I know people who think it's just great to medicate children because their learning styles and behavior are unconventional and high-spirited. Not dangerous. Not seriously disruptive. But it's certainly easier to control children if they all act the same.

Certainly a pet peeve of mine. Attention Deficit Disorder I guess it's called. Hell, I have adult relatives that are discovering they have it. Mostly an excuse to take speed imo. Hopefully it will pass when and if we learn more about the human brain. Our current knowledge seems about the equivalent of our general medical knowledge 200 years ago.

To be honest though, my son has been on Adderall since last year and it has been very effective in helping him with reading. He improved from a first grade level to fourth grade (his grade) in one school year. His grades are now mostly Bs and Cs where they were Ds and Fs a year ago. He has none of the behavior you mentioned above just lacked focus. Now that he has caught up we will probably try taking him off of it soon and see what happens. I don't see it as a permanent therapy.

I am certain that the medication has helped him but he was also a victim of a very kind teacher that let him breeze through the second grade without learning to read.

Why are diverse cultures a disadvantage, but diverse economic conditions, even to the point of privation, OK?

You might be surprised to know how far I would go to eliminate unequal economic conditions if it included elimination of counter-cultural behavior.

If I want to live in a hut on the mountain, as long as my outhouse doesn't contaminate other people's water supply, why should anybody else have anything to say about that just because it's weird? If people didn't want me to take my children with me, they would have a point. If my children were in their 20s, not so much.

I don't see how anyone could disagree with that as long as there is room on the mountain for how you want to live. A nice asteroid would be a lot better though.

Not so long ago, everyone was supposed to be right-handed, whether they really were or not.

I have seen you mention this several times and it is nothing less than child abuse. I would have never thought the Catholics would be guilty of this in your lifetime. It is ridiculous. Lefties have been long time victims of discrimination and low expectations but I have alway figured that at worst it was considered an incurable curse.

Not so long ago, the indigenous cultures in the US thrived. We can't in all honesty say they died a natural death.

Not natural and not nice but inevidable I suppose. I have always wondered how they would have evolved if they had been left alone. Two large oceans were not enough to save them.

In my scifi world I have been fascinated by the ideas for colonization that include culture specific planets including some that are designated pastoral.

Cultural similitude has its advantages: we don't have to work as hard to understand each other. If we raise our lows and flatten our highs, though, what kind of a cultural horizon is that?

Short of a new paradigm of human behavior it seems to be inevidable that cultures will follow the path of natural selection. I have no idea what we will be like in a thousand years but barring armageddon I am fairly certain that we will be culturally more Asian and perhaps more middle eastern. We will also be more similar. This similarity will continue to increase until we are indistinguishable one from another.

The only answer is to colonize the solar system and the universe. This will allow diversity to be nourished instead of conflicted and absorbed.