Helpful Suggestion ...

NEW:  Important Addendum/Extension to Article #5 (2012) (see end of that article)

A Helpful Suggestion/Explanation to Readers

The following is a helpful suggestion/explanation to readers to whom I had not had the opportunity to communicate it via direct email. 

Given the complexity of the problem discussed on this blog, perhaps the easiest way to get a grasp of it would be to begin with the (originally) one-page article #5 labelled “From a Local Focus to a Global One”**** which outlines the evolution of my related thinking and in the process lays bare the nature of the problem.   But the piece is somewhat old (2012) and deals with only the simpler/tangible/probabilistic aspects of the problem.  Subsequently, I was able to delve into its more complex/psychological aspects and are dealt with / explored variously in later articles.

My conclusions were based on more than 30 years of experience in the development context of the Maldives (more about me in the piece titled “About Me” following/above article #20) coupled with the knowledge and insights gained from related studies and contemplating on our problem. 

The Problem in a Nutshell:  Barriers to human communication and ramifications arising thereof are arguably the single biggest impediment to human wellbeing and, crucially, those barriers are rooted in the way we go about making sense of the world from the earliest days of our lives, and the outcomes of the process are vastly exacerbated by modern specialized education – in spite of its being the basis on which human advancement rests.  To make matters worse, world educators are blissfully unaware that such a problem even exists (this assertion is clarified in due course) and thus have failed to take relevant countermeasures, and the roots of much of the sociopolitical turmoil across the globe can be easily traced to that failure. 

Apart from our natural disposition as biological beings with unique mental makeups, the problem has been exacerbated by the explosion of knowledge in modern times, particularly from the early decades of the twentieth century, and the technological proliferations that sprang from it and impacts arising thereof – in the form of information overload; the specializations necessitated by the process; the inevitably fragmented knowledge bases; and the resulting equally fragmented worldviews …  The outcomes of these processes are especially crippling as our behaviours are largely habitual/automatic and not thought-out. 

Of the 23 pieces on the blog now, four try to provide overviews: articles #13 labelled “World Basic Education System” (2015); #20 “Closing of Minds” (2019); #22 “Complete Restatement” (2020); and #23 “How Solution Will Solve Problem” (2021).  Article #6 “Integrative Planning” (1997) is the first article I wrote on the topic and would also be of help.  The remaining pieces provide details to varying degrees and try to fill-in and thus help provide a more comprehensive picture. 

It would be clear from the articles that the problem is both complex in nature and global in scope.  The necessity for brevity also led me to leave out details that some readers might find useful.  For these and other reasons (mostly related to the nature of the problem itself) the writings would perhaps raise more questions than provide answers, and I shall be glad to clarify any ambiguities and/or apparent inconsistencies. 

I can be reached by phone at (960) 332-7488 most of the time between 0500 and 1900 hours GMT – that is, between 1000 and 0000 hours the Maldives local time (= GMT + 5 hours).  While I have not given my email address here to deter junk mail, for any party interested enough to contact me, a short phone call can easily solve the problem.  Alternatively, I can also be reached by mail at PO Box 2139, Post Office Building, Male' 20026, Maldives.  

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****  This is perhaps an obvious point, but as you can see, earlier articles are not visible on the blog, but they will be accessible from the archives list at the end – article #5 is under 2012. 

****  Although my efforts were initially limited to the local context, when I realized the global nature of the problem (whence the title) and given that the solution lay with the world’s educators, I hastened to acquaint them with the nature of the problem.  Accordingly, after some 15 months of downloading email addresses, I sent, in 2012, the few related articles I had written up to then along with a cover letter detailing the nature of the problem to more than 35,000 academics in the fields of psychology, communication, education, sociology, political science, and philosophy (our problem encompasses all those fields to varying degrees******) in 536 departments in 103 universities in 22 nations.  Article #1 labelled “Introduction” on the blog is the initial cover letter/email; in addition to introducing the topic, it also outlines the strategy/mechanism through which our problem can be addressed on a global scale – at least that was my initial line of thinking which I realized later would be rather ineffective, given the nature of the problem.  The piece also contains a summary list of nations and institutions covered. 

But alas, I haven’t achieved much success to-date.  I did not, however, expect to reach very far with my endeavour; the limited expectation arising from the very nature of the problem itself – the accounts in articles #5 and #1, as well as well as #6, all referred-to above, will make this relationship (that the difficulty of understanding arises from the nature of the problem itself) crystal clear. 

While I received some positive responses, among them from some senior academics, no one seems to have understood either the full scope or the gravity of the problem, which is not surprising, given the nature of the problem and difficulty mentioned.  I had also sent more articles in several subsequent rounds of emailing, but was forced to stop because of some Gmail-related technical difficulties.  But all articles were subsequently uploaded to this blog, which was created specifically for the purpose.  

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******  Reasons for the choice of the six disciplines mentioned: psychology and communication were included since the essence of our problem is rooted in them both – one talks about one’s inability to “reach another across gaps,” which is both psychological and communicative in nature at one and the same time; education was chosen because the solution to our problem resides with that discipline; sociology and political science were included since our problem has huge sociopolitical repercussions globally and the analysis of such impacts falls within their domains; and philosophy was included because it is the integrating discipline of human knowledge.  

[It can be seen from the above paragraph that the six disciplines mentioned do not carry equal weight vis-à-vis the problem we have at hand; the essence of the problem being rooted in both psychology and communication, especially psychology – a glimpse into its power on human behaviour can be gleaned from the article on fundamentalism cited below.  Thus any meaningful effort to deal with the problem without them, while self-satisfying, would be ineffective, also counterproductive, given the many misguided conclusions that are likely to arise from it – recall the basic insight of this blog (article #5).  Moreover, it is critical that such efforts should not take the usual format of conferences with papers (the logic of this statement is in endnote #5 of article #13 labelled “World Basic Education System”) but should be based on face-to-face or online dialogue.  It is also critical that the full group of would-be participants do not engage at the outset; the dynamics of interaction in any large group is not condusive for optimal discussion of a complex and unconventional topic as ours.  It should therefore be explored initially among only a few people, psychologists included, and the dialogue expanded as consensus is reached, followed by encompassing dialogue in the larger group.  Finally, given that the domain that even psychologists are generally familiar with will be unlikely to cover the full spectrum of the issues raised on this blog (no one has raised them to date – those who find this assertion unprofessional may want to find evidence refuting it; further, as article #21 has reminded readers, this blog is a pioneering effort and pioneering works, by definition, do not have precedents and thus references), such an effort would be inevitably enhanced by my personal involvement, and I shall be glad to provide any needed input as required.]  

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Those interested in my thoughts on religious fundamentalism (a topic of increasing global concern) will find a piece compiled from two excerpts of my older articles on my blog that addresses a local readership www.rifatafeefmaldives.blogspot.com titled “Thoughts on Religious Fundamentalism,” which dwells on the underlying causes of the phenomenon and thus will help address the root causes of the problem much more effectively – in lieu of the current knee-jerk reactions we see today on the global scene, particularly in Europe.  You’ll also find an article I wrote on US policy on my complementary blog www.rifatafeefuspolicy.blogspot.com, which digs into some of the causes underlying misguided US adventurism abroad as well as its current tumultuous state, and suggests a better policy framework that will help address much of the current downsides and thus help raise the condition of its citizens – and those of the world at large, given its global impact – to a very much better status.   

23 – How Solution Will Solve Problem

 How Solution Suggested Will Solve Problem Identified

It seems that some readers of this blog still have difficulty, in spite of all the explanations provided, in visualizing how the solution proposed will solve the problem identified in these writings. 

To help overcome this deadlock, I shall go into further details that highlight how A & B are linked – that is, how the solution proposed acts to solve the problem identified.  I shall, however, not repeat the details that have been already stated in other articles, but only refer to them.  I believe this to be only fair; anyone who doesn’t understand and yet is not bothered to refer to those details, especially those in articles #13 (World Basic Education System, 2015) and #22 (A Complete Restatement, 2020), does not deserve any more time and effort – in all likelihood, such persons won’t understand anyway.   

Another side that might throw the uninitiated reader into confusion (though not the astute reader who would be fully aware of the nuances involved) is the fast pace of technological progress that we are seeing today and appear to contradict the reasoning put forth here.  But the circumstances created by such progress in fact plays a central role in bringing about the outcomes being discussed, and thus it can be said that such progress, at least indirectly, has a responsibility for our current shortcomings – see, for example, paragraphs two through six of article #20, labelled “Closing of a People’s Mind, 2019.”  

Let us start at the very beginning and ask “What is the Problem?” or, more specifically, “Is there such a problem as being claimed here that is all pervasive to humanity at large and works variously to the detriment of everyone on this Planet?” The answer is a resounding “Yes!”  You don’t have to take my word for it – you’ve to only look at the evidence.  And being blind to what is right in front of you is not an excuse; it doesn’t nullify the validity of the arguments put forward in these writings regarding both the nature of the problem and the solution that inevitably originates from it. 

Let’s look at an example to clarify the point and dispel any doubts – the case of boy-meets-girl.  To highlight our point, let’s also assume that both are socially shy and thus have a resulting aversion to be upfront and forthright.  (This scenario is not at all unusual, and is perhaps more common than is recognized – even in case of grown-ups!)  Given that they are not naturally endowed with the skills needed for smooth/productive interaction (many references have been made throughout the writings as to how our mental makeups are unique and how we lack even the awareness that we don’t have a proper understanding of others, let alone lack of a common language for effective interaction) they will do what we all are conditioned to do – they follow the script: the socially conditioned responses that we’ve all grow up with.  Thus instead of revealing themselves wholeheartedly, they present a controlled façade and express only what they think the other person is looking for or will be most impressed by.  This is not to say that their behaviours are tinted with any malice; for that it only the natural outcome of the situation.  Fast forward through many “dates” and encounters and presenting of partners to one’s parents, and finally they get married.  To all appearances the marriage is a happy one and life soon settles into a routine.  But a growing feeling of discontent starts to simmer within, and under the burden of life’s pressures from financial, social, carrier-related, and other sources, the early rosy picture begins to crack.  However, having produced a couple of kids, obligations keep the relationship going for another several more years.   But one day one wakes up next to a person who might as well be a stranger, and wonders “How the hell did I get into this mess!”  That would be the beginning of a host of self-destructive and socially undesirable behaviours like excessive drinking, drug use, frequenting singles bars, and/or engaging in extramarital affairs – all the while looking for fulfillment, happiness, fame, or whatever else one thinks one ought to have in life.  And we all know where the initially innocent and happy couple is headed – destructive domestic and public fights and custody battles and court cases and ultimately a costly divorce and a bitterness that lasts a life-time. 

It does not take rocket science to figure out that their failure to get to know each other at the outset in an effective way was at the core of their ruinous troubles and that the situation was naturally made so much worse by resulting misunderstandings and mistrust, and most importantly, their lack of ability to decipher and overcome the fallouts.  (In fact, I myself have been the victim of such circumstances since I was just five years old.)  Had they been able to know each other better at the outset, chances are that they would not get locked into a relationship that in all likelihood will fail.  While humans are unique and diversity is the resulting norm, broadening a shared characteristics base initially will maximize the chances of success of any relationship.  Many people have an intuitive awareness of this logic, but most are unable to act on them in life.  And I lay the blame squarely on the education systems they had to go through; for given that people are not naturally endowed with such abilities, it should be their responsibility to instill in children the needed wherewithal which would cumulatively enhance their ability as they grow up.  But as elaborated variously in the writings on this blog and reiterated below, education systems of the world are ignorant, by and large, of the totality of the task they have at hand and thus cannot initiate action called for by the circumstances arising from such situations.  And they can only do what they know to do – force generations of children to rote-learn the knowledge accumulated from past human endeavours; whether or not they are equipping new generations with the knowledge and skills needed for facing the world they have to live in is beyond their comprehension.  In the meantime, societal stresses arising from the march of history (due to the aforementioned progress and aspirations ensuing thereof) keep mounting by the day.  Educators of the world can therefore said to be, by and large, dumb, deaf, and blind to the enormous discrepancy between the actual societal needs and what they are teaching in the name of “education.” 

Not only are the education systems of the world not doing what they should be doing, they are also – and people are unlikely to have even a clue about this – totally unaware of the situation and hence are oblivious to the fact that they are unintentionally reinforcing the downsides arising from our lack of natural abilities and thus have no idea of the devastation they are inadvertently helping to perpetuate.  (See the last two sections of article #22 for some elaboration on this theme.)  A corollary resulting from this is that their “certifications” that are the standards by which individuals are judged, and the varieties of educations that lead to them, fail to cover some of the areas central to human wellbeing. (For an analysis of this state of affairs, see paragraphs two through six of article #20, cited above.)  

These devastating failures that are crippling to human wellbeing thus call for a thorough overhaul of world education systems to incorporate the most basic aspects, at the very least, for the betterment of the human condition.  And this is precisely the mission of these writings – analyzing the nature of the problem at hand and providing an effective solution that enables humanity to overcome barriers that are inherent in our very nature and the consequent exacerbations that inevitably arise from them. 

The scenario in the fifth and sixth paragraphs above is typical of all facets of human interactions – be it interactions among the family members as siblings or children and parents or other relatives, or be it within groups of the same or other communities, or be it intra- or inter-regional or inter-national interactions.  Add to these the complexities and whence potential misunderstandings that can arise in the interactions among peoples of different races and beliefs and we can see clearly the real source of much of the troubles of humanity at large – their lack of a natural ability to interact positively, which lack, as mentioned, is exacerbated in a most destructive manner by education systems of the world which have no sensitivity to this most fundamental aspect of humanity and thus inevitably become a most significant source of incalculable and irreparable damage. 

This is not to say that there aren’t other sources from which misunderstanding and conflict can arise.  But given that it is the lack of a natural ability to interact meaningfully and communicate effectively – logically and rationally and empathetically – that leads to most other types of misunderstandings and conflict, it would represent the primary source, and taming its downsides will eliminate much of the societal troubles globally and hence pave the path for an infinitely better human condition. 

Let us now focus on this “lack of natural ability” that is the source of much of humanity’s troubles and the misery associated with it.  This in fact has been the focus of virtually all articles on this blog.

How humans rely on the information they receive through the senses to understand the world has been referred-to in numerous articles on this blog.  It was also pointed out that this reliance and the interpretation of the incoming messages lead to the formation of perceptions and information bases that are most fragile, since the process is subject to distortions and misinterpretations and lead to the formation of perceptions of questionable accuracy – see the second end-note of article #18 labelled “An Overdue Explanation” for a somewhat detailed description of some aspects of this process. 

And this process in turn is central to our problem – the information bases in our brains and thus our understanding of reality being questionable.  This unreliability is compounded and exacerbated when two humans deal with each other, each of who is afflicted with the same shortcomings.  Add more people to the interaction, particularly those whose information bases vary widely and the complexity and the chances of inaccuracy in their interactions become mindboggling.  Matters are made worse by the fact that none of the participants in the interaction are aware of any of these shortcomings. 

The question therefore becomes, “Can the situation be improved?”  The writings on this blog have shown that it can.  Not only that; they have also analyzed the situation and outlined the steps that are to be pursued for moving forward – see, for example, the nature of the situation and scope of action available for us outlined in the first three paragraphs of article #19 (2019); paragraphs six and nine of article #18; the first paragraph of article #12 (2015) along with the account under the subheading “Understanding the Social World” in article #13 (2015); and paragraph seventeen of article #22 (2020), for the specific policies that are necessary to be pursued for achieving our objectives.  These are besides the numerous instances in other articles throughout the blog that have analyzed the situation and identified the solution. 

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As explained variously in several articles on this blog, the arguments presented in them originated from my more than 30-years of experience in the development context of the Maldives (see the piece titled “About Me” following article #20 on blog) coupled with knowledge and insights gained from related studies and contemplating on our problem.  Once the nature of the problem became clear, the solution presented itself almost automatically – it arose from the very nature of the problem. 

Manifestations of the problem are all around us and are global in scope.  But whether they arise from mismatches between individuals (as elaborated in paragraphs five and six above) or originate at the global level (paragraph nine) the underlying root cause is the same: misunderstandings and inability to address them in a rational and cool-headed manner.  (This is, again, not to say that there may not be other sources, but as explained in paragraph ten above, our root cause is the mother of all other causes which originate, by and large, from it.)  Even those conflicts arising from rivalry over limited resources or from sheer greed and blinded by zero-sum mindsets can also be addressed and mitigated to a large extent by a better ability to interact and communicate logically and rationally. 

As elaborated in the passages referred-to in the third preceding paragraph above, the path to get us out of this conundrum is of a dual nature: i) raising awareness of the existence of the problem and ii) endowing people with the ability they would require for facing the situation.  And here we are faced with another final insurmountable obstacle – namely, ingrained human behaviour.  Let me elaborate. 

The usual way societies go about addressing such issues (provided they can muster the political will to begin with) would be to teach at the various levels of the education systems the knowledge/skills that are deemed relevant.  The underlying reasoning being that such knowledge will guide people to adopt the behaviours necessary for countering the downsides mentioned – that is that such knowledge would enable people to interact and communicate with fellow humans more effectively. 

But this reasoning is based on a mistaken assumption – that relevant knowledge will lead to desired behaviours.  Recent findings in the field of social psychology reveal that our behaviours have more to do with our habits and deeper inclinations embedded in our biological psyche over evolutionary time than any amount of knowledge stored in our brains; in fact, that most of our behaviours are not based on knowledge and the resulting common sense is an observation we encounter rather frequently. 

Many of us would have come across those who have university educations, some with even PhDs, being non-responsive to most simple reasoning and acting in seemingly most stupid ways.  At least part of the reason for this behaviour by the “educated” is that encounters we face daily are complex and involve a multitude of aspects while those with specialized educations – and it is the education we get today – are knowledgeable in only this or that area (this topic also had been elaborated in numerous articles) and thus are not equipped to handle daily encounters which have to be attended to almost instantaneously.  In academic or work settings, we usually have enough time for weighing the pros/cons and logical consistencies of our arguments/actions, which opportunity is not available in our daily encounters, and whence our reliance on shortcuts that we have internalized over lifetimes.

This is where habits step in, which are accumulated outcomes of those shortcuts and rules of thumb.  Since those habits are not based on any logical reasoning but on what we’ve picked up from our environments that we have grown in and are thus likely to have rather dubious cause-effect validity, it should not be surprising how messy and illogical, thus unproductive our interactions tend to be. 

Given the above and that our habit-forming endeavours had started since we were children, it should be clear now that our efforts to guide humanity towards overcoming the downsides embedded in our biological psyche should start with children – when their thinking is still malleable and can be guided in the right direction towards laying a solid foundation for more conducive behaviours that would continue into their adulthood and thus collectively contribute towards a better future for humanity.  (For a parallel argument supportive of this statement, see third paragraph from the end of the second part of article #22 and references cited there.)  And we can visualize such a future to be one in which there is smoother interaction and communication among people than is currently the case, and as a result, one without the kind of societal fragmentation and polarization that we are drowned in today.   

Here we are talking about habits that we acquire when we are children and last throughout our lives.  There is a specific set of habits (and attitudes) needed for enhancing positive societal interaction and communication processes.  And they have to be instilled in children – since they don’t happen spontaneously.  (For more specifics, see the first paragraph of article #12 and article #13 under the subheading “Understanding the Social World” as well as paragraph seventeen of article #22.)   

Instilling/inculcating in children the attitudes and habits cited in those three accounts will boost their ability to overcome most downsides that currently act as insurmountable barriers to effective societal interaction and communication.  But as argued variously in these writings, this goal can be achieved by first modifying the world’s basic education system, which in turn would depend on redefining the meaning and purpose of a “basic education,” as cited in the third paragraph of article #13 – see also its first end-note for some related clarification.  And as would be abundantly clear from the preceding discussion, it is our attitudes and habits that form the driving force behind our behaviours, and not our knowledge bases – at least not directly.  The repertoire of attitudes and habits generated by the successful implementation of the suggestions outlined here – as attitudes and habits to listen rather than being self-centered, to think logically and rationally rather than being victims of emotion-laden outbursts, and to cooperate rather than being confrontationist – will therefore go a long way towards affecting changes envisaged on a global scale, and thus help raise human wellbeing to unprecedented heights … and in the process perhaps save humanity from impending doom – see last two paragraphs of article #15 labelled “An Email and Two Parallels” for the reasoning underlying this last statement. 

A Notification …

 

This is not an article, but merely a notification to inform the readers of this blog that after a decade-long delay, I have finally uploaded an article I sent to President Barack Obama in May, 2009 to a blog I had created for that very purpose: www.rifatafeefuspolicy.blogspot.com.  It is titled “An Issue Barack Obama Should be Concerned About: The Decision-Making Milieu of the US Government.”  It suggests a better decision-making process for the US government in lieu of the current one which, along with some misperceptions of its citizens that were induced in them both inadvertantly and deliberately, I believe to be responsible for much of the misguided US adventures abroad.  And it is “the first article” referred-to in end note two of article #13 labelled “World Basic Education System” on this blog.  

While the topic of that article has been treated independently, the very necessity for a new decision-milieu is largely due to the outcome and ramifications of the problem discussed on this blog.   

Also, the proposed new decision-milieu would be an intermediate stage between the current human condition in the US (and around the world in general) and the higher-level condition that will be achieved through the successful implementation of the program outlined on this blog.  Moreover, the new decision-milieu cannot remedy all the ills of the current setting; its full potential being realizable only by the transformation expected of the human condition through this program, although it would certainly help to minimize, even if not totally alleviate, the most pressing downsides of the current problems.  And how successful the presently suggested milieu will be depend on a number of factors – the will to recognize the existence of a problem to begin with and subsequent willingness to understand and then face the situation being crucial stepping stones that are vital for the success of the endeavour. 

 

22 – A Complete Restatement

         A Complete Restatement of the Logic of the Argument ...

      From the Very Beginning and with Additional Detail

It seems that some readers of this blog have difficulty in grasping the implications of the argument put forward here – perhaps due to both the seemingly complex nature of the problem and the necessary departure of the solution from conventional wisdom.  Although highly unconventional, in reality, both the problem and the suggested solution, once mastered, can be seen to be quite simple, in a similar way that E = mc² is simple although it is the result of a highly complex mathematical argument.  

And as mentioned in article #21, the content of this blog is a pioneering work and as such readers are unlikely to find any references for it; by definition, pioneering works don’t have precedents, and thus references – and the validity of the argument here can be judged only by following its own logic. 

Let me also state that the central thesis of the argument has been articulated adequately in article #13, World Basic Education System¹; the remaining articles on the blog are elaborations on it – variations on the theme, so to speak.  Thus it will be of help if you read that article before proceeding further. 

But for those who still need more explanation to comprehend the picture, here is a more streamlined re-statement of the central argument of the writings.  Needless to say that if one desires to understand it, he or she has to follow through its logical sequence – a casual skimming over will just not do.  

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A direct outcome of the nature of our interactions with the outside world from the earliest days of our existence is that humans are innately self-centred and do not have a natural affinity for understanding others.  As stated at the beginning of article #13 (subheading “Making Sense of the World”) we begin to comprehend the world while we are still in our mothers’ wombs by attributing meaning to stimuli that reach us – like outside sounds that penetrate to us in the womb; the rate of the mother’s heartbeat; and so on.  Even after we are born, this sensing-state continues for a while, but diminishes and almost completely dissipates over following months as the outside world impinges increasingly heavily on our senses and virtually takes over completely – and this would be clear to any astute observer. 

Also, as we make our way from babyhood through childhood into puberty and adulthood, our focus is by and large on ourselves vis-à-vis outside world, including other people as well as other living beings.  We may have a notion of how another human being would feel if, for example, a sharp object pierces his/her body – by virtue of our understanding of how we ourselves would feel under the circumstances.  Sometimes we also see people endangering themselves to save another person without much thought or giving up their lives for causes they believe in.  But these are larger causes and largely exceptional cases the numbers of which pale in comparison with the multitude of mundane everyday interactions in which such empathy is lacking.  A telling example to illustrate this point is what psychologists call self-serving bias.  This is the phenomenon when we are aware of factors that lead to our failure in some endeavour, and we end up blaming outside forces for it, whereas if someone else is seen to experience a similar failure, we are quick to attribute it to his/her inaptitude, without realizing or even pausing to think that outside factors may as well be responsible for that outcome. 

And for the same reasons given in the above two paragraphs (and article #13) we also do not have an effective language for interacting with others – even among those born and raised in the same group; see the last paragraph of the one-page article #5 for the process/mechanism that leads to this outcome. 

Not only do we not have an effective language for dealing with fellow humans, but a more dangerous result of the above processes and a more pertinent one to this argument is that by and large we lack the awareness that we do not understand others, and as a consequence have not developed an attitude to overcome that most debilitating deficiency, and thus misunderstandings and conflict become the norm.  

Apart from our not having a common language, there are many other innate mechanisms that stand in the way of smooth human interaction, some of which outlined in the second end-note of article #18 – it will provide much insight into some reasons for the failures of human interaction; I suggest you read it in order to understand the kind of detail on which this argument is based.  

The contents of the paragraphs above reflect the roots of much of human misunderstandings, whence the mistrust and ensuing conflicts among people – be it at dyadic and triadic levels or groups small and large, as well as at the inter-group and inter-national levels.  Add to this the enormous ethnic and religious divides and the attendant prejudices and hatreds and we have a world that is perpetually on the brink of conflict waiting for an excuse to ignite – or already aflame.  This is, of course, besides those conflicts that arise from self-interest as well as blatant injustice and tyranny. 

Taking the above factors into consideration, a most important, and obvious, conclusion we can draw is that the roots of human behaviour lie deep down and beyond our conscious control, and reside in the dynamics of the interaction of various constituent factors of our nature with the external environment. 

And this is where our problems lay – they are the downsides arising from those interactions, which manifest in the form of ineffective/messy interactions that lead to the problems outlined above.  Thus any sound solution should be based on effective action targeted at overcoming those downsides. 

Given that those downsides arise from factors beyond our control, the next logical step to overcome them should involve: i) raising our awareness of the buried processes responsible for those downsides, and ii) helping us to internalize mechanisms that can effectively counter those downsides.  But given both the complexity of issues under (i) and that we have to be dealing with children (as we shall see in a moment) I shall focus on (ii) – ie, developing internalized mechanisms to counter those downsides. 

This is where basic education comes to the fore as the prime instrument for solving our problem. 

As outlined under the subheading “Understanding the Social World …” in article #13, the foundation of our behaviour (which is inevitably based on internal dynamics mentioned above) is laid when we’re children, and as adults we largely sail by the autopilot guiding systems we had acquired then.  

A significant part integral to that foundation is the values and attitudes and habits we acquire/develop as children.  Given that i) we lack an innate ability to understand others due to the nature of the process of making sense of the world since the earliest days of our lives (see above), and ii) a mechanism for the compensation for this vital downside is lacking in the current world basic education system, it is necessary to counterbalance for this critical deficiency by the modification of the system by adopting a totally new approach as to the purpose of “basic education” – see beginning of article #13 for a brief but fleeting evaluation of the current system as compared to the rationale for the new thinking.  For critical modifications suggested to the world basic education system to achieve our goals, see account under subheading cited in above paragraph, and most importantly, the first paragraph of article #12; for the rationale for the education system to bear the burden of instilling in children proper values/attitudes/habits, see account under “Values” at the end of article #9, labelled “Last Explanation.”  

The decisive factor or crux of the solution lies in the novel abilities that will be instilled in children by the modified world basic education system whereby they will become highly alert to the nuances of meanings they will encounter in their interactions with fellow humans; the new system will also instill in them an attitude of inquiry about meaning until they get those meanings as close to what they were intended.  Additionally, the system will instill in children the foundations of rational thinking, which is of utmost need in our increasingly complex and problem-ridden world but is sorely lacking in virtually all societal interactions.  (The recent high-profile so-called “debate” between Mr Trump and Mr Biden amply illustrates my point²; besides, the immature and totally irrational performance by Mr Trump³ is utterly alarming given that the power to annihilate the entire human race is literally at the fingertips of the person occupying the chair of the president of the United States.)  Children will carry on their newly acquired skills and attitudes throughout their lives, improving and perfecting their abilities all along.  Compare this with the current state of affairs (outlined above) in which people are both unaware that they don’t understand others and, as a result, have not developed an attitude to inquire to ascertain whether or not they have properly understood their counterparts in interactions.  While some people do have a natural knack/flair for understanding others, for the vast majority, it might as well be Greek!  Nor did all those philosophers and education theorists and psychologists over the past two-and-a-half millennia had any clue about such a debilitating/crippling societal flaw that was dangling right under their noses!  Hence the world education system to-date has miserably failed to address that vital issue so critical for human wellbeing – one cannot address a problem that one doesn’t know existed!  Should we be surprised at the current pathetic state of human existence?  

Although the process of making sense of the world that we have acquired beginning from our foetal stages may have hindered us from developing effective abilities for interacting with others and while humanity to-date has not wised up to the critical societal flaws cited above, I believe that the vital and important process proposed in the first paragraph of article #12 (remainder of the article is not related to that paragraph; it was based on an email I sent to a Canadian psychology professor that deal with different issues) along with the few but critical suggestions under the subheading “Understanding the Social World …” of article #13 cited above have the capacity to wield the power to make a decisive difference and bring about virtually all the best results that we can realistically hope for. 

But it should be noted that for all its worth, the impact of our program, even when its full potential has started to accrue on a global scale (see next paragraph), will be constrained by the fact that it is trying to counter an innate force that is largely hidden, and hence what we can hope for should be tempered by that reality – see the first three paragraphs of article #19, labelled “Positive and Flexible Mindsets,” for more on the scope of action realistically available to us.  There is also another multi-faceted factor that should be included in our calculus of what we can realistically hope for – that while the scope of the program is global, the usual myriad of variations common to all educational endeavours will apply both within and among nations; that is, outcomes will not be uniform for everyone – that “some will be more equal than others,” as George Orwell would wont to say.  Nevertheless, move forward we will! 

It should also be noted that given that human behaviour is shaped largely by those values and attitudes we acquire while children, working on adults (whose values and attitudes are already set – fossilized is my favourite expression⁴) to alter their behaviour will be in vain and a waste of time.  Hence our focus on children – consequently it will require two to three generations from the inception of the program for its full potential to materialize.  For more details, see the second and sixth paragraphs of the second part of article #15, labelled “An Email and Two Parallels.”

We should also note that such novel and far-reaching ideas as suggested here will naturally/inevitably clash with existing ideas/systems, and its resolution requires thinking big and out of the box.  To help such radical/innovative thinking, attached at the end of this article is a quote from Michael Crichton’s novel The Lost World, labelled “Life at the Edge of Chaos” ⁵ – which I found very helpful. 

Considerable insight can be gleaned about how the internal dynamics of the program will function to achieve our goals (to vastly improve human interaction processes and thereby raise human wellbeing from its currently pathetic state to unprecedented heights) by a survey of the three end-notes of article #19 and the second part of article #15.  I suggest you don’t skip them if you really want to understand! 

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As explained above, our problem is the downside or undesired outcome of the dynamic interaction of constituent factors of our nature with factors of the external environment, and is generally beyond our conscious control.  There are also some human-made factors that work in tandem to varying degrees to exacerbate those outcomes.  Both groups of outcomes are unintended consequences – the former are results of innate processes beyond our control; the latter are derived from facets of the human success story.  Just as we tried to understand, above, how the workings of the innate group of factors contribute to the detriment of human wellbeing, understanding how the latter group inadvertently contributes to relegate the human condition to our current pathetic existence is essential for finding a way out of the conundrum, in turn helping to pave the path for raising human wellbeing to unprecedented heights.  

The first of the human-induced factors is specialization.  The extent to which human success is due to specialization is impossible to fathom, for it is the foundation on which virtually all human advances rest – from the primitive division of labour in hunter-gatherer communities that helped them survive to ultra-specializations in our post-industrial societies that have helped transform the world into an interconnected and interdependent “global village.”  And yet, as mentioned in article #13, specialization is a double-edged sword – while it constitutes the bedrock on which human societal advancement is built, it also exacerbates the downsides described above beyond comprehension.  For example, for a group of people, the expanded vocabulary and interactions required for performing their jobs effectively will constrain their ability to interact with other groups who would have their own sets of vocabularies and interaction patterns – given that there are natural limits (though varying from person to person) to the capacity to which each individual can accommodate in his/her working memory at a given time.  The result is the lack of or a deficient common language that hinders effective interaction between those groups.  Generalized, this would help create the kind of fragmented societies we witness in advanced nations today with their high levels of stress, alienation, divorce, suicide, and so on… The quote from Professor Will Durant’s book The Story of Philosophy attached at the end of this article eloquently describes some of the downsides of specialization that contribute massively to societal havoc, which  article #20, labelled “Closing of Minds,” had tried to elucidate.  Given that the innate forces described earlier in this article will be at work at all interaction levels described in the above example (which is only a tiny sample of interactions vis-à-vis those in the society at large), readers can imagine the huge extent to which specialization will contribute to aggravate the outcomes of societal interactions.  (See also end-note six for yet another set of equally debilitating impacts of specialization.) 

A second area that has detrimental human-induced impacts arises from the way modern mass media function.  In primitive times, and even in ancient and medieval cities, there were no media, while there were people engaged in persuading others to do their bidding.  But given that it would have required direct contact and the ensuing word-of-mouth effects for propagating the messages, and given that the number of people engaged in such work would also be limited, impact of such efforts would have been vastly constrained, despite those publics being generally ignorant and thus susceptible to persuasion ⁶.  The advent of the printing press enhanced the process but given that the cost of printed materials was prohibitive and thus inaccessible to the general public, its impact also would have been limited.  As a result, people were relatively free in earlier times, devoid of much assault on their minds.  For the last century and a half, radio and newspapers dominated the scene, but even their impacts on the public must have been limited given that the public had the choice of not using them.  But today the situation is entirely different.  The world has become much more complex and for a better educated and more sophisticated public, the media had become a necessity, which outcome was enhanced by two factors: the continued innovation of message delivery systems and their relatively lower costs.  Consequently, we are bombarded by the media from all sides and have become victims of information overload as well as being afflicted with numerous physical/psychological ailments.  Under the banner of freedom of expression and using tactics as distortions and right-out lies, the myriad of media outlets work 24/7 to shove their agendas down the throat of an unsuspecting public.  And then we have the social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and what I consider middle-ground media as YouTube.  While these are useful for many purposes, some are highly addictive and many experts predict dire consequences of their long-term use at both individual and societal levels.  This is besides the extremely damaging role such forums play in driving societies towards extremism.  In concert, “news” and social media have a decisive debilitating impact on the state of wellbeing of most societies today.  See article #20 for more on this; and the three end-notes of article #19 for how our program will help counter such trends. 

The last factor that can be discerned to be influenced by humans to be included here is psychological defence mechanisms⁷.  While I’m not an expert on the topic (nor on other areas included here and thus the technical aspects of what I say should be evaluated by those qualified to do so) I have nevertheless included it for two reasons: i) the devastation I had observed both in the Maldives development context and the world at large that can be attributed to those mechanisms; and ii) my belief that their impacts can be minimized significantly by the program proposed here.  As mentioned in the definition given in end-note seven, defence mechanisms are unconsciously generated behaviours that aim at averting the consequences of our inability to cope with aspects of what we encounter daily, and the concern here is related to interactions that are integral to the complex world that humans encounter.  The process by which this program will deal with and minimize their impacts arises from a number of sources: i) just like any other psychological ailment, they grow like tumors, that is, their effects begin small and grow steadily in response to increasing stresses; ii) our program starts with children who would have only mild cases at their age; and iii) given that our program will facilitate interaction from an early age on, elements of the program will start acting on stresses felt by children in their interactions and help “nip them in the bud,” minimizing/eliminating stresses that have potential to grow.  As children mature into adulthood, our program will keep working as inner-guiding systems for them.  See the first end-note of article #19 for an outline of how this process fits in the broader scheme of things. 

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As stated at the outset, an account of our problem and suggested solution are given in article #13, and this present article re-states both the problem and the solution more systematically; they are also complementary to a large extent.  Therefore reading both articles to begin with, followed by articles in-between⁸ will help to get a clear picture of both the nature of our problem and how well the proposed solution (by redefining “basic education”) addresses that problem.  This solution is not only vital for enhancing human interaction and the wellbeing that will ensue, but as stated at the end of the second end-note of article #20, titled “The Closing of a People’s Mind,” given both human nature and the state of the world as described in that article (as well other articles on this blog), if we are unable to garner the wisdom and the courage to incorporate such vital/pivotal modifications to the curricula of today’s young – thereby create conditions for bridging the growing fragmented/polarized societal perceptions, in turn pave the path for viable future policies – we can kiss good bye to a better future for humanity. 

If the logic of any point/concept of the argument put forth here is not clear, instead of jumping to an erroneous conclusion and giving yourself a pat on the back (a variation on “self-serving bias,” outlined in the sixth paragraph from the beginning), please contact me⁹ and I shall be glad to help and elaborate. 

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¹ The logic of my reference to a “world” education system is outlined in the first end-note of the article #13. 

² As does the “debate” between Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen during the 2017 French presidential election campaign.  I bet readers will find plenty of such meaningless and, importantly, misleading “debates,” be they presidential or otherwise – “misleading” because such interactions give the general public the false impression that they are significant and have the potential to make a difference in their lives (which incidentally is the aim of elections as well as public debates); the vast number of people who watch those debates I believe attests to this view of public perception. (The two interactions cited here at least are no more than shouting matches – and they involve those at the top of national hierarchy in both countries, which does not provide a flattering view of the state of wellbeing of those respective societies; also, given that both the US and France are among the most “developed” of nations, this gives one pause as to what it should mean to be developed.) 

³ This is not to mention his irresponsible attitude towards handling Covid-19 in the early days of its arrival in the US, the direct result of which had such a devastating impact on the American population.  Besides all this, I would not be surprised if he gets reelected, given his expertise in media psychology and its tactics (which was amply demonstrated in the 2016 election) and given the frame of mind of a significant segment of the American general public.  And if this intuition is realized, it will lend further support to the basic thesis of this blog – that people’s rational abilities are severely limited and are very much below the level of what could be achieved by the effective implementation of the program proposed here. 

⁴ This rather harsh expression is not a mere verbal gaffe but arose from my experience in the development context of the Maldives for more than 30 years.  While the details are beyond the scope of this article, readers who want to get a feel for the situation may want to refer to both article #5, titled “From a Local Focus to a Global One,” and the postscript of the first part of article #15.  In fact, my motivation to work on this blog as well as to email (earlier) articles to some 35,000 of world educators in 103 universities in 22 nations was fueled by both my local experience and an early realization that at the core of local problems of the Maldives are largely human problems (topic of this article) and thus are common to all nations. 

⁵ The quote was originally prepared for an article on planning in the Maldives, which can be found on my “local” blog www.rifatafeefmaldives.blogspot.com as article #6, labelled “Plan’g Min Role Redirection.”

⁶ Concerning the latter, modern societies do not fare any better.  In spite of the majority of their publics being schooled and have highly developed technical capabilities they hardly have integrated views of the world, for their narrowly specialized educational backgrounds bar them from broader thinking, and thus are equally gullible and susceptible to be taken in by any which piece of effective nonsense that comes their way.  This is also an outcome of otherwise defective education systems that do not provide a sound background of how the world works.  For some major devastating consequences, see article #20 and article #13, under subheading “Understanding the Nature of the World.” 

⁷ According to Wikipedia, “In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism is an unconscious psychological mechanism that reduces the anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful stimuli”; they are “psychological strategies brought into play by the unconscious mind to manipulate, deny, or distort reality, to defend against feelings of anxiety and unacceptable impulses and to maintain one’s self-schema.”  These processes are beyond our conscious control. 

⁸ Articles preceding article #13 are somewhat abstract and broader in scope (I had gained a new insight into the nature of our problem by/thru that article) and can be skipped initially without adversely affecting the understanding of both the nature of our problem and the solution suggested for countering and neutralizing it.  But of them, readers might find article #5 helpful, since it is a step-by-step account of the process through which I had arrived at my conclusions.  Likewise, article #1, which is an introduction to these writings, outlines the strategy and/or mechanism through which the ideas intellectualized in them can be translated to effective policy that can practically achieve the goals we seek (raising human wellbeing globally); at the end of the article, you’ll also find a list of world’s universities to faculties of selected departments of which the first articles were sent in mid-2012 – departments selected: education, psychology, communication, sociology, political science, and philosophy; for those interested, the rationale for selection of these disciplines instead of any others is given in paragraph nine of article #9.  And the first paragraph of article #12 is of vital importance and will be referred-to in the discussions of both article #12 and #22 – its end-note would also be of help in explaining my limited success to-date.  

⁹ Contact details are in the piece titled “About Me,” following article #20.  To deter junk mail, I haven’t given my email address, but for any party interested enough to contact me, a short phone call can easily solve the problem.  

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21 – Towards Implementation

A Revised Approach to Implementation … But

to Enhance the Process, a Paradigm Shift is Necessary 

It will be clear to the readers of these articles that the problem being discussed is deeply rooted in human nature (while in practice, the only possible solution is through improved basic education) and thus that it is global in scope … and consequently, that any solution to it must also be global. 

Further, the sociopsychological situation in virtually all nations around the world – see paragraph six, article #20 (2019) – leaves little doubt as to the seriousness of the problem and thus the urgent necessity for a solution.

And yet, in spite of the evident urgency and in spite of the soundness of the arguments of these articles, there seem to be lingering doubts on the part of academics/educators about their readiness to get involved. 

A foremost reason for this hesitancy may be due to the implication of a corollary to the thesis of these articles – that the foundation on which education has been built for the past two-and-a-half millennia is on shaky grounds … for education to-date has failed to address a most vital/pivotal concern of human wellbeing.  (In all likelihood, educators are largely unaware that such a concern even exists, thus it is no surprise that to-date there is no solution to the problem.)  And this concern in its turn is symptomatic of a much deeper ailment of world basic education regarding its primary purpose – see article # 13 (2015).

A second reason may be the departure of these articles from the accepted academic norms in some important ways, foremost among them being that their arguments are not supported by references.  Given that academic scholarship is usually based on referencing, the articles, however sound their logic and/or rationale, are therefore perceived deep down and at an emotional level to be wanting. 

Perhaps a third and a more immediate reason for the reluctance may be that academics/educators are not used to global thinking; their focuses usually being limited to their favourite projects, apart from teaching. 

There are other possible reasons as well, but the above three are probably the most significant …  

As to references, one might want to be mindful that this is a pioneering work, implying that it is at best unlikely that related references could be found.  Expecting references to these articles is akin to expecting Nicolai Copernicus to cite references to his heliocentric theory when the world at large believed in the then prevalent geocentric worldview.  Or take the notion of a spherical Earth when everyone else believed the Earth to be flat.  Pioneering works, by definition, don’t have precedents, and therefore references.  They stand or fall by virtue of the soundness of their arguments; their reasoning/consistency – and not by what someone else might or might not think of them; there is no scope for social proof in pioneering works. 

Thus a paradigm shift is called for regarding one’s cherished beliefs – which drive all of us – if we are to find a viable solution to one of humanity’s most compelling and entrenched problems.  

And towards facilitating the implementation of the solution suggested in these articles, a different approach could be adopted than was originally suggested, which called for a simultaneous global effort.  To make the process more manageable, a more localized approach can be adopted initially.  

This is a merely a tactical retreat, however, and the ultimate solution should be global – it has to be global since the problem is global and since today the world is interconnected and interdependent, and thus to be worth anything, the solution to the problem also has to be global in scope. 

The effort could start in either the education department or the psychology department of any large university – since our problem is psychological in nature while the solution is through education.  Or, for that matter, it could start with any of the other four of the six disciplines identified as being pertinent to the problem, namely, philosophy, sociology, political science, and communication (see article # 9 (2014), paragraph 10) – as long as the focus is kept initially, when analysis of the problem is the concern, on the psychological aspect of the topic and subsequently on its educational aspect when dealing with the solution.

Two factors that can especially enhance the process are: i) those departments belonging to a university with a global reputation, and ii) such a university being in close proximity to other such universities.  The process can proceed without them, of course – just that they will prove to be very helpful bonuses.  

This way, efforts in one department can expand to the relevant departments in the same university as well as in neighbouring universities – face-to-face interaction being of vital importance in this earlier stage. 

The involvement of more than one university will be especially helpful in refining and augmenting the ideas of these articles and thus bolstering the final product for the peer-review process that has to follow necessarily. 

The latter will involve expanding both nationally and globally, and the ease of modern video interaction will minimize the spatial friction arising from distance, especially if such interaction is supported by a dose of personal familiarity.  Details can be worked out as to the best practical approach to adopt.   

From here, it will be fairly easy for the effort to achieve global academic notice … and acceptance. 

Please note that the above process, while somewhat different, is in good accord with the second part of article #9 (2014), which was more congenial to the comprehensive and global approach initially suggested. 

And as outlined in the post #14 (2016), and if it is deemed worthwhile, I can be of help in clarifying any ambiguities and/or elaborate on any aspect as required, and in coordinating and bridge-building among the relevant professions, in spite of my not having expert knowledge in any pertinent field – but as readers will be aware, I do have an excellent overview of the broader dimensions of the situation. 

Finally, there is the ultimate issue of the proposals distilled from the process becoming actual public policy.  This has been conceptualized at the outset, in the endnote of article #1, Introduction – simply that whatever is in the collective heads of the educators will become public policy, for even dictators rely on those who have relevant degrees to actually run their education establishments.  

About Me

Since I created my blogs in 2012, Google Blogger had provided space titled “About Me” which is accessible from each blog for information about me that allowed readers to know who I am, along with contact information.  But it had disappeared when I deleted some posts from one of the blogs.  Given the potential usefulness of that info to readers, I had no choice than uploading it as a post, or part of the blog – requests to Blogger administrators for help being in vain. 

I am from the Maldives and have been engaged in development-related endeavours for more than 35 years.  Based on the experience gained from these efforts, some of which mentioned in passing in these writings, I consider the important and critical problem outlined in them and the multitude of ramifications arising from it the ultimate stumbling block that impedes efforts for the betterment of human wellbeing on a global scale; the rest of the other factors in my opinion being of lesser importance.  

I completed graduate studies at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Hawaii, culminating in spring 1992 with a master’s degree focused on the development of small island states.  Ever since, I have been broadening my theoretical background and thus the scope of my understanding of the multifaceted issues of development.  Once back home, my involvements were with the broader issues of national development.  My initial background was in architecture, which I practiced for 12 years before the local conditions convinced me that I should hasten to broaden it, which led me to graduate studies.  The training I received as a designer also helped me to view issues both in detail and in perspective, and in conjunction with the wide background I acquired during and after graduate studies and still continue to acquire, this mindset helped me to dig deeper into development issues and finally arrive at the rather unorthodox but breakthrough insights detailed in these writings. 

I can be reached by phone at (960) 332-7488 most of the time between 0500 and 1900 hours GMT – that is, between 1000 and 0000 hours the Maldives local time (= GMT + 5 hours).   While I have not given my email address here to deter junk mail, for any party interested enough to contact me, a short phone call can easily solve the problem.  Alternatively, I can also be reached by mail at PO Box 2139, Post Office Building, Malé 20026, Maldives. 

20 – Closing of Minds

The Closing of a People’s Mind …

There is Much More to the Cliché than Meets the Eye

The writings on this blog have sought to address the foremost problem that plagues the modern world, which problem, I believe, largely underlies most other problems that impact negatively on human wellbeing.   

Apart from our natural disposition as biological beings with an evolutionary history, it essentially has to do with the explosion of knowledge in modern times, particularly from the early decades of the twentieth century, and the technological proliferations that sprang from it (both of which processes had since been exponentially accelerating at an unrelenting pace) and the social impacts resulting thereof – in the form of information overload; the specializations necessitated by the process; the inevitably fragmented knowledge bases; and the resulting equally fragmented worldviews …  

Many scholars have written about the outcome of this state of affairs but are deafeningly silent on both the causes and dynamics that had brought it about and remedial action to minimize/alleviate its increasingly expanding detrimental fallouts. 

One of my favourite examples is the quote by Professor Will Durant attached at the end of this article (which in fact had been attached to two earlier articles as well – #6 & #2) which eloquently elaborates on one side of the outcome of the state of affairs described above but mentions nothing about the causes of or remedial action to the havoc that state had created.  (But the account may be just an afterthought thrown in in the preface of the second edition, from which it was excerpted.) 

A parallel conclusion can be drawn from similar scholarly works.  For example, a rather cursory glance through both Professor Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind and a forward review of Professor Anthony Kronman’s forthcoming The Assault on American Excellence seems to confirm this view.  And there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of other works in the same vein. 

Eminent though those scholars are, it seems to me that they lack a grasp of the realities of today’s world, which is characterized by the situation depicted in paragraph #2 above – and that the outputs of those of such fragmented milieus will be equally fragmented; that it will be virtually impossible for most people to have views that integrate the multitude of societal issues; and as a result, that they are led to desperately cling to whatever faction/ism within reach in the hope of salvation – and whether they are average citizens or in the academia doesn’t seem to make much difference.  We may not like it, but this is the mechanism through which the mind of a people gets closed, and no amount of complaining/pontification can reverse the tide, for it is part and parcel of the march of progress** – unless history can be arrested, which is unlikely, barring a global catastrophe that can revert what remains of humanity to stone age; but then, who wants to live in prehistory?  So we might want to make the best of the situation at hand and plan prudently for a better future. 

Towards this end, the thesis put forth on this blog is both fundamental and grounded in reality rather than in abstract high-sounding pronouncements, and it will lay a solid foundation upon which future measures can be based with confidence, and from where the flow of events can be guided with effectiveness and efficiency.  As can be seen from the last article, the improvements suggested to the world basic education system will put future generations onto a path to be much better informed of the likely multiple societal stresses; those improvements will also get them to be much better equipped to handle any situation that may arise and with much better outcomes – for more specifics, see the three footnote paragraphs of the article.   

A last point that I feel had to be mentioned here is about perceptions of the successive generations of scholars/academics who are the products of the state of the world described above – those who had achieved high levels of proficiency in specialized areas but do not have a common language.  I reckon such perceptions to be like views one sees by looking at a complex scene through a multi-lensed face-mask – one portion of the scene becomes clear at one point, then another, and then yet another … while they alternately recede out of focus and merge in a haze … depending on one’s area of expertise … and a coherent picture of the total scene just does not materialize.  In common parlance, dots are selectively clear but their connection remains elusive.***  As I had pontificated at the end of article #7 (2012), understanding comes from within when relationships between elements of the topic being deliberated begins to make sense … no one can make another person understand but only help him or her to understand.  (Apart from having a wide background that covers the spectrum of basic issues, even if lacking much depth, struggles/experiences of the kind described in article #5 as well as in the postscript following the first part of article #15 would also be of much help in “connecting the dots.”) 

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**  The nature of progress itself has put us on a slippery slope on many fronts, by enhancing some of our abilities while not lending us the mental prowess to cope with the downsides of those abilities, which deficiencies the proposals of this blog are specifically designed to counter.  

***  Realistically, for that connection to happen, one has to exert a little – say, going over the referenced previous pieces instead of thinking that one has understood them all, and reflecting/contemplating a little on what was said … it should not be surprising that the dots cannot be connected if one read the articles as if they came from a newspaper.  Relying on one’s laurels and unwilling to open one’s mind to new ideas, and thinking that one knows best – implicitly, of course – also won’t help to connect the dots.  In this regard, the realization of a crucial point would be helpful: that unless one has a wide background, one’s perception will likely be constrained by one’s area of expertise and thus it will be very difficult to gain an overview of the complexity of the entwined dimensions of the broader issues at hand – see account of perception formation, above.  It is precisely to avert this kind of limited mindsets in preference for more positive and flexible ones that creating a younger generation with attitudes to listen … to learn … to think logically … and so forth, along with attendant values, had been incorporated among modifications proposed for the world basic education system.  And given the state of the world as described in paragraph #2 above, if we are unable to garner the wisdom/courage to incorporate such vital/pivotal modifications to the curricula of today’s young – thereby creating the conditions for bridging the growing fragmented/polarized societal perceptions, in turn paving the path for viable future policies – we can kiss good bye to a better future for humanity.  

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.