Will People Have the Capability to Solve Their Problems in the 21st Century - Literature review Example

Will People Have the Capability to Solve Their Problems in the 21st Century? It is instinctive for human beings to solve theoretical and practical problems in order to survive. As centuries passed, however, we have created things and situations that brought about problems subsequently. This reality though cannot easily be seen by less critical minds, which under the current social set-up, unfortunately, composes the majority of the population. This can be attributed to the kind of education being provided to children in the schools. Aside from this, the incapability to analyze social problems beyond what is taught by the schools is further aggravated by the fact that culture itself has become a powerful tool in encouraging conformity, submission, and passivity instead of attitudes that would push us to be critical about their situations. John Taylor Gatto, in his article “Against School,” provides an accurate description of the country’s public school system. It describes how the school system actually renders the students less capable of analyzing social and personal problems beyond the perspectives of the corporate world. Michael Kimmel, on the other hand, discusses in “Bros before Hos: The Guy Code” how society itself teaches the young to conform to norms. Although Kimmel’s points focus on the formation of a sexist concept on masculinity, his explanation exposes the means in which concepts are embedded in the young and carried by them even until adulthood. With the kind of education and upbringing that children and the youth is experiencing, it may indeed by difficult for people of the 21st century to solve the social and even personal problems that they will encounter. Nevertheless, this does not mean that we will not be able to find solutions. We can but we still have to liberate ourselves first from defeatist and passive mindsets. This is the idea elucidated by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan in their collaboration entitled “As the World Burns: 50 Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial.” Jensen and McMillan rationalize that it would be impossible for us to see solutions to their problems unless we detach ourselves first from the manufactured wants and just stick to our basic needs. After all, most of the problems that the world is burdened with today are prompted by insatiable human greed. The concepts that the child develops from an early age and onwards influence his or her own attitude and perspectives. This is the reason why education and upbringing by the child’s family or by other influential factors besides school are of extreme importance in the development of an individual. Unfortunately, it is the current school system also that does not truly prepare a child into a mature, analytical, and independent adult. Instead, it merely provides the individual knowledge and skills necessary for entering the employment world in the future. Gatto explains that the educational system is “deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens - all in order to render the populace ‘manageable.’” (Against School) Gatto’s statement means that schools have become mills where students are processed to become submissive members of society instead of being a responsible and critical mass of potential leaders. Eventually, such school system merely creates individuals who can be exploited while working for the corporations and who will just agree to whatever decision the government will make. However, it is not just the school system that is guilty of forming docile and non-critical individuals. In fact, culture, of which education is just a part, is a powerful tool for molding the mindsets of individuals ever since the day they were born. One may not go to school and undergo the process of being prepared for joining an obedient workforce but he or she can still become an automaton because of how families, relatives, neighbors, religions, and even popular cultural mediums can stuff his or her mind with the same concepts. Kimmel explains that the currently dominant macho concept of masculinity, for example, is channeled through male relations. He points out that when young men are asked where they got such sexist ideas, “the response was consistent: guys hear the voices of the men in their lives - fathers, coaches, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, priests - to inform their ideas of masculinity." (Bros before Hos 611) A guy does not need to ask why he must conform, he just has to or else he will suffer rebuke from other men. The concept of conformity, therefore, is not just developed in the schools but also by the very environment an individual is in. Through culture and education, we are trained to become submissive and to further ensure that we fear going against such tide, conformism is also instilled in us. With dominant cultural forces influencing the way of thinking that humans develop, even searching for solutions towards problems confronting them has seemed impossible. The reason for this is that concepts of docility and apathy have been embedded deeply in our mindsets that we can no longer be critical about our situations. Even if we do, the apparent absence of genuine but easy solutions has just pushed us into a state of self-denial. Since solving a problem can be very difficult and tedious, the tendency is to deny its existence instead. This is what one of the characters in Jensen and McMillan’s selection meant when she said: “and then Id be really sad again because every part of me wants for it all to be really easy... the problem really is the whole system but I wouldnt wand to believe that and Id rather believe that all our problems can be solved...” (As the World Burns 729) Jensen and McMillan describe the tendency of humans to be scared of solutions that are considered radical and would entail great sacrifices. This tendency leads humans to instead continue believing on solutions that may be workable but not effective or they would rather think that there are no solutions at all. For those who are truly interested in solutions despite the costs, such attitudes could be considered defeatist. However, for those tread along the path of passivity and docility, they just want to be happy and free from the thoughts of troubles. Gatto, in his article, states that “we have become a nation of children, happy to surrender our judgments and our wills to political exhortations and commercial blandishments that would insult actual adults." (Against School) He admits that the mindset of present day Americans is actually defeatist in nature. Since we are not intellectually-capable to analyze and criticize society, we have generally accepted the fact that we are under the control of the state and big business. Worse, we would rather be trapped in the state of self-denial than go against the system in which we were bred. Such situation may indeed lead to a conclusion that humans in the 21st century no longer have the capability of solving their problems. The truth, however, is that humans still have the necessary abilities to solve the most urgent problems that confront them. What must first be accepted though is the fact that such problems are borne out of attitudes and mindsets that have enslaved humans for a long period of time. These attitudes and perspectives are not natural but have been developed or fabricated in order to satisfy the wants of a powerful few. Racism, sexism, consumerism, dependency to carbon fuel energy, environmental destruction, labor exploitation, and poverty are all problems that may have hounded us for years but these were not around during the early years of civilization. Since these are unnatural, then they can definitely be corrected or solved. Even the sexism in the Guy Code described by Kimmel is not based on natural or scientific truths. He writes the dominant macho concept of masculinity is not based on physical make-up of the male specie but is “coerced and policed relentlessly by other guys … if it were biological, it would be as natural as breathing or blinking.” (Bros before Hos 614-615) Kimmel insists that if the Guy Code is natural then it should not have rendered male individuals the feeling of being not free and continually pressured into conforming. This realization must, however, be achieved first before the males would initiate steps towards liberating themselves from macho concepts. This goes the same for the issue of environmental degradation. For a long period of time, humans are made to believe that they are the masters of the planet and that they can do whatever they want with its resources. This is a concept instilled through education and culture that covers all but it actually benefits only the few. Nevertheless, most human beings have accepted such idea as the truth. Jensen and McMillan, however, push an opposing view when one of the characters in their cartoon raises the argument that humans lived in an “irrational way for a tiny fragment of time” only and that they lived in “balance with all living things for hundreds of thousands of years.” (As the World Burns 740) Jensen and McMillan argue that despite the length of time that humans have held on to habits, attitudes, and mindsets that have just resulted into their own disadvantages, steps towards solutions can still be made. The solution, however, could not be found in the current set-up but rather on the past when today’s problems were still non-existent. To move forward and leave the rut of which the human race is in, it is necessary to look backward to better times. Solutions are attainable because the problems are not inherent to humans and to society. Despite the forces in society that bind humans to docile, passive, and non-critical mindset, it is still possible for us to discover solutions for problems in the 21st century and struggle for their realization by first raising the consciousness of everyone beyond what was fed to us by dominant cultural institutions. This may be a difficult task, considering that we could be running against a formidable wall of long-held beliefs, traditions, and customs but it must be done in order to solve the problems besetting us. The current situation of the educational system as described by Gatto, the social norms being propagated according to Kimmel’s discussion on the Guy Code, and the effects of docile, self-denying, and non-critical mindset to the environment as pointed out by Jensen and McMillan can all be solved by first thinking beyond the bounds dictated on us. We must free our minds first before genuine and radical solutions are identified. We must liberate ourselves from the impositions of dominant structures in society before steps can be taken for such solutions to be realized. Works Cited Gatto, John Taylor. “Against Schools.” Retrieved 29 October, 2010. . Jensen, Derrick and Stephanie McMillan. “From As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial.” Ah Wilderness! Kimmel, Michael. “Bros before Hos: The Guy Code.” Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Eds. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Boston, MA: Bedford, 2010. Read More