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.
