19 – A New Mindset

To Recap: Creating Positive & Flexible Mindsets – the Practical Means for Addressing Our Problem

Update:  While the solution to our problem is through education, the problem is psychological in nature.  I thus appeal to those who do not have a background in psychology to consult an experienced psychologist, preferably a social psychologist, if you are inclined to pass unwarranted judgements on the writings.  

As would be clear to readers, the essence of the primary problem we have been dealing with on this blog arises from our inability to get across to or communicate meaningfully with fellow humans, which in turn arises from numerous barriers to such communication, and which in their turn are rooted in our very make-up as biological beings to begin with and the outcomes of this inherent nature being vastly exacerbated by modern specialized education; this is not to mention the complexities arising from language-related issues.  And this state of affairs is perpetuated by our lack of awareness of these realities and consequently by our failure to take countermeasures.  

It would also be clear that we cannot do anything about the roots of the problem, given that we cannot change our biological nature (or rather, the way we go about making sense of the world) that came about through millions of years of evolution; nor can we do away with specialization, which is the foundation on which advanced societies are built and differentiates our world from that of Robinson Crusoe (see the accounts under the subheadings “Making Sense of the World” and “Specialization,” respectively, in article #13: “World Basic Education System” (2015)).  

What we can do to counter the devastation arising from the above realities is therefore limited to efforts to minimize the deplorable outcomes of the original problem – rather than engage in futile pursuits to eliminate the roots of the problem itself.  Thus we have to do the utmost to maximize the potential of that limited scope available, and at the same time try to lay a solid foundation for moving humanity towards a better future – if we are to improve the current human condition and successfully face the global challenges that are growing more complex by the day; it also would not be implausible to state that the future of the human race may very well depend on that effort (see the last two paragraphs of article #15: “An Email and Two Parallels” (2017)). 

And it was precisely to achieve this that the measures for improving the world basic education system in article #13 (2015) were suggested – they will go a long way towards countering the outcomes of our original problem and thus minimize significantly the massive damage that currently result from that handicap, and simultaneously help raise human wellbeing to unprecedented heights. 

Let us recap the challenges we face in this regard as detailed in these articles and outline how the suggestions will counter those challenges and minimize the fallout of our original problem. 

For starters, the second footnote of the article #18 (2018) has provided reasonably sufficient detail in support of the rather abstract summarizing statements of the first two paragraphs above – that nature has not equipped us humans to adequately understand each other’s messages and that we are constrained in our efforts to face the situation.  The article as a whole also identified and elaborated upon the dual nature of the starting point for countering those shortcomings – namely, becoming aware of the nature of the situation to begin with and equipping ourselves with the tools necessary for handling it as effectively and efficiently as possible. 

Further, the second paragraph of the second part of article #15 (2017) has highlighted the importance and the central/critical role of attitudes and behaviours in any effective solution and established (I hope) the fact that any successful program has to start with the younger generation.  And this latter underlies the timeframe given four paragraphs down the line in that article – the duration of two to three generations from the inception of the program for the realization of its full potential. 

As we are aware, the ultimate goal of the program is to help enable effective communication and interaction among people.  Such communication/interaction would be characterized by empathy and a willingness to listen, to clarify meanings encountered, to think logically, and so on.  The specific measures outlined under the subheading “Understanding the Social World …” of article #13 aim to achieve this.  And the first paragraph of article #12: “Empathy and Fundamentalism” (2015) outlines how to begin implementing the program in classroom settings. 

The account of the subheading of article #13 mentioned in the above paragraph also emphasizes the importance of instilling appropriate values – values that are in tune with both the natural and social worlds we are living in today (see also last paragraph of article #9: “Last Explanation” (2014)). 

All in all, the outcome of the program would boil down to right attitudes and behaviours that are permeated by commensurate values, which would translate to positive and flexible mindsets.  Supplemented by technical capabilities that would result from appropriate incorporation of the basics of both communication and related psychology in the world basic education system (see article #18, paragraph six) they will enhance effective and efficient communication that would have the power not only to significantly overcome the effects of our original problem as outlined above but also catapult human wellbeing to unprecedented heights – and in all likelihood save humanity from impending doom as well, judging by the trend of global affairs in modern times. 

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The impact of positive and flexible mindsets on society at large will not be limited to enabling humanity to interact and communicate better – important though they are – but will also pervade people’s generic behaviour with utmost positive results.  In this regard, two interrelated aspects should be noted.  One is that, apart from the obvious defects of fragmented information bases and ineffective communication, it is the lack of such mindsets that are responsible for much of the undesirable behaviours cited variously in articles of both this blog and my blog targeted at the locals in the Maldives; with positive and flexible mindsets a person will be more likely to be sensitive to common interests and hence make efforts to minimize, even if unable to completely eliminate, the debilitating effects of the other two defects just mentioned.  The second aspect we should note is that, as mentioned in the account under the subheading “Understanding the Social World …” of article #13, much of the negative attitudes and behaviours we see in people are likely to be the cumulative outcomes of their having been unable to handle challenges they faced daily, for as we grow-up, we would be subject to varying degrees of psychological stresses which we have to cope by resorting to any means necessary, many of which would be destructive psychological defence mechanisms that ultimately take permanent root in our psyches and behaviours, and that such outcomes will be largely preempted by our program as it would guide us from a young age by channeling our attitudes and behaviours into more positive directions when confronted with stressors that would otherwise push us into negativity. 

A parallel outcome of positive and flexible mindsets related to enhanced communication and interaction would be an exponential increase in our ability to effectively deal with the mounting range of problems that plague modern society and form a central source of the currently impoverished state of societal wellbeing and related conflicts.  In fact, it is through this increased ability that our program will help catapult human wellbeing to unprecedented heights.  Two interconnected reasons for societal underperformance are on the one hand the complexity resulting from the fragmented knowledge bases we acquire through specialized education and on the other our inability to bridge the immense gulf arising from the depth of that knowledge.  The enabling power of the new mindset that our program will bring about will ease the way and facilitate the bridging of that schism and enhance expedient reaching to solutions to problems (see paragraph seven of article #18 for the dynamics of how this process will work in practice). 

An important and critical point to keep in mind is that with our program in effect, enhanced understanding of both the natural and social worlds initiated by the modified world basic education system would have already produced a citizenry that will be much better informed of the numerous dimensions of societal problems and hence much less dogmatic in attitudes than the current one,*** and thus opinions will be much less polarized and the path to solutions much less controversial.  There will be problems, to be sure, in particular those arising from the increased levels of specialization, but the approach to face them will be radically different than is currently the case.  It can be seen that a large part of our current problems are outcomes of our having failed to understand the nature of the world we are living in, especially in view of the exceedingly fast changes occurring around us, and our approach to-date has been chasing after symptoms rather than causes of those symptoms.  Humans act according to what is in their heads, and if that is deficient or divorced from reality or distorted, their actions will become hard to fathom (see account under the subheading “Understanding the Nature of the World” in article #13: “World Basic Education System”).  
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***  For an explanation of why a broader range of information on a given issue/topic, or multiple dimensions of it, will make a person with such information less dogmatic than one who does not, see the outline of Social Judgement Theory in article #2: “Education and Fundamentalism” (2012) – the third and second paragraphs from the end of the article.