© Charles D. Hayes
Educational
philosopher Robert Hutchins championed
the life of the mind, which he encouraged through the study of literature and
ongoing dialog with learned peers. He called this "The Great Conversation"
and published a book by that name in 1952. I credit Hutchins’ work, and
particularly the Great Books series
that he fostered, with motivating me to embark upon my pursuit of
self-education and to continue the course of lifelong learning that I follow to
this day.
What
has disturbed me about public discourse today, especially in social media, is
my sense that it mostly serves as an echo chamber. No one seems to talk reasonably
with anyone who has divergent ideas. Instead, disagreements become shouting
matches with voices expressed in text, in all caps, and with character bursts too
short for satisfactory explanation. Lately, though, I’ve had to admit that beneath
the media hype about polarized camps, many people are engaged in meaningful
dialog and minds are changing. The growing support for gay marriage proves the
point.
For
months my email signature contained the assertion that "life is too short
to text and too important to tweet." My nephew, however, has convinced me
to think of Twitter as a news source, a library index card, or a subject header
that opens an opportunity for conversation and further learning. It gives me the
ability to delve deeper into a subject when it points me to material that I otherwise
would not know about. So, much to my own surprise, I’ve now removed that
statement from my signature and have activated a Twitter account.
From
the beginning, my skepticism about Twitter stemmed from the current mania for the
brevity of bulleted lists and the admonition that everything worth reading must
be up front. Introductions and first chapters in books often turn out to be the
only text worthy of one’s time. In far too many cases, the "keep it short,
keep it simple, put it up front" practice, combined with texting and
tweeting, has appeared to result in a lack of the depth necessary for basic comprehension.
To my mind, it’s essential to know why and how a person has reached whatever
conclusion is put forth.
The Great Books program advanced by Robert
Hutchins offered an approach to the humanities through the exploration of our
finest literature, a method that today is largely marginalized. These days,
advocates for the humanities and a liberal education increasingly attempt to
make their case by beating around the bush. Too often they fail to explain why we
should value the humanities. And yet, the argument desperately needs to be made
because the humanities contain seeds of goodwill that are capable of turning
red and blue states purple.
The
human condition is the conundrum at the crux of civilization. Our respective
cultures provide a barrage of edicts about what we are to do in life with too little
regard for how we are to cope with the inescapable anxiety that comes with our fragile
existence. This makes us egregiously vulnerable to political manipulation.
Too
many of us are ill-equipped to manage the conditions we find ourselves in, unless
we have learned enough about our species to deal with our conscious and
subconscious angst about our own inevitable demise. We come pre-programmed with
a clash-driven political nature that is due, in part, to our split-brain
architecture, which enables us to compartmentalize conflicting information. As
a result, we tend to readily hate those whom we view as different based upon
the flimsiest of criteria.
The
promise of faith helps some people by
offering the assurance that if you believe this,
there is nothing to worry about. For others, though, the fact that their belief
system is not universal, in and of itself, is cause for the kind of contempt that
routinely ferments into a hatred of nonbelievers.
If
one is born into a poorly educated culture, the future portends a life of
poverty and a worldview filled with scorn and social paranoia. Taken further,
if one's culture is ignorant and socially oppressive, a life of political
zealotry may prove to be irresistible and scapegoats will be enthusiastically
provided for persecution.
We
can't put our own lives in perspective without developing the ability to
envision ourselves in a global context. We must also realize that our
propensity to view our own respective cultures as naturally superior to all
others is a primeval short circuit that fosters ridicule and disdain.
Ultimately it can lead to self-destruction.
Life
is an existential dilemma, and it is subjective to the nth degree. For each of
us, life is an unsolvable mystery, and yet the pursuit of the puzzle can provide
enough existential relief to make living pleasurable. Learning continuously
along the way leaves plenty of room for those who view the world differently.
We
human beings need to know all we can about being human, especially about other
cultures with differing customs, traditions, and worldviews. Knowledge of many
subjects we consider electives, such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology
is desperately needed by all citizens. Promoting that greater level of
understanding could dispel the needless social anxiety that’s born of ignorance
and perpetuated by our tribal nature for exclusiveness.
Today
the amount of time that people waste hating others because of absurd
misunderstandings is astounding. The more we learn about the outer world, the
larger our inner world becomes. We are less threatened by things we don't
understand because we know that the process of trying to understand can relieve
us of needless anxiety.
I
have joined Twitter with the goal of following not only those with whom I agree
but also those with whom I don’t agree—especially those whose messages I think
are destructive. The point of entering into a public conversation, in my view,
is not to enhance one's career, social standing, and earning potential, or to
live a life of ease made possible by magical software. It is, instead, an
aspiration to experience the kind of life that transcends our respective
cultures, a life with the independence of mind to determine value without
coercion and to develop our sense of humanity, regardless of which culture we
were born into.
No doubt this is a tall order, and it may indeed be overly idealistic. Still, I think it’s clear that only in hindsight can we judge the effectiveness of something we would characterize as a great conversation. Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature offers a compelling argument that over the long term, we are making moral progress. All we have to do now is speed it up. Twitter has crossover potential. Maybe it can help. Follow me on Twitter: @CDHWasilla
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