Education, Ignorance, and The State of Our Society

There is a lot of talk around our educational system in this society, primarily about how dysfunctional it is. From the perspective that sees a society as a large web of interconnected relationships, this current state of dysfunction does not seem abnormal considering the societal context. Through the perspective that sees the web of relations between historical beginnings, cultural beliefs, societal behaviors, political agendas, and economic goals (to name a few), one can see a bigger picture of the complexity of this society's educational system.

Some of my professional training and practice comes from the biomedical (Western medicine) model of wellness. Through this model of medicine it is common to use the signs and symptoms of "the patient" to tract down what needs fixing. I think if we view the current state of the educational system as a collection of signs and symptoms of our society's "body" that it is not well and needs some fixing, the solutions may turn out to be entirely different than what most would expect.

From my perspective I see our educational system needing nothing short of a revolution in its design and goals. This is easier said than done when you acknowledge the web of relations that spreads to and from the educational system and the society as a whole. I believe that we as a society need to rethink how we define what it is to be educated.

How do you define education?

On the other side of the analytical coin, resides the oh so ugly word of "ignorance." I do not think that we can have a dialogue about what it means to be educated without looking deeply into how this society views the state of ignorance. There is an Eastern philosophy saying that - The expert's mind is limited and the beginner's mind is limitless. I think this gets at one of America's dysfunctional beliefs with respect to ignorance. Have we put so much value on "knowing" that we have lost the power of questioning? If you listen to any of the great scientific of philosophical minds of the past or present, you may just here a sincere level of humility that is rooted in the acknowledgment of not knowing, rather than knowing. This state of inquiring into the mysteries of life can also be viewed as valuing critical thinking as a posed to memorizing information.

I recently participated in a poetry workshop and would like to share a poem that came out of that experience. There is actually a revival of using poetry within the discipline of anthropology to diversify not only the medium of communication but the very thinking that we approach the study of humanity. The poem is an ode to ignorance.

Ode to Ignorance

Oh ignorance, you have been made out to be such the criminal, the villain, and the source of all evil.

I am here to appeal this unjust sentence that has been handed down to you.

The judges, your condemners, are merely confused educated fools.

Please forgive them for they have merely forgotten what a sincere childhood friend you were to them.

What I love about you, old ignorance, is your peaceful nature, your smiling face, your blissful laughter.

Your state of residence is pure potentiality, you are the seed of everything.

Knowledge is so limiting, so confining with its strictly enforced borders, its cold walls of knowing.

All the beginners know how wonderful you truly are, but they are shamed into believing that you are the enemy.

I love you, old ignorance, for you are the field of peace and true love.

It has all been one big misunderstanding.

I hope this post has stirred within you questions that you may not have looked at before, or maybe could look at again differently. I personally see education as the field where all the problems and their solution are to be found. This paradoxical way of looking at education is why the definition of what it is to be educated is so important to truly look at our educational system with some level of objectivity.

How do you view and feel about ignorance?

In Honor of Dr. King and Gandhi

The following is a version of an op-ed of mine that the Ashland Daily Tidings published back on January 21, 2009. I would like to share it with you here, now.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and I wanted to share some thoughts with you all. It is amazing to think that it was less than 45 years ago that segregation was still a legal part of the culture in the U.S. I have so much respect for what Gandhi and Dr. King both stood for and were willing to give.

Gandhi may not come to the top of the mind when one thinks of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., but he very much was a part of it. It was Gandhi who had inspired Dr. King to use nonviolence to confront the fearful power of separate thinking. The courage and conviction that these men displayed is, unfortunately, a very rare thing. The battles that these individuals were willing to choose are still very much alive today. I hope and pray that we all can embrace the idea and practice of nonviolence in our lives.

I believe it was Gandhi who said that "there is very little difference between thoughts and deeds." I think this directly applies to violence. Often we think of violence as just physical acts, but it is so much more than that. Violence is a way of thinking, and most of it is not physical at all. It comes in many shapes and forms, from the passive aggressive jabs and jokes that are exchanged between friends and family to the honking of one's horn in anger against the person who is irresponsibly talking on their phone while driving.

Violence is a feeling, that feeling when someone has hurt or wronged you and you want the same for them. An eye for an eye is an act of violence. Killing that fly, that is bothering you by merely being a fly, is violent.

Violence is ruling our world, through the governments and its economics, through the power of fear. It is at the very base and foundation of our culture, and it is time for all of us to see it for what it is. The feeling of superiority is violent thinking, because anything superior must be defended against that which is inferior. Think about it, when we say that the U.S. is the best country in the world, what are we really saying?

Please look at a picture of the world today, taken from outer space, and ponder how unnatural the lines in the sand that we have drawn, really are. In a sad way it is humorous, quite childish, like children fighting over a sandbox. We must find the courage to talk about it for what it is. Violence is rooted in self-loathing, a lack of self-respect and the belief in separatism. How could any of us be violent, if we truly loved and respected ourselves and felt the oneness of all humanity?

I truly believe that this issue is the biggest threat to all of us. This is much bigger than an economic depression and bigger than global warming. I believe this because it is not talked about on the news, there isn't a cool documentary about it, because we, as a whole, are in denial about what violence really is. It is the sleeping dragon that is within all of us.

I am making a vow of nonviolence, or "ahimsa," today, and I hope and pray that you all will do the same, for all of our sake. I have hope and faith in humanity because I know the amazing healing power of truth and love. These powerful tools that we all have within us, truth and love, don't work on their own but require effort and commitment. I have faith in us all. Deep love and sincere gratitude to all of you, wherever you are.

Lack of Trust = High Anxiety

Looking at the state of our society and its political environment, a deep lack of trust comes to mind. Within the studies of American culture there is an observation that points to the fastest growing class of Americans being that of the anxious class. This growing class of American society spans all races and many tax brackets; it is an equal opportunity class of society where all that is required is a subtle feeling of fear that comes from a lack of trust.

I have had the privilege of working in extremely stressful settings, both as a white water river guide and a ski patroller. The unforgiving environments of a raging river or a steep frozen mountain side, pose excellent case studies for observing fearful people. An observant river guide or ski patroller can learn volumes about human behavior with respect to anxiety, fear, and trust. To summarize what I personally have learned from this experience is this - people that have high levels of anxiety suffer from low levels of trust. This is obviously a generalization of a very wide breadth of individuals, but nonetheless the pattern is there. I will also say that this observation comes from working close with other guides and rescuers, and from observing myself.

Applying what I have learned from the extremes of some recreational realms of our society to the broader society, I think it is interesting to look at how the lack of trust is affecting our society. All human interactions and relationships can be tract back to the core intrapersonal relationship, which we all have with our self. Just as we cannot separate the well-being of an individual from the well-being of their society, we cannot separate the state of trust within our society from the state of trust within each of us.

Where did the trust go?

If you couple this post with the earlier post titled "The Real American Deficit - Compassion" you may just see some connections that were not as obvious as before. What do you think?

Are "You" Your Beliefs?

The tragic violent event that took place in Arizona yesterday, causes me to reflect on identity and identification and specific beliefs structures. For many of us, our identity is who we are and is taken completely for granted. If this statement makes you stop and think of what else an identity could be other than "who" we are, maybe you have taken it for granted. Within anthropology the studying of identity is a fascinating and challenging perspective. One basic anthropological concept is in order here - our identities are the result of social agreements. That is, an individual cannot choose to be someone that no one else recognizes. We are who we say and think we are because of those around us. If this is challenging your version of reality and how you fit within it, good, because that is my intention.

When we couple the phenomenon of social identity and the individual's identification with a particular identity, with the role of separate realities, we start to appreciate an aspect of societal dynamics that are extremely complex. The danger that I see in not realizing the nature of identity is that when we get fully identified with a set of companion ideologies, we become delusional. In my opinion, the single biggest threat to any society is the intolerance of bigotry, especially when it spreads to the masses - the tyranny of the majority. The threat that this type of intolerance presents to the stability of a just society, should not be underestimated. Especially when the intolerance is being wielded by those that believe that they have a monopoly and sole source to the "truth." Anyone that believes that they are in possession of the truth, rather than in the pursuit of the truth, is nothing more than a delusional fool. We all have the right to be a fool, but in the age of atomic weapons and high tech personal firearms, this right becomes extremely dangerous to our survival.

I ask you this - can you separate yourself from your beliefs? Have we become so identified with our social identities that we are blinded by the belief systems that are ingrained within them?

The Reality of Our True Well-Being

On the theme of separate realities and the power of our minds, I would like to explore how our social relationships affect our biology, and thus our well-being. It is common knowledge that living life with high levels of stress, especially chronic stress, is linked to disease. What is not commonly known is that our social relationships, even those with people that we do not know, have direct affects on our health.

There is a growing body of evidence that is challenging the concept that genetics equates into biology. The body that you have and the level of well-being that you experience are products of much more than simply your genetic code. If one reads books like "The Bell Curve" and listens to the pharmaceutical industry, one could be lead to believe that much of one's fate is predetermined before birth. This is not true!

New research into racial health disparities is revealing how dynamic our bodies and states of well-being truly are. Through the integration of anthropological research and relatively new fields such as genomics, a perspective that views our biology and sociocultural world as being interrelated, is taking form. This new perspective challenges many levels of our society, but primarily materialism and social inequality. The belief that we are primarily material beings that are born with either good genes or bad ones, is about half true. Our society that is hooked on the material world wants to believe that our problems can be solved by technology, by taking a pill. This premiss that supports the pop-a-pill culture, would be even more convenient if it were only true. The scary truth behind this new perspective is that we are a lot more responsible for our health and well-being than many of us want to a realize! This potentially self-empowering reality is scary to many, but hopeful to those that have the courage to live a self-responsible and truly accountable lifestyle.

Our black president Barack Obama, represent a country that has come along way on the issue of race. However, the ongoing racial health disparities of our society, tells a very different story. This new research that I am referring to, sheds light on how the chronic stress of racism is linked to the lower levels of well-being and general health statistics of our minorities. There is still a very strong presence of what is referred to as - institutional racism - within our society. These racial health disparities are a sign of a struggling and ill social structure, but at the same time they are evidence of the cure to many of our diseases. The cure to many of these common disease (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, low birth weights, stroke, some cancers, etc...) lies within how we treat each other. The main problem with this simple cure to these disease is - compassion, empathy, and respect can not be trade marked and sold within this free market society.

Have you ever been in a close relationship that felt toxic? Well, dysfunctional or disrespectful relationships are toxic, literally! Whether these dis-eased relationships are on the personal or the societal level they are not serving our state of well-being very well.

The below address is one example of the type of research that I am using. I have added a "links" option where you can find a direct link to this research paper. If you are interested in this type of cutting edge research I can supply more references.

http://www.rslocum.com/Gravelee%20how%20race%20becomes%20biology.pdf

The Real American Deficit - Compassion

Where does compassion sit within this American society?

The most salient deficit within this materialistic society is the state of economics. What about the obvious deficit in compassion, is this ever talked about? It seems to me that our priorities and perspectives within this society have been focused on the superficial aspects of being human. This declaration of the shallow nature of contemporary American culture probably does not sound unfamiliar or unjust to many of us. The more important question to me is - if our society is suffering from a lack of heart, how do we as individuals help to fill this void? I believe that one way of balancing this budget of being human is to bring compassion into our full attention. Living life with one's attention on compassion for others is an ancient practice of being human.

Through my own experience with the practice of compassion, I have noticed how it can help to tear down the wall of - us and them. If there is any one human virtue that can help balance out the socially destructive affects of extreme individualism, it is compassion. When we see ourselves in others, we tend to treat them a little differently than when we see them as the other.

I think that when we couple the role of separate realities with this deficit in compassion, we can start to view our society in a very different light. Is it fear that is keeping us from the realization that we all are truly connected? I think that there are multiple causal factors that are creating this deficit in compassion, but I do see fear as being a major catalyst. Maybe the biggest fear is that if we do live our lives through a compassionate perspective we will realize what a fallacy American individualism really is. Can we as a society return to that preschool lesson of treating others as we would like to be treated? I believe we can, and I believe that we can do it through the practice of compassion.