The Challenge of Change

Modern technology, educating ourselves and others

In the universe, everything undergoes constant change. Nor can human beings be left out of this change process: we need to keep pace with this process of alteration. But without an understanding of what that ‘change’ means and involves, is it possible to establish the reality of where we are now?

Through families, school, and society, we seek to pass on to succeeding generations both traditional values and universal ones, and part of that passing on includes a recognition that what we see as traditional values may not be fully consistent with universal ones. But if the function of education is to enable people as individuals to operate at their fullest potential, with the tools and the opportunities to use their wits, skill, and passions to the fullest, that challenge has to be addressed, even as we see books being removed from libraries because a few people, sometimes as few as one, seek to control and restrict access not just to opinions and views with which they disagree, but even to demonstrable history.

Education in its fullest sense, of being taught, of reading and observing, of learning by example and experience, provides an opportunity over a lifetime to build and strengthen our mental powers, our awareness of ‘otherness’, our ability to understand that others live lives according to different rules, values, and traditions, whether we observe or draw any positives from those rules, values and traditions or not.

Modern technology, especially the rise of the Internet and of social media, offers many opportunities to exchange knowledge, understanding and build awareness. It can equally foment conflict, spread bias and untruths. That does not make social media bad in itself, but the risks associated with a largely unfettered flow of information and misinformation forces us to recognise that here is one kind of change for which we are, individually and collectively, largely unprepared. It also forces us to recognise that many individuals using social media have no filter, no means of discerning between the true, the misleading and the downright false.

The risks come not from the fact of mass communication of this kind, but from its transmission and re-transmission:

Ignorance: repeating or passing on information about which you know nothing or too little, but have not checked or confirmed from other sources, simply because it is funny, scandalous, or provoking.

Unconsciousness: a lack of awareness about the impact that biased or false information might have on others, especially where what is being said can or will impact on individuals or social groups.

Insensitivity: A lack of pre-emptive empathy for those who would or might be negatively affected.

An inability or unwillingness to take responsibility for one’s actions (and sometimes, even to apologise where one has made a mistake).

There is much that is positive about the ability to reach others through the Internet: speed in the passing of important information; the ability to provide education and share knowledge, even to provide advice on or supervise medical treatment remotely; to overcome repressive barriers. There is much that we experience as negative, whether in the form of spam emails or phone calls, false or misleading information.

The answer cannot be a blanket ban: the most important thing must be to use this point of change to benefit people, society, and nations, to spread positive values, ideals and principles. 

After two nuclear weapons exploded over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, the physicist Alfred Einstein recognised what he and his visions had brought about; after the Second World War he made a tearful apology to visiting Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa, and in the 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto warned the world about the dangers of nuclear war and urged nations ‘to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute’. Clearly, his vision has not yet been achieved.

So how do we move forward from where we are?

We begin with ourselves, with our own actions, recognising the positive and negative factors in our lives and elements of our character. We seek to transmit positive values, ideals, and knowledge to others with whom we come into contact.

We must also seek to confront our own lack of knowledge, but also to act to ensure that others do not force their own lack of knowledge or awareness on others. The first is far easier than the second, since the second not only involves an outgoing engagement with others but needs to avoid accusing those with whom we engage of ‘ignorance’ (here treated as an active unwillingness to learn more), which is more likely to lead to a closing of doors.

In this way, we can all act as educators, of ourselves and of others, but always acting with kindness and compassion, as well as being grateful for any opportunities to bring about positive change, as part of that universal process of change.

Nishant R

Nishant R is constantly in pursuit of enhancing his spiritual journey and spreading 'Light and Love'.