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.”)
____________________________________________________________________________________
** 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.
*** 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.
