Know Thyself, Challenge Thyself

I'm becoming increasingly attracted to “confluential” studies – integrating different fields to arrive at universal solutions for the development of humans as a species.  There needs to be a change in the common social belief - a zeitgeist if you will.  A social, economic, and scientific revolution is overdue and I hope it happens in my lifetime.

A friend recently told me about how more and more people are becoming aware of injustice.  Young people and students want to do something about it, but the options are currently limited.  While that is true, in my opinion, the movement has not reached critical mass to precipitate a change.  We still live in a world where the top 300 people have the wealth equivalent to the bottom 3 billion.  Take a moment and fathom that staggering statistic.  How can we hope to overturn the status quo, particularly politically and economically in such a toxic environment?  And science, the forbearer of our future, is servile to politics, economics, and the social zeitgeist.

Humans as a species prefer having authority figures reign over them.  It is the Savannah spirit of having herd leaders.  We need someone to take the blame.  It is never our fault.  No soldier is ever responsible for war… they were simply following orders.  Consider the Stanford Prison Experiment, or the rise of authoritarian governments like Mao, Mussolini, Hitler, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Un… the list is endless.  Why do we allow ourselves to be subjugated?  Perhaps it is our inherent animal nature to have a leader to follow – to take orders.  The ones that break out of this mold become the subjugators.  We rarely question leadership, and when we do, we approach it with chaos, indiscipline, and in a morally ambiguous manner.

So, where does that leave us?

Well, for my part I hope to make my students economic revolutionaries – to have the ability to think for themselves, develop a sense of social responsibility and question what most of us around take for granted.  Challenge the zeitgeist.  That doesn’t mean they should become anarchist, or ape around in the classroom pretending to be challenging authority.  It is unfortunate most students are too immature to truly perceive what I mean by challenging conformity.  It means to allow oneself to become a free thinker - to question life in the Socratic sense. 

Recently, I had a conversation with a student about the role of women in sport and at the end of the conversation she said, “Wow, I’ve never even thought of that”.  And therein lies the rub.  We have stopped thinking because we are surrounded by different machinations aimed at keeping our youth distracted and absorbed in intellectually mundane activities.

Not to mention a majority of privileged students squander their educational opportunity – the ability to think and question and challenge the social norms – and instead feel satisfied festering in a pool of their intellectual poverty and distractions.  It is sad how in some of the best schools in the world has a culture that belittles intelligence than celebrating it.  They are happy, following in the footsteps of their silver spoon and entitled lives.  It is quite saddening and pathetic.

However, it is our responsibility as teachers to create the watershed moment in our students thinking.  Teachers and educators have enormous influence on how we think and perceive the world.  Sometimes it scares me how much power and influence educators really have – much more than any CEO.  We are shaping the mindset and vision of an entire generation of leaders and the effects of this influence is going to resonate for years to come. 

Challenging the socially accepted norms is the foundation and hallmark of innovation.  We must be taught to think and question.  But that is what is lacking at most places, and in most teachers, and consequently in most students.  Let’s hope that changes.

An interesting commentary on the apathy and indifference of India's elite.