Neil Postman - Personal Statement Example

Shuchi Singh 28 March 2006 Academia-research Ever since humans have evolved enough to understand the meaning of the word "knowledge", there has beenthis ceaseless desire for omniscience burning inside us .the clich' saying "little knowledge is a dangerous thing" does give us a point to ponder. Come to think of it, we do have very little of it. We are probably yet to evolve to a stage where we can actually utilize it to the best of our benefit and to the benefit of everything around us without turning it into a malicious weapon against ourselves. With whatever bit of grey cells we possess, we have managed to irreversibly destroy more than half the planet which mean s that for the present species of humans, omniscience would mean the catharsis- end of the world! As long as we were Neanderthals, planet earth was a cleaner, greener and a safer place to live in. The environment was void of hazards, disease, danger and pollution and the world was free from poverty, hunger, homelessness and crime. All these are our gifts to ourselves, which come in a package deal with the technological zenith that we have achieved. We perceive the present scenario as the best of all possible worlds because this the farthest we have come in terms of advancement. There is no dearth of anything in this rose colored world of ours. (The "children of the lesser God " might not think so but have we ever given them a care!). We are so busy wallowing in this shallow, materialistic and cushioned lifestyle of ours that it has never occurred to us that we have lost a very precious part of us along the ages- we have lost our humanity! We might have attained knowledge but we are still far far away from wisdom. That is the reason why our world has become a "either -mine-or- yours" place. What if we never knew that the earth was such a vast planet with so much land and so much water, would we have then cared to split it up into blocks we call "countries"' Had there been no "mine and yours" territories" would the word "WAR" even exist in or dictionaries' What is it about our knowledge that instills in us the greed to simply possess apiece of land even if that means killing all our fellow beings living on it' From here started our dividing spree and we have never stopped ever since. In our attempt to systematically organize the human existence we bred complexities that we have never been able to come out of. First we made countries, divided them into states, broke the states down to cities, towns and districts, built huge walls around ourselves thus physically isolating ourselves from the rest of the world. . In the process and without our awareness, the mental and spiritual component of our being got entangled deeper and deeper into the web of "worldly wisdom". When we were done with physical divisions and the pieces of earth could not get any smaller, we never let ourselves give up. Our knowledge never let us deter and inspired us to go on. Then, we came up with this concept of religions (I call them "mass gangs") and for obvious reasons we had gang wars although they were at a much smaller scale than the nuclear or biological wars of today. First we fought over" mine- and- yours" and then we fought over " mine-is-better -than-yours" and the vicious cycle went on. Our intelligence (or rather the lack of it) has blown the light of knowledge into an satanic fire which is eating into the heart of humankind and emptying the core of our existence. Spiritually we have turned into weak, in secure, greedy, selfish and conceited individuals. Our conditioned psyche does not allow us to think beyond possessing and climbing up the ladder of success irrespective of whose face we step on in the process. I don't cal this living life; I consider it just a spiritually worthless existence. Imagine, our present day generation needs special classes and seminars on "soul searching". Isn't that ridiculous' Does it mean that we are so disconnected with out souls that we need to search them all over again' We are not to be entirely blamed for our plight. Enrichment of the soul comes from wisdom and wisdom comes from imagination, introspection and active thinking. Now, when was the last time we felt the need to think actively' Computers, Internet and the mass media have placed the world and al that is beyond it at our feet. We have access to everything but God through the click of a button. Thanks to computers, one of the various gifts of technology, our grey cells are left to rot and decay. We are gravely confused between wisdom and information. We have a sea of information but not a drop of wisdom. Our sole focus is on upgrading whatever technology we have to make it efficient enough to give us with more and more information but the sad part is we don't have a clue as to what to do with it. I totally agree with Neil Postman when he beautifully puts it as follows-"information is now a commodity that can be bought or sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn as a garment to enhance one's status"1 Well, we have done all that and more but have we been able to realize the relevance of the information we have' Have we been able to filter the good from the bad' Have we been able to use it to solve our problems a swell as the problems faced by the world' Inspite of having Google search on our bedside table and all the data on every existing word, nothing has changed for the better. Global dynamics are heading towards a disaster, which we have very well anticipated, but are not doing enough to control it. Ala this technological blitz does not light up the darkness in our souls. Our dilemmas, insecurities, materialistic obsessions, miseries and greed remain firmly rooted where they are. The search engines give us limitless information on happiness and peace but fail to bridge the distance between the feeling and us. We have read in Buddha's teaching's that "detachment is the only path to nirvana" but does that kill the desire for the new video I-I-pod or the palmtop all our friends are carrying around' We know that the world is undergoing a population explosion, we have the yearly census and the works but does that stop humankind from multiplying like guinea pigs' We know that global peace is essential but does that hold us back while threatening a country with nuclear weapons and terrorism' We know that crime is a serious issue, we have read law books but does that bring down the incidence of rapes, robberies, murders and fraud' We know the exact number of children not going to school but do we make an effort to educate them' We know millions of people are dying of starvation but does our knowledge give them food, shelter and an income' We know that forests are vanishing at an alarming pace but why shouldn't we have a fancy log cabin with elaborate woodwork' We know environmental pollution can kill us but do we take the bicycle to work' We know we've wiped out hundreds of plants and animal species and thousands are endangered but why not buy that outrageously priced fur jacket. Won't the ladies be jealous' We know the divorce rates are sky rocketing but extramarital affairs and one-night stands are fun, aren't they' We know teenage drug abuse, sexual exploitation and suicides have pretty disturbing statistics but do we care to win the confidence of our children' We know "God is One" but will the communal riots ever cease' We know all the qualities that make up a good character, but dot we slink away from trouble and truth as if they were plague infected rats' What has all the technology and information given us-souls not worth a penny! Weren't we better off as Neanderthals' What have we really gained out of all these inventions and discoveries that we so proudly boast of' Every step in advancement has discreetly added an element of complexity in our lives and in the process of entangling, detangling and re-entangling ourselves in this mesh; we have lost touch with our own being and existence. Life for us has become a full time job (or rather an overtime one), which we are just rushing around to finish off. it is no longer an opportunity to realize our dreams, connect to ourselves and our environment. Everything is so virtual like a mirage .we know nothing about who we are, what we are and what we want to be. Everything in our systems is so preconditioned and passive that creativity has become a vestigial characteristic in most of us. While we are discussing the psycho- social and emotional impacts of advancing technology, lets not overlook the physical pitfalls of it. Our dependence on vacuum cleaners, washing machines, televisions, dish-washers, lawn mowers and so many other doer machines for all possible tasks clearly indicate that some years down the line our muscular system will become as vestigial as our creativity. We need machines to feed us, clean us, entertain us, put us to sleep and even brush our teeth! Evolution is a constant process. From apes to Neanderthals, from Neanderthals to Homo sapiens and from Homo sapiens to computer geeks. The last species is not yet described in biology textbooks but it is my own hypothesis. The computer geek will be characterized by a C-shaped spinal chord with the neck stuck outward from the plane of the rest of the body. The jaws will be characteristically hung open with proptosed eyeballs. Their faces will have a somewhat moronic feel to them. They will be essentially solitary creatures that will detest the presence of any member from their species within their proximity. The cerebrums will be lesser in volume as compared to the present homo sapiens due limited use of creative, emotional and imaginative functions .now that we are done with our "trip to the future" lets step out of the time machine back in to the scenario where genetic engineering is making big waves. It is an extra ordinary amazing development as far as curing rare, hitherto untreatable disease but looking at the side of it, does not it threaten or individuality and uniqueness if put into inappropriate use. Imagine the possibility of making multiple Xerox copy of one person. It could result so much crime, fraud, even social and political chaos. The education system right from preschool has become so techno savvy. Toddlers today have heard, seen and learnt stuff that their little minds are incapable of comprehending. Unregulated and unmonitored exposure to the media has created a rift between innocence and childhood; two words that once upon a time were used as synonyms. It is a child's inherent nature to explore his/her surroundings and question the existence of various elements of nature provided there are no video games of low intellectual content to catch their attention. "Technology giveth and technology taketh away and not always in equal measure"2. Not every thing about the present day global dynamics is bad and humans are anything but incapable. We define the word "possible". After all we have managed to drill a hole in the earth's atmosphere, raised global temperatures by several degrees and consequently drowned shorelines, pushed the mightiest of species like the blue whale, tiger and polar bear into the endangered bracket and doubling our own population ( which is honestly the last thing this planet needs!) 'Apart from all the economical complexities in societies and nations we have record-breaking crime statistics. Along with vaccines, surgical methods and advancements in medical science we have also fuelled diseases that were rare or never existed before like childhood obesity, cancer, AIDS and psychiatric illness. We are a diseased population in some way or the other. We have even cleared forests. Looking at our list of achievements, there is no doubt that there is nothing humans cannot do. Then why can't we focus our energies, intellect and resources in undoing all the damage we have done to our environment and fellow living beings' Why can't we filter out the positivism of all that we have and all that we know and counteracting all the negativity' Why cant each one of us be a visionary and take an initiative to transform ourselves into better beings and worthy citizens of the planet. I thus end my discussion by quoting Tom Athanasiou-" our tragedy lies in the richness of the available alternatives, and in the fact that so few of them are ever seriously explored. It lies in the rigidity of the war machines, the inflexibilities of industrial traditions, the legacies of colonialism, the cynicism born of long disappointment, the habits of power. No wonder, given this, that our age seems not merely tragic, but tragic in the classical sense, that despite all possibility, we seem trapped in that remorseless 'working of things' that the Greeks saw as the core of tragedy"3 REFERENCES CITED: Neil Postman: "Informing ourselves to death " ; "The Disappearance of Childhood" ;"The End of Education"; "Technopoly". Tom Athanasiou, Divided Planet: The Ecology Of Rich and Poor, 1996 and Allen Hammond, Which World' Scenarios for the 21st century, Global Destinies, Regional Choices, 1998 "In the Absence of the Sacred" by Jerry Mander. Read More