conscious learning and learning to be conscious (greg nixon) how aggressive global education based...
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Conscious Learningand
Learning to be Conscious(Greg Nixon)
How aggressive global education based in rational good will,
the needs of the planet,intolerance of intolerance, and
a transcultural ethic of conscious growthcould save the world.
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It is well known that we humans are the greatest threat to ourselves and other life on this lonely planet.
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Yet we seem to remain locked in a struggle to the death across political, religious, tribal, ethnic, family
& even individual lines.
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Efforts to create global stability through the political process have
been limited, at best.
Efforts to create more economic equity have failed dismally.
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Alternatively, the postmodern push for radical multiculturalism – a world in which both
difference & acceptance are embraced – is a consummation devoutly to be wished. It is
“radical” because it seems to accept all cultural values equally, no matter how contrary.
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It’s an enticing image, isn’t it? – the global community living in peaceful co-existence, each
country, religion, tribe, ethnicity, whatever allowed its own truths & values, not to mention its own way of educating those truths & values.
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Problems with postmodern multiculturalism:
1. does not oppose isolated absolutism
2. no shared ethics/values/vision
3. no global village – no spaceship Earth
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1. isolated absolutism – intolerance/fear of the other:
•negation of MC, yet allowed•absolutism is the commitment to the absolute truth of a group’s beliefs & codes – thus fervently opposing other
beliefs & codes.
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Possible to be freed from the totalitarian mindset that, based in fear & ignorance, believes unquestioningly in the ultimate
reality of what it has been taught?
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The howls of protest from the postmodern multiculturalists should begin right here. After all, isn’t a global education in some way totalizing or
absolutist? Doesn’t it threaten home-grown truths?
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In fact, many across the eastern & southern world view global education as
Americanization in disguise.
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Which brings us to the second tenet of radical MC: 2. no shared ethics/values/vision – no value is culture-free; therefore, all
morals & values are relative; therefore, global education must have bias; therefore, it is anti-MC.
For three good reasons:
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Kant’s categorical imperative is difficult to rationally dispute:
"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should
become a universal law.”(However, fanatics always wish their extreme values to
become universal.)
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Perhaps a new universal moral imperative is called for:
1. Does this action promote the betterment of all life on Earth?
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2. Living Multiculturalism itself demands certain universal values:
a) tolerance for and interest in other cultures & perspectives
b) universal human rights
c) intolerance for intolerance
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3. Educated people the world over often share a communion that, if not overcoming cultural differences, at least allows them to
be temporarily put aside.
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e.g., Robert Kegan’s “Evolving Self”:
Kegan divides developmental learning into five stages, beginning when subject & object are one. In each stage, what is presumed to be subjective is creatively objectified & understood, until one’s own self-concept is seen as yet another construction and one is freed from it. Conscious volition increases at each level.
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Kegan’s Creative Learning StagesStage 0: Incorporative stage
Subject: reflexes / Object: nothingStage 1: Impulsive stage
Subject: impulses, perceptions / Object: reflexesStage 2: Imperial stage
Subject: needs, interests, desires / Object: impulses perceptionsStage 3: Interpersonal stage
Subject: interpersonal relationships, mutuality / Object: needs, interests, desires
Stage 4: Institutional stageSubject: authorship, identity, ideology / Object: interpersonal relationships, mutuality
Stage 5: Inter-individual stageSubject: silent creative core self / Object: authorship, identity, ideology
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The idea is that through learning and creative endeavour, we may grow more consciously free
– transcending our particular cultural construction and the dream of self within it.
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Conscious learning and learning to be conscious of oneself as a
culturally constructed entity will threaten many of the world’s so-
called cultural authorities. How can we save the world with such values
& global education when fanaticism, corporate fascism, &
militarism seem to rule?
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My suggestion: The network of global educators must a find a way to infiltrate
intolerant regions and save the world peacefully from the bottom up.
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I suggest it is time to rise above the pretense that all cultures are ethically equal & cease
kissing the postmodern ass of absolute cultural difference.