I wasn't being dismissive, or lumping arguments together, and I was certainly not being threatening, Steve. The "we know where that leads" comment was simply observing past history. You yourself said "when I make these points, as I frequently do" and i was just agreeing with you. I also acknowledged your consistency.. (Consistently is not the same as constantly, obviously). As for boredom, I admit to that, because I don't think I have read anything especially new on this topic on mudcat for some years.

Which is why I made the point that actually we indoctrinate children all the time in lots of different ways, so it is interesting why we only ever seem to address one form.

I think I'd take up punkfolkrocker's bet, because you can't just look at individuals. You have to think of things like smog in cities because of overuse of cars (because, after all, we've got the money so why shouldn't we have a car?.) Maybe ISIS will prove me wrong by grabbing nuclear weapons somehow, but I would think out-of-control consumerism is more likely to damage us as a species than religion.


Dave of the Gnomish qualities: I did not mean we are formally teaching consumerism in
Economics lessons in schools: I meant how every advert, many children's programmes and, of course, adult example teaches children to be avid consumers. Schools, if anything, are one of the few forces trying to hold this back by encouraging children to "think green" but it is them against the rest of society.