A new(?) vision for understanding

Maybe I'm taking it too far, but I've started to suspect that one fundamental piece to many of our troubles is a habit of mind that is essentially a social appendix. That is, a characteristic of our society which was once useful and is now potentially problematic. I'm referring to the industrial mindset, dating back to the 19th century. We are still producing citizens that would excel in an industrial society, but now we have a new environment demanding a new mentality. The age of industry has been replaced with a new era, and it is time to change our way of doing things to keep pace, and to avoid disaster.

During the industrial revolution, we lept ahead of much of the world economically in part because of a wealth of resources, but perhaps more so because of a new approach to business: the factory model. Mass industry brought with it the assembly line, which simultaneously helped us to become a world leader by lowering cost and increasing production, and changed the selection pressure for social success. The blue collar worker was spawned and his temperament was uniquely reliable; his focus especially narrow. He was a specialist of the lowest order (eventually), brilliantly talented when it came to attaching a U-17 flange to a D-90 steel pipe, but knowing little at all about the final product that required this particular operation (along with a multitude of other, similarly specific tasks). His was, ideally, not a questioning mind, but an obedient and disciplined one, with an eye for precision, and a profound stamina. And our educational system both helped to create and maintain this, by adopting a model that emphasized those traits. This was no conspiracy. As with the schools today, teachers, parents, and peers alike wanted for the kids growing up to be marketable as employees, so their model was encouraged.

There were others in society though: executives, politicians, planners - a population unto itself and wholly outside the ranks of the blue collars - among whom innovation, big-picture ideas, questioning, creativity, and individualism was fostered, and strangely it became these few titans whose iconic faces represented the whole of our nation. These free minds carried the baton for America - the land of the free - while the majority, the foot soldiers tasked with the actual building up of our great nation, continued to live a life of intellectual subjugation.

Well times have changed. With the success of the workers rights movement, the titans of industry have exported most blue collar jobs to places where people can be hired to work as drones for as little (monetarily) as possible, while our resources have been depleted or protected and we've had to rely increasingly on cheaper, more plentiful booty overseas. The strength of America has come less and less from our manufacturing sector. We have had to get creative to maintain our standard of living, relying on innovation and cleverness to find new ways to bring in capital. Some have chosen to apply sophisticated algorithms to global financial markets to redistribute perceived resources toward America. Others have gone the route of the great innovators of old, and come up with new and improved technologies that can be exported as ideas to those other foreign manufacturers. But whatever the case, we have started to become a global brain trust. It is still subject to debate as to whether this can carry us.

Regardless of the very ugly past that is responsible for it, our country is blessed now with a fantastic diversity of peoples. The cultural milieu is rich and this confluence of many perspectives lends itself to some potentially brilliant innovation, if only we can find a way to cultivate it. At the same time, those with the means to do so, do all they can to extract revenue from domestic sources: from us. If you happen to be selling something for which you have to create a market, (that is, something that is not intrinsically valuable) it turns out that the most effective environment in which to do this is one where the citizens are isolated from one another. Intimate communities rarely fall victim to one blunder en mass, whereas picked off one by one, an entire population can become a market for something that is fundamentally without value. It is the mentality used by most every predator on the planet: isolate your prey from the group. The relic programmability of industrial workers does wonders for this as well, since repetitive directives leave us wanting without understanding why. Also, it seems to be the case that artificial value can be enhanced by altering the perceived environment toward one in which the product is suddenly more valuable. Such is the case for much of our media, and ironically it is that same media that is charged with creating that environment. Indirect self-promotion through the output of an artificial environment in which that same output is deemed a necessity. I could go on...

All this information is very confusing for someone who has little to no training in either the methods being employed on them or the more general skill of independent evaluation. As has always been the case, the graduate of an industrial-model education is ideally suited to cater to the free-thinking class. But we have largely moved past the industrial era, at least in America. It is time that we create a system that promotes the sort of production that we really need now: ideas. We should embrace our global role as a brain trust, and make it not the odd dropout who generates the next big thing, but tap into that arsenal of perspectives that is our population.

Years of programming have taught people that they should know, that knowing is the standard measurement of a person's worth. This drives a pipeline of pseudo information pumped into the heartland of our country, designed to serve the ego need to be in the know by cramming complicated issues into simplistic boxes. We lap it up because it feels better to have a sense of understanding than it does to be uncertain and skeptical. Religious fundamentalism has a similar origin and appeal. We would be better people if we were to conquer our fear of ignorance so that we can come to grips with the ignorance that we all have and face that terrifying uncertainty. The nature of the world and universe is quite chaotic. Change is the paradigm of reality. As much as we'd like to be able to nail down the now that we're dealing with; as appealing and knowable a static existence is, to know the world is to know change. This, as you can imagine, compounds our ignorance when it comes to 'things,' products. Processes, on the other hand, can get us much closer to understanding, even if we'll never completely 'know.'

I propose that we re-structure society to foster this new collective consciousness. That means that we must change how we think of education. Here is how the evolution might look:

1st pillar: cater to the basic needs of the citizenry. That is, needs for survival (food, shelter, health care). Duh. We have long ago moved beyond a life with perpetual threat of death. Our capacity for production and distribution is such that all people can be served this base level of dignity. There is no excuse for the situation as it stands. This, I acknowledge, is likely the hardest part of my plan. Perhaps we can just start with America here.

1st stage: change the emphasis of schools from product to process, teaching kids how to be creative, thorough, cooperative, and confident (or how to achieve confidence); to pursue understanding rather than knowing. In doing so, people will learn how to get what they need, how to organize their lives and how to acquire information critically. Not to say that information should be made irrelevant. Rather, it should be the framework for teaching critical thought, with skepticism and questioning even of fundamental premises encouraged. The importance of knowledge rather than skill becomes significant only when students begin to specialize, at which point they will need the foundation upon which to build their personal exploration. But early on, through compulsory schooling, the process and skills are far more important than any specific information. They are, after all, flooded with information at all times, and if they don't know what to do with that, then they'll find themselves pawns in a game that they're not aware of.

2nd pillar: cater to the second major human need - connection to one another. This, too can be taught, in schools, and in communities (the two will eventually be seamlessly integrated together). Which brings us to the 2nd stage:

2nd stage: fully integrate education and community to promote social connections, identification with the needs of others, and connection to the history of their fellow citizens. Accomplished initially through total school transparency and open communication, but advancing further by bringing educational experiences to all community members, culminating in the execution of education by all, supported by education professionals who are charged with bringing new and innovative techniques and ideas to the group.

3rd pillar: provide many outlets for every person to express themselves creatively. Teach people that their unique brand of thinking and approaching challenges is valued, and offer as many ways as possible for them to communicate their experience. Not to say that this trumps basic social courtesy, but allow a buffer within which each of us has the freedom and training to share what is uniquely ours.

3rd stage: Our society fully embraces the changing, infinite, and utterly unknowable preferring to pursue understanding through the exploration of processes. Information is relegated to its rightful place as (nearly always) temporary scaffolding that we use to elevate ourselves to a point where we can consider a new perspective and discover the next tower of discovery. This objective of understanding pervades all of society, such that our education, as is the case now (though many of us reject the idea that we're still being educated after a certain age because that is to admit ignorance - see final paragraph), is occurring constantly and productively right up to our death, mutually benefiting everyone in their dual roles as instructors and students.