- Kevin Goodwin
- Cary, NC
- United States
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What can we do to get our intelligentsia to focus on the major problems of our time?
It seems that we (humanity, particularly in Western cultures) have far more (in number) intelligent people either complaining about, placing blame for, or making fun of the problems of our day than actually trying to fix them. How do we re-instill an attitude or belief that we can overcome our problems in people who have already stopped trying or never really believed it possible?
Kevin Goodwin
LARRY MALONE
Thomas Jones 100+
Orlando Hawkins 20+
I will honestly have side with Chomsky on this one and really say that the intelligentsia(in general) is not really concerned about the major issues of of the world.There are of course some exceptions to this but for the most part the intelligentsia is really about social, political and economic power.
Chomsky stated in an essay on Liberal Scholarship (1969) that "power in our time has more intelligence in its service". When I think of this statement I really think about the Trilateral Commission. Its purpose is covered up by utilitarian language but what they really are for (and they have openly stated this) is that they "seek to indoctrinate the young" and to get them to be obedient, conformist and thoughtless citizens. Now this is hard to do in the domain of science and technology being that innovation is really an imperative when it comes to these subjects but as long as one can be controlled politically, economically and socially the elite class really have nothing to worry about. Also most of the intelligentsia are working with these big media corporations as well.
Now to really address your claim, change is not going to come about through the intelligentsia.: For one most of them really cannot relate to the everyday struggles that many people around the world go through. Lets talk about one issue: WATER. In India the Narmanda river flooded due to the creation of the Bhakra Damn. Many indigenous peoples livelihood were destroyed. The intelligentsia decided that irrigation, electricity and drinking water for millions were more important than 2 million people impoverished. But from what I know about Indian Politics, its really corrupt and those who are corrupting it are those privileged enough to get an eduction. China hand the same issues with the 3 Gorged Dam.
intelligence is not the only requirement for change. What it really comes down to is a recognition of ones situation and taking direct action to change it. numbers=power
Kevin Goodwin
David Chitty
I live in a world where society holds people like Katy Price at the hight of culture and naming these people as the progressive thinkers of the day. The fact of the matter is that the intellectuals of my society are not people like teachers, scientists and artists... they are people who get their tits out and make a shed load of cash in the process.
This is only a very small example of one aspect but can you see people like that co-ordinating red cross supplies in Africa... No. Can you see these kinds of people being anything more than a media magnet to any issue... No.
Aspirational society is a bit to blame, its all about getting rich (or the end result) and no thought goes into why they do what they do.
I think as a society, we need to re-define what being intelligent is and what being successful means, then you will find things move in the right direction.
Mrityunjay Awasthy
Julie Albright
Mireille Chéry
When people said write the book of your life, and most of us write : I want to be rich, help others, be more caring etc., they do not realize they have to do the work to CHANGE what they are lacking to go about and to ACTUALLY : becoming rich, helping someone else etc...
When we asset all that, of course our intelligence become receptive to this new ways of doing things, and it actually come easier. When you have that consciousness of doing the right thing, your intelligence ACTUALLY know what the best things to do in any circumstances.
You don't need a PHD to be intelligent, you need to work and change to become the best human being you can be and want to be, by doing so, you automatically make others around you benefit from it, and your intelligence follow your heart, not your head.
Cheers
Kevin Goodwin
Mireille Chéry
Luckily, that ONE person can change the world, because if we were suppose to wait for a bunch of us, to DO THE ACTUAL WORK OF CHANGING THEMSELVES, we will be instinct for sure as a race!!
So, I say : I'm CHANGING, and going to the process of changing, facing myself and my fear, fight my bad thoughts, bind them etc., even if sometimes, I cried, I'm angry, mad, etc.... I WANT TO DO THE WORK TO BECOME THE BEST HUMAIN BEING THAT I CAN BE, because I want to CHANGE all of this human suffering, help others, end world poverty and I will succeed, before God calls me back and of course, by His grace, no one can stop me !!
Peace
Andres Aullet 10+
So I would imagine the first step would be to come to an agreement as to the short list of what those problems are. And since we cannot avoid the duality of being individuals but living in groups (and extending the paradigm a little more: living in small groups but interacting with ever larger groups), then the proposed list should include at least one local problem and one global problem.
But start by solving the one local problem and then move on on a bigger scale. I would argue that local problems are usually easier to attack than global ones, but being successful on the small scale serves as a learning towards bigger enterprises. Move up just one level, to solve a problem that is common to several groups around. Maybe by the time you solve medium to large problems, the agreed global issues may have changed. But by showing that increasingly complex problems can be solved by interacting with ever growing groups of people, the daunting task of attacking one single global problem will seem less daunting.
One problem at a time, and small scale before big scale.
What kind of problems do you consider major?
Kevin Goodwin
Andres Aullet 10+
Once your list is prioritized, what kind of local problem could you attack that would support the issue that ends up on top of your list? And as you work on the solution of your local problem, how could you escalate from your local problem solving up to a more global scale?
cheers
Olivier De La Conception
vic johnson
Gisela McKay 30+
Thomas Jones 100+
Ah, hubris, thy name is human!
I.e. Thinking ANY solution we can come up with of is somehow an improvement over evolution.
That nature adapts (and will continue to adapt) to our incursions is a testament to nature, not to our cognitive contributions, such as they are. Having said that, we are part of nature and the role we play WILL have (is having!) an impact. What nature does with it is beyond our ken. Trial and error. Live and learn.
vic johnson
Gisela McKay 30+
"Live and learn"? Looks like we're failing on the second front. Which may, or may not lead to failure on the first.
(The outcome will be determined long after I am gone.)
Thomas Jones 100+
Yes, and aside from a youthful ... ah ... indiscretion, I would likely be a member.
QUOTE: "Live and learn"? Looks like we're failing on the second front. Which may, or may not lead to failure on the first.
True enough.
QUOTE: (The outcome will be determined long after I am gone.)
Also true enough (unless you're on the coast when the icecap melts sometime in the next 48 minutes ... hey, it could happen.)
Kevin Goodwin
http://www.pandora.com/music/song/bill+burr/population+problem?shareImp=true
Gisela McKay 30+
:(
Kevin Goodwin
Gisela McKay 30+
But seriously, the best way to reduce breeding rates is to empower women to have fulfilling careers. A sizable number then either choose not to have children or delay it until too late.
Maxime Touzel
To adopt geniocracy instead of democracy.
Kevin Goodwin
Kevin Goodwin
Having been a graduate student, I agree with you about their destroying self-esteem. That being said, self-esteem, family-esteem, community-esteem, nation-esteem and human race-esteem have been eroding for the better part of a century due to forces far more insidious than graduate school.
Thomas Jones 100+
You know, the words we use are important. And the pictures we paint (with our words) affect our perception, and the perception of others.
While I am sure there are good examples of "esteem" being eroded, this is not what I see. What I see is, well, pretty much everything.
What you say has some validity but the opposite is also true, self-esteem, family-esteem, community-esteem, nation-esteem and human race-esteem are also growing.
How can this be?
Well, with Seven Billion people, we can see examples of everything.
In my observation, the general mood is positive.
We humans tend to have a narrow field of vision. So if we surround ourselves with people who have a particular worldview, we will tend to see the world the way they do.
What does "surround" mean?
For us, it means, maybe 250 people. But, in practice, it might mean ten.
Ten people, even 250 people, are not a particularly representational cross-section of our good planet earth.
So how about "the intelligentsia?" Are those of us who might fall into this category a better indicator of the "signs of the times?"
I don't think so.
Who could we look at to see what is "going on?"
The 5% of the world's population that live (more or less) between the 49th and 32nd parallels of North America? The 10% of the world's population that are "wealthy?" People on TED?
I don't think so.
How about the 90% who live simple, lives and are actually quite happy? Most people I have met are happy most of the time regardless of their environment. They don't have time for all of this "intelligentsia" stuff that is so dear to our hearts. The happiest people I have met are also the poorest people I have met. The poor in Africa, China, India and the other places I have been are often joyful in conditions that would crush me.
Phillip Beaver 10+
This would have two effects: purge the elected government of Republicans and Democrats and awaken citizens to the need to become We the People as defined in the Preamble to the US Constitution--awaken US citizens to the fact that the religious Declaration of Independence does not trump the secular US Constitution.
Plainly, neither the US Government nor God intends to govern the people: We the People must, as the Preamble states.
There are parallel issues in other republics.
Phil
Kevin Goodwin
Phillip Beaver 10+
Phil
Lynn Lee
Kevin Goodwin
Corporations won't do anything that doesn't make them a profit, now or in the future. Scientists, by and large, work in their tiny niche and don't share nearly enough information with other fields that could use it. Medical professionals, particularly in the US, spend way too much time and effort having to worry about themselves, their practice and constantly changing regulations to dedicate more time to helping patients. Childcare and early childhood education around the globe (even in highly-developed countries) is producing too many kids that have fallen behind the curve of opportunities.
There is a time for making people feel better about their lives and there is a time for making people's lives better. This is the latter, not the former. Feeling better has a shaky correlation with doing better and there is no causality there. Doing better has a greater influence on feeling better, but even then the correlation isn't much better than 60%. Feeling approaches are sinkholes because human nature is to feel better and then look at the next problem...back to square one. If we can go all-in to do better...stabilize national economies, better distribution of food, healthcare, education, environmentally-sustainable methods for subsistence living, and using the Internet for it's intended purpose (to connect us) as opposed to it's de-facto purpose (to entertain us)...we can have more reasons to feel better.
Gisela McKay 30+
Otherwise, you're going to have to work with the options provided, i.e. getting them physically on-board by getting them emotionally on-board.
Kevin Goodwin
Don't mistake me, I belive motivation is central to the question of how to get people involved, but I don't believe the tactic of erasing "the cumulative impact of social norms in previous experiences" is fast enough or effective enough. We've done that over and over again through history and the result is usually that we responded too slowly, unevenly and have a bunch of people mobilized for the right battle at the wrong time (think Maginot Line). That tactic results in pushing the problem forward, to when we've finally got it right...which presumes the things we're getting wrong haven't ripped our social foundations apart first.
Letitia Falk 10+
Graduate school produces people with Masters and PhD's (presumably a large portion of the intelligentsia). Speaking as a graduate student, these programs (at least in North America) are largely destructive to self esteem. Students learn to solve very small pieces of the puzzle at a time in isolation under the direction of a single supervisor.
The alternative to Academia is Industry (at least in the Sciences) where research is team-based and productive, but confined to the company for the protection of patents and therefore profits.
Even in Academia funding largely comes from individual grants (since Universities pay Professors and TA's next to nothing) and this makes academics reluctant to share and work together for fear of losing funding opportunities.
Basically I think the problem is that the need for limited money fosters competition instead of communication between the intelligentsia.
Shan Talton
Debra Smith 200+
We need more talks like this one by Bjorn Lomberg who argues that we need to prioritize world problems and approach them in a sensible order.
Edwin Nazarian
It is hard to say how we can re-install our attitude and start to think about solutions. But I think if we start to look at ourselves as a third person we might become aware of what we really want to do for us. And start to change ourselves which possible will change our attitude and beliefs and this might re-install our brain.
Imagine you are God (third person) and you watch us from up there, what we actually do on earth and to earth and to each other, wouldn't that make you laugh at us?
Larry Holmgren
Kevin Goodwin, you imply that the "intelligentsia" are the problem solvers. And the solution is to get the good ideas to those in power, those who set public policy.
When dealing with organizations with their own goals and agenda, your "solution" may conflict and thus be rejected. Read the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Azimov.
Andrew Horgan
Kevin Goodwin
I single-out the intelligent because we are the ones most likely to see through the clouds, smoke and lies that surround us to get to the heart of issues that are only being batted around in public forum. Politicians play tennis with the fortunes and livelihoods of the public and most can't see what is actually happening, or understand what this will mean in the long-term. If Obama "saved" Social Security in this term and another President "killed" it in a later term, would they blame Obama, W, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc. for not fixing the long term issues or just push the blame to the person left holding the bag. If the local and international economy fell on it's face, would that be seen as systemic or the failure of the one left at the end? The majority of the public cannot see a wide-enough scope now, or a far enough scope in the past to really assess what is happening, and what will happen. Someone with a wide scope of focus and a deeper level of analysis is going to have to do it for them.
Mongkut Singhanan
Gloria Felicia
We also take part and factors who indirectly support those problems with our daily actions.
As citizens of the world, we need to think globally but act simply. It all starts from small actions to increase awareness. Just do our role as good citizens and respect the governors and other parties in charge whether they do their roles or not, soon they will feel bad for themselves if they don't.
Comment deleted
Gisela McKay 30+
And I didn't say "hold them accountable for other people" I asked if you were suggesting holding them accountable for 'other people's screw ups'.
Unless you harbour some delusion that the intelligentsia are the same people running the banks and other institutions into the ground, it does seem to be what you are suggesting.
Kevin Goodwin
Gisela McKay 30+
Perhaps you should scroll down to the rest of the thread, it's split in two (the source of point 1).
(Ironically, NOW we're off-topic, thanks to you.)
Thomas Jones 100+
Oh! I quite like being off-topic.
What are we off topic about?
----------
Obviously, I will not be invited to any intelligentsia convocations any time soon! And I doubt I'll even be allowed to vote in the "New World." Although I am quite bright when compared to an average ten-year-old.
---------
Is cross-conversational humour allowed?
Kevin Goodwin
Craig Patterson 10+
Gisela McKay 30+
Besides, what happened to "the answer will come from the every man"? While maybe they may come up with the foundation of a solution but why are we absolving everyone else from their role in the implementation?
Andrea Morisette Grazzini 30+
A 'Hmmm" --
Below is the reading done at my church this morning. I don't usually copy religious texts into secular discussions, but the connections to your Q were striking, in my mind:
A Warning Against Hypocrisy
"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."
“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces (...)."
From the Christian gospel, according to Matthew.
Andrea
Linda Hesthag Ellwein 50+
How perfect for our times! So much wisdom in the red letters. Thanks!
Thomas Jones 100+
You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye. – Matthew 7:5
Phillip Beaver 10+
Even the thumbs up seem divisive to me, and I'm not relgious.
Please help me understand the contribution to humankind.
Phil
Andrea Morisette Grazzini 30+
No, quoting Christian literature that accuses Rabbis of doing what Priests do indicates humane insight.
Religiously contradicting others attempts at insight is divisive.
The quote's "contribution to humankind" is the same as one that quotes a non-religious text, like Khalil Ghibran or Betrand Russell.
Or this, by Christian critic Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"That which we call sin in others is experiment for us."
"Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins. We parry and fend the approach of our fellow-man by compliments, by gossip, by amusements, by affairs. We cover up our thought from him under a hundred folds."
With due respect, Phil:
Your perseverative and borderline-propoghandist disrespect for humans who possess and speak of their religious faith contradicts your defense of humankind.
Atheists haven't exactly had a shining record as humanitarians, either. Still we love 'em and humans of all stripes and mantels who sincerely try.
Especially when they exhibit insight. It is more humane.
Andrea
Phillip Beaver 10+
I am so out of touch I thought you would write something like, "Thanks Phil for the reminder; many of my freinds are Jewish. Some priests are hypocrites, too."
Phil
Andrea Morisette Grazzini 30+
The priest who read the Biblical passage earlier this week is a deeply respected humanitarian who is "notorious" for his love of Jews. He commissioned an oratorio commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Holocaust to honor Jewish people and to illuminate Christian complicity in the Holocaust.
Advisors of the performance included numerous Jewish and Catholic leaders and not a few non-religious.
It was premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra at Minneapolis' largest Catholic church, a Rome-connected Basilica. It went on to be performed globally, including as shown here by students from a US Catholic college at a German concentration camp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxHfgDq6uEg
All of us: Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Christians, Richard Dawkins, leaders, followers and all in between are capable of hypocrisy.
Which I'm reminded of when my ass is kicked for assuming I know whatever it is I'm sure of in the moment.
And, as I write this, I'm aware of risking right here.
It seems self-hypocrisy-awareness is often only understood in "hindsight insight."
Andrea
Phillip Beaver 10+
Thank you.
Phil
Thomas Jones 100+
Phillip Beaver 10+
When I wrote a letter withdrawing my name from the Baptist brotherhood (I sent it to the Louisiana Baptist Message, since there is no central authority) my pastor called me with his copy and said, "Phil, you cannot withdraw. For twenty years you have been the out-of-the-box thinker in this church."
I responded, "I know that. But I am beating my head against a brick wall, and it hurts. It is time for me to pursue something else."
Fortunately, reforming the Christian literature is no longer my concern. Suggesting that it needs either reform or protection in privacy is humankind's concern, and I am a member.
Phil
LARRY MALONE
Praveena Shrestha 10+
LUCK
gud country where no people will be discriminated
Jaime Lubin 10+