Necessary Prerequisite

In Education

In education, you must learn the fundamental concepts for a subject before you can learn the advanced theory. The fundamentals are a Necessary Prerequisite for understanding the higher-level classes.

When it comes to understanding universal subjects like politics and religion, people with vastly different levels of subject matter expertise are expected to converse as peers. In order to understand ideas like universalism you must first have an understanding of the basic tenets of the major world religions and their commonalities. These are things that can be taught, but differences of opinion on these matters are not called out as the disparities in education that they truly are.

There are entirely too many people on social media giving opinions about things when they obviously haven't taken the prerequisite courses. They insert themselves into 300 level conversations about topics when they haven't passed the 101 course. Their ignorant opinions are often amplified by others with the same lack of expertise, on the basis that their arguments appeal to common sense or the values of their in-group. It has led to the mass-proliferation of misinformation via the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Our culture needs to develop a new taboo regarding the voicing of opinions on subjects which you have neither experience nor expertise. If you are just shooting your mouth off because you think you have to have an opinion about everything, or parroting something you heard but have no understanding of, then you need to sit down, shut up, and listen to the experts.

In Societies

In order for societies to evolve, there are necessary prerequisites for each step. If you have ever played the game Civilization then this point is obvious. You must invent the wheel and tame horses before you can invent the chariots that will let you dominate the ancient era. Writing must be invented before mathematics, which is required for trade and navigation.

Civ 6 Tech Tree | Civ 6 Civics Tree

Prerequisite for Peace

metaculture is a necessary prerequisite for a united human future. It is the framework that enables cross-cultural understanding of our common goals. Only when all people are able to see all others as members of their in-group can we be truly unified. This is accomplished by creating a common scientific framework for understanding religious allegory in all forms, allowing members of any culture to see other cultures as analogous equals rather than heretics and heathens.

In Moral Development

Kohlberg's stages of moral development is an important concept to learn in order to understand how different people perceive ethical decision making. It comes up in many places on the metaculture wiki. It demonstrates how the building blocks of ethical knowledge and experience lead to a progressive expansion in our definition of ethics.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs marks a similar path for personal growth, but focused on the satisfaction of our physical and emotional needs as prerequisites for spiritual and moral fulfillment. Before you can find love you must first find shelter. Before you can achieve self-actualization, you must have love. Each stage is a step towards enlightenment that rests on the foundation of the previous stage.