Most errors stem from unconscious habits of the mind—ways of thinking picked up in work, education, family and public bar. Teachers and lecturers are not exempt. Their lives largely consist in imparting information to the ignorant, then correcting its assimilation through marking essays and test papers. As their students readily comply, driven by ambition, cupidity or fear of ambitious parents, the teacher concludes that learning has occurred, and approves his own methods accordingly.
But the world outside the groves of academé is a very different place. Violent, short term and full of festering resentments such as class, race and the bitter memories of forced attendance at the knees of some pedagogue for whom they entertained neither liking nor respect. Here decisions are based on quick instinct, not measured reflection. Judgements depend upon on habit, emotion, and identity, not fact and logic. So when the educated set out blithely to explain complex issues such as climate change, interethnic tensions, or pandemics they expect the same compliance, the same reverence, as they received in school. Forgetting that most minds have long since been locked against reason, and barred to the entry of all but the smallest facts. Why else is it so hard to convince people to give up smoking, gambling, or drinking? A second’s reason revealed the harm: and the educated repeated the admonitions for decades, until partial success was achieved. Now we begin to understand the terrible fate of Cassandra, doomed to be forever right, and forever unheard.
Unless the educated-among whom we include the followers of this humble blog, gentle readers- can learn to adjust this fatal psychic flaw, the world will continue to slide towards climate catastrophe, pandemic disaster, and war. Oh, we almost forgot-your former pupils now have nuclear weapons
#climate change #global warming #pandemic #antibiotic resistance #tribalism
Learning, Science and Society 