1 - Introduction

Greetings!

In these days of global concern about terrorism, fundamentalism, the senseless killing of the innocent, and the revival of deep-seated social conflicts of many stripes, the world academics could play a vital role in making the world a very much better and safer place for everyone.  My writings (the articles on this blog) can help you towards that end via an insight of global importance I arrived at in 1997 and have written about since, although one of its central aspects is not new, as will be clear by the quote from Professor Will Durant’s book The Story of Philosophy incorporated into the two main articles.⁽¹⁾  Significantly, the insight relates to your area of expertise (ie, of those to whom the writings on this blog have been sent by email) and, as reasoned in  footnote 2 below, rectifying the crucial problem underlying that insight is a collective moral responsibility of the world’s academics.  

The insight pertains on the one hand to a downside of the way the human mind works and on the other to the way the world education system steadily, although inadvertently, contributes to the exacerbation of that downside.  The nature of this problem and why and how it comes about is explored in the paper labelled “Education and Fundamentalism,” which was originally written in October 2009 for a somewhat different purpose than global circulation.  The paper also suggests a partial but pragmatic solution to the problem; a more comprehensive solution to this crucial problem being rather unlikely given the innate human nature as well as cultural differences of human societies and specialization requisites of human advancement (added later: see also "9 - Last Explanation," the first four short paragraphs).  

Further, the pervasiveness of the problem and its central role in thwarting human wellbeing and thus the massive damage it inflicts upon individuals and families and communities and nations (while none the wiser) would make it one of the gravest problems faced by humanity; its illusiveness would also make it highly dangerous since it is in fact the root cause and culprit behind a multitude of other societal problems and since it operates without giving its victims even a clue about the existence of a perpetrator! 

Given the broad scope of the problem, the writings necessarily treat it in a rather condensed manner, thus increasing chances for misperceptions in spite of my having made the utmost to write in clear and precise language.  This therefore calls for an open mind and not jumping to unwarranted conclusions.  

I hope you find the articles informative and interesting and that you will reflect on the problem and the (partial) solution I have suggested and discuss them with colleagues, thus help minimize the devastating impact of the problem globally and hence uplift human wellbeing to a hitherto unprecedented level.⁽²⁾ 

Yours faithfully,

Rifat Afeef (from the Maldives) 
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⁽¹⁾  It should be mentioned that I actually read the book some five years after I first wrote about this insight in 1997 in the second main article on this blog labelled “Integrative Planning,” which was circulated widely in the Maldives and to a lesser extent abroad, and thus that the quote was added to the article much later. (But the problem’s multidimensional nature and its complexity had not crystallized in my mind then.) 

⁽²⁾  You may be sceptical as to how individual action on your part can lead to change at a global level.  The answer is simple and based on two realities: i) education systems are shaped primarily by what goes on in the collective heads of the academics, and ii) ideas trickle down and percolate across all sorts of boundaries, particularly in our Internet era.  Two unflattering corollaries also result from them: a) the deplorable aspect of world education system outlined in my papers – its failure to instil a sound foundation for productive interaction among humans and the multitude of societal problems resulting thereof – can be at least partly attributed to the state of collective mind of the world’s academics, since educations systems are shaped primarily by them, and b) the vast majority of them do not have a clue that a problem of such magnitude as described in these writings even exists ⁽ⁱ⁾ – irrespective of how highly knowledgeable they may be in their particular fields of specialization.  In fact, it is precisely because one is highly knowledgeable in one’s own filed that it becomes so difficult psychologically to come to terms with the hard-to-swallow truth: that specialized persons are knowledgeable only in their highly specialized fields and thus, bluntly put, that they are literally ignorant of what is beyond their specific fields,*** hence that there is no common language for high-level dialogue among those of specialized fields (in addition to the lack of a shared language for everyone for interacting effectively with others due to both human uniqueness and differences of their upbringings and cultures).  This is an inevitable outcome of the facts that on the one hand it is through specialization that humanity advances and on the other that it will be impossible for any individual to master every field of human knowledge.  It is this momentous reality and its unfortunate downside that I have dwelt on in my writings – a reality and outcome that humanity must face if we are to avert their devastating ramifications.  A little reflection will reveal that the simple but partial solution suggested has the potential to significantly reduce those devastating outcomes.  And your discussion of this important issue with your colleagues – within and beyond your own department, thus across professional boundaries (our problem is multidisciplinary, as you will no doubt infer from the papers) and also beyond the borders of your own nation – will help propel the process into motion, and the thus accumulated momentum, if sufficient, will home-in on the solution.⁽ⁱⁱ⁾  Before you could get motivated into action, however, you have to be convinced of both the existence of our problem and its destructive nature, and the rest will follow naturally.  To achieve this, keeping an open mind is imperative, given the multidisciplinary nature of the problem and the odds that at least part of what was dwelt on in the writings will fall outside your area of specialization, and as such, you would do well to talk to those knowledgeable in those areas before drawing any conclusions – and that would be central to the process of “keeping an open mind.”  If you’re relatively young (ages of direct recipients of these writings by email would vary from early twenties through mid-sixties and beyond) I urge you to engage in fruitful dialogue with older colleagues, particularly emeriti professors, who would have had wider experience of the spectrum of humanity’s problems and thus opportunity to have had observed with some detachment the workings of our crucial but illusive problem in real life. 

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⁽ⁱ⁾ Any system not satisfactory to a majority cannot last for long in a free (or a quasi-free) society and will be replaced by a more satisfying one.  Had the world’s academics understood the devastation an aspect of the world education system was inflicting on humanity, they would have acted to change the situation, and the problem would likely have been rectified – and at a global level too, being enhanced by the instant access now ubiquitous globally.  (In fact, such global change now occurs routinely – for products and services as well as worthy ideas/concepts.)  Thus given that education systems are shaped by what goes on in the collective mind of academics,  ⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ the momentum generated by an understanding of our problem by you and your colleagues (via dialogue among yourselves both locally and internationally) will home-in on the solution.  And since the problem is largely an attendant outcome of the mindset of the world’s academics and a lack of awareness thereof, they have a moral responsibility to rectify the currently deplorable situation and help raise humanity from its state of widespread misery. 

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*** Of course, there are many with wide backgrounds and thus have a more comprehensive perception of societal affairs – and some recipients of this email would be among them – but the vast majority of the college-educated do not have such backgrounds and thus would have rather limited perceptions.

Summary List of Distribution of Those to Whom the Writings were Originally Sent by Email and of Their Respective Departments and Universities Among Nations

Nation                                     No. of Universities      No. of Departments        No. of Academics

Australia                                  07                                38                                2,718

Austria                                     05                                23                                2,002

Belgium                                    03                                15                                1,244

Canada                                    07                                41                                3,305

Denmark                                  01                                07                                0,615

Egypt                                       01                                06                                0,101

Finland                                     01                                09                                0,525

France                                      06                                23                                0,577

Germany                                  06                                31                                2,295

Hong Kong                              02                                12                                0,519

Ireland                                     02                                11                                0,255

Israel                                        04                                22                                1,288

Italy                                          12                                50                                3,871

Netherlands                              05                                30                                2,953

New Zealand                            05                                28                                1,600

Norway                                    01                                08                                0,698

Singapore                                 01                                01                                0,058

South Africa                             01                                05                                0,080

Sweden                                    04                                25                                2,486

Switzerland                               05                                29                                2,082

United Kingdom                       11                                64                                2,776

United States                            13                                58                                2,728

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22 nations                               103 universities          536 departments        34,776 academics

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[The number of academics exclude those to whom the writings would have been delivered via their departments; although I have no way of ascertaining the exact number – since I could only request – my requests would relate to more than 500. The number of academics also reflect the original list compiled during the 12-15 months or so before I started emailing, but during the process, some emails were returned as undeliverable, a few requested removal of their names from the list, some switched institutions, and others left the academia altogether; the numbers given above do not reflect these changes.] 

List of Universities to Departments of Which the Writings have been Sent: (departments involved, if they exist, are: education, philosophy, psychology, sociology, political science, and communication; sometimes, where they were non-existent, related supplementary departments have been selected) 

Australia: ANU, Macquarie, Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, UniSA, and UNSW;         Austria: Graz, Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Vienna;             Belgium: Antwerp, Libre Brussels, and Vrije Brussels;         Canada: Alberta, McGill, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Toronto, and UBC;                    Denmark: Copenhagen;                     Egypt: AUC;               Finland: Helsinki;      France: AUP; Lyon 2 Lumiere, Lyon 3 Jean Moulin, Pantheon-Sorbonne, Provence, Paris Descartes (Education);               Germany: Free Berlin, Humboldt Berlin,  Bonn, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich;           Hong Kong: CUHK and HKU;                     Ireland: Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin;       Israel: Hebrew U,  Tel Aviv,  Haifa,  Open U;                  Italy: Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Milano-Bicocca, Napoli-Federico, Palermo, UniRomaTre,  Sapienza Rome,  Turin, Napoli SU (Psychology), and Napoli UniSOB;   Netherlands: Amsterdam, Erasmus, Groningen, Leiden, and Utrecht;             New Zealand: Auckland, Canterbury, Massey, Otago, and Victoria;           Norway: Oslo;            Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy;        South Africa: Cape Town;         Sweden: Gothenburg, Lund, Stockholm, and Uppsala;        Switzerland: Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, and Zurich;                UK: Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Open U, Oxford, and Ulster;                         USA: Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, Harvard, Houston, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UHM, Yale, and Santa Fe Institute

List of recipients mentioned at the outset, although already containing about 35,000 names, is somewhat deficient.  The list I originally intended was much wider in scope (that is, more nations and universities) than it is now, but given the large amount of time taken in downloading email addresses, translating needed info on non-English websites, and other difficulties it has been narrowed down considerably. 

In a sense, the list that resulted also places more emphasis on “world education” vis-à-vis “religious funda-mentalism,” the two topics of the basic paper “Education and Fundamentalism,” since it now excludes, for one reason or another, most populous developing nations currently plagued by Islamic fundamentalism, such as Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nigeria, and even Russia.  But given that the flaws in the current world education system is “at the root” and fundamentalism largely a branch emanating from it in spite of many other vital factors being involved in the process (see the basic paper, paragraph 15) dealing with the former is the more crucial step forward at present – a step that will serve as the springboard for subsequent tackling of the latter.  Notwithstanding its origins, religious fundamentalism also has a very different set of rules of engagement, thus by necessity, it should be dealt with separately and on its own terms.  But I do not see how this can be practically done without first tackling the flaws in the current world education system and the solution being accepted publicly and globally, as that solution is the starting point and the foundation on which the solution for religious fundamentalism could be based.  Thus expeditious tackling and compensating for the flaws in current world education system is the starting point forward.  And while the benefits of this spread across the globe helping to improve human wellbeing, it will lay the firm ground works for tackling religious fundamentalism.  Moreover, even if it is not dealt with separately, if we have a popular “education solution,” and given the logic of the paragraph referred to above, my prediction is that the intensity of religious fundamentalism rampant currently will diminish on its own.  This makes such a solution, as the partial one suggested in the basic paper initially and dwelt on variously in subsequent writings on this blog, all the more critical.