Should our education focus on survival, first of all? Even many of the more evolved animals provide some form of education to their offspring to help them survive. Today it seems we´ve lost the survival aspect of education, because today´s education was designed by people who didn´t see the need to learn survival skills.
In our civilization, formal education was designed to empower students to enter a higher level of social life and culture. Any survival issue that would come up – for instance in situations of war or serious illness – would be considered something you couldn´t really do anything about anyway, besides using your instincts and common sense. Or else it had to be left to experts specially trained for the purpose – or to God. So, nothing to do with normal education.
However, times have changed, and in today´s world we are facing new survival threats, not only as individuals but as a species, or even as part of life on planet Earth. And all this must be addressed by any education worth its name.
So, does that mean that we are back to square one, or to where it all began in the caves or the jungle?
No, obviously not. Today´s challenges are VERY different because they no longer principally consist in fighting for personal survival against visible individual enemies. Instead our present challenges to survival are mostly invisible and hard to identify, threatening us surreptitiously as a collective, and indeed as a species.
All this is part of entering the Aquarian age and having to live up to the Aquarian paradigm, which I also call the Holistic Paradigm. Due to recent technological advances, among them the ability to venture into space, we are being forced to see and understand ourselves and our world as a whole, as one dynamic system.
Today´s survival threats are no longer limited to those from human rivals or beasts of prey in the jungle, or the whims of nature, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. Today we face survival threats not only from chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, but also from nuclear power plants, from ecological disasters, from environmental pollution, from misfiring genetic engineering, from bad medical science, and on and on.
Today it´s no longer a matter of watching out for sounds or signs of approaching enemies or beasts, or learning how to make ourselves invisible or find a safe place to hide.
Today’s challenges are far more complex and demanding, such as becoming aware of the invisible threats of radiation, of pollution, of poisonous chemicals, drugs or even foods or drinks in our supermarkets and restaurants, of threats to our freedom, to our human rights and to our right to free exchange of information and free expression of our thoughts and life-style preferences.
We cannot trust our authorities to warn us, or even to tell us the truth. Even if it could be determined what the Truth is. Besides, there are NO sacred truths that should not be challenged and questioned. In my opinion the very core of good education is to implant the spirit of free investigation, of questioning all information, all assumptions, all “old truths” and especially all articles of faith.
If we meet with the attitude that it is dangerous to challenge or question a “truth” or a dogma – regardless of what dangers are involved – and especially if we are threatened when we do challenge it, then all the alarm bells should start ringing, and it should be obvious to all and everyone with a clear mind that something fishy is going on. Forcing people to do or think something by threats is Mafia procedure.
And this brings me to the issue of fear. Fear has been the most common means of controlling any population and any opposition throughout history.
It´s my belief that fear is deeply rooted in ignorance. If we had full and unlimited knowledge of everything, then there would be no need, nor indeed any possibility of fear. Because then we would always know how to either avoid any situation that could cause fear, or we would know how to solve any problem that might cause fear in us.
So if ignorance is the root of fear, then how do we eliminate it? – Elementary, my dear Watson: By eliminating ignorance, right? And how do we eliminate ignorance? By education. As simple as that.
My understanding is that most if not all crimes are motivated by some form of fear, namely fear of poverty, of neglect, of deprivation, of rejection, etc. Fear can be active in the sense that we are afraid of a material threat. But it can also be passive in the sense that we are afraid of being without something, of not having enough, of not being loved, respected, considered, or of not being in control.
In most cases fear also is the cause of violence: Strike first for fear of otherwise being attacked. Attack to rob, for fear of deprivation or poverty. Beat somebody up for fear of losing power over that person, or for fear that he or she might dare leave us or go against us. So in this last case, by using violence we instal fear in the other person as a means of maintaining control, but this is in turn caused by our own fear of losing control. And, as I think we can all agree, violence feeds more violence, and generates a vicious circle or spiral of new and increased violence. As both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King pointed out, an eye for an eye ends with the whole world becoming blind.
Sometimes – due to human psychological factors – one fear may stand against another, and certain fears may be stronger than others, e.g. the fear of deprivation may in some people be stronger than the fear of being caught and jailed, and it therefore leads to robbery. Then, the fear of being caught and jailed may cause a thief to kill the police officer who caught him robbing.
Summarizing this line of thought we find that most ills of our society can be reduced to some form of fear, which is caused by ignorance in a wide sense, meaning lack of knowledge or insights, which in turn could be remedied by education.
Once we realize this simple truth, what can we do about it? What about giving education far higher priority in government spending? What about taking money from the military and giving it to education?
Unfortunately, we can spend every cent or penny we have on schools and teachers without achieving anything, unless we also reform the content and direction of our education in very profound ways. If it is to become an effective tool in our fight against ignorance, fear and violence, we have to re-invent education to fit our new goal. It must resonate powerfully with the emerging Aquarian paradigm. It must become holistic, comprehensive and unifying, and it must address the overall global dynamics not only of ecology and economics, but also of cultural and religious values and of psycho-emotional factors inherent in the human species. Yes, it´s a tall order indeed. And a worthy challenge for the new Aquarian Paradigm.
So, if the answer to our problems is more and better education, why are our governments not doing more to achieve this? – The simplest and most obvious answer would be: ignorance on the part of those responsible. They just don´t understand the importance of education, and how it influences every single aspect of society far, far into the future.
However, I am afraid there may be a much more sinister reason: Those in power have throughout history intentionally used fear to control and manipulate the population. So they may not want us to overcome our fears. And we must remember that their power – and the benefits they derive from it – would be in danger the day the population is educated and astute enough to see through the haze of their self-serving politicizing and demand accountability for their management. The American wars on cancer, on drugs, on poverty, on terror, on AIDS, etc. are all typical examples of such political-financial power plays, using fear to promote truculent hidden agendas, and to divert people´s attention from the realities behind them.
Did I stress the survival aspect of education too much? Well, of course education must be about more than survival. Much more. But without survival there is neither any need, nor any use for higher education to help us improve living conditions and develop the finer, cultural and spiritual qualities of life. So maybe it´s a good idea to start with survival, don´t you think?
To me there can be no doubt that the ultimate goal of Humanity is spiritual evolution towards conscious participation in the ongoing Creation. So that should therefore also be the ultimate goal of our education.
However, for now let´s be more practical and settle for a school that teaches survival skills for the modern world, for the global village, for the IT society, and I am now using the word survival skills in a different and much wider sense than before: I mean the ability to earn one´s life and organize a physically satisfying and spiritually fulfilling existence, no matter what.
We may be tempted to focus on the ability of the Aquarian Paradigm to equip us with previously unimagined technical resources and support systems that enable us to raise our living standards and live both faster and more comfortably. But the Aquarian paradigm also demands something more, that is new to most of us.
What I am talking about is the need to expand our mental horizons beyond the material boundaries of the old paradigm. The need to rise to a higher level of holistic, cross-scientific awareness, and to learn to honor the invisible reality of energy and information from where all visible reality is created. That´s the great challenge of education for the Aquarian Age. If we master that challenge, then we can look forward to a sustainable yet prosperous, peaceful and spiritually fulfilling future.
Of course we can!
Dr. Jens
