on language-based and law-based methods to temper our limbic urges?
In what ways are we "evolutionarily displaced", psychologically, behaviorally, socially, cognitively, in our ability to be educated, and how much?
Please provide evidence for claims. Well informed anecdotes and personal stories are also valuable 🙂
Also, what mental capacities must be developed in one's "formative years"; which become more difficult to learn as we grow up?

Me:
Uhh, I won't comment on the first parts of this message, but regarding the last question, you have something backward. Children have more than enough mental capacities just by virtue of being alive, which of course they'll naturally build upon by living and growing over time. The problem isn't so much that we don't equip them with the right mental capacities, but that we attempt to *do it* by fixing what's not broken. Formal education is by far the worst offender, which is where we cut off their proverbial wings, taking away their imagination, creativity, perception, connection to life, feelings and happiness by training them to become left-brain-imbalanced like the rest of society, and not to mention training them to be obedient and not to question authority so they'll be good cogs in the economic machine when they grow up, and all the while forcing miserable mental labor on them for 19 years so they can learn mostly frivolous skills and facts that don't have much to do with what it means to live, and taking away their valuable fun and social time in their formative years. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot causing them emotional trauma and feelings of unworthiness that they'll take with them for life from conditional love by their parents by putting so much pressure on the parents to put pressure on their children to go to school and do well in it.

Patrick Compton:
Richard A. Nichols III there are true observations in this but it may benefit from some nuance. Though I do see the education system working like this still, exploiting just as much as it teaches, if not more.