Education should create people who work for good of others rather than exploit and dominate others
This post is based on my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2481667832049779 dated 6th May 2019, and comment exchanges there.
Education can lead to power. If the educated misuse and abuse that power, they can turn out to be great villains who harm many people. If the educated use their power wisely for the good of people, they can turn out to be great benefactors of many people.
The early 21st century has shown us that many educated people are mainly concerned about amassing wealth and power for themselves and lording it (dominating) over the less fortunate. This has led to a huge amount of suspicion and distrust of educated people (elites) by the masses in many countries of the world including India.
That needs to change to ensure social harmony and cohesiveness.
[Shared Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/tsvenu.gopal.3/posts/2176635775776575 had a pic with a quote.
I checked the Internet which seems to confirm the quote.
“I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness: gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education.
My request is:
Help your children become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths or educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.”
– An excerpt of a letter written by a Holocaust survivor to educators, published in “Teacher and Child” by Dr. Haim Ginott, child psychologist and author
Source: https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/about-us/educational-philosophy/ ]
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In response to a comment, I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- - I don't know enough about the vaccination pros & cons debate to comment. But I would argue that challenges against vaccination need to be made within the scientific and political spaces. I have included political space as it is the politicians who wield the power to strike down bad laws related to vaccination and enact good laws related to vaccination.
Big pharma, big banks ... I think here the challenge is to hold them to account. I think that's the way forward. Yes, they may be very powerful and be able to avoid oversight for some time, but eventually, if they continue to damage the world, they will be held to account, and forced to change their ways. That's my optimistic take.
I think your views are on the pessimistic side. But then can you imagine how the world would have been before and during World War II? Six million Jews and others were killed on an industrial scale genocide/slaughter. 70 to 85 million people are said to have perished during World War II, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties.
I think our early 21st century times are far, far better than the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Our challenges in terms of vaccination, big pharma, big banks etc. do not seem to be anywhere close to the challenges faced by non-German European countries who came under Nazi Hitler occupation and attacks, and Asian countries who came under imperial Japan occupation and attacks.
If the world could come out of that terrible World War II, I am sure we can overcome vaccination, big pharma, big banks etc. problems.
Climate change though seems to be a different order of magnitude problem with some apocalyptic predictions being made by scientists. I think climate change seems to be one of the most dangerous challenges faced by humanity today. Many top scientists seem to be very pessimistic on this matter.
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In response to a comment, I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited):
Noted your response --name-snipped--. But I prefer to have hope. To lose hope is not good. I would prefer to do my bit in the hope that good will overcome bad.
----
Education can lead to power. If the educated misuse and abuse that power, they can turn out to be great villains who harm many people. If the educated use their power wisely for the good of people, they can turn out to be great benefactors of many people.
The early 21st century has shown us that many educated people are mainly concerned about amassing wealth and power for themselves and lording it (dominating) over the less fortunate. This has led to a huge amount of suspicion and distrust of educated people (elites) by the masses in many countries of the world including India.
That needs to change to ensure social harmony and cohesiveness.
[Shared Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/tsvenu.gopal.3/posts/2176635775776575 had a pic with a quote.
I checked the Internet which seems to confirm the quote.
“I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness: gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education.
My request is:
Help your children become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths or educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.”
– An excerpt of a letter written by a Holocaust survivor to educators, published in “Teacher and Child” by Dr. Haim Ginott, child psychologist and author
Source: https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/about-us/educational-philosophy/ ]
-----
In response to a comment, I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- - I don't know enough about the vaccination pros & cons debate to comment. But I would argue that challenges against vaccination need to be made within the scientific and political spaces. I have included political space as it is the politicians who wield the power to strike down bad laws related to vaccination and enact good laws related to vaccination.
Big pharma, big banks ... I think here the challenge is to hold them to account. I think that's the way forward. Yes, they may be very powerful and be able to avoid oversight for some time, but eventually, if they continue to damage the world, they will be held to account, and forced to change their ways. That's my optimistic take.
I think your views are on the pessimistic side. But then can you imagine how the world would have been before and during World War II? Six million Jews and others were killed on an industrial scale genocide/slaughter. 70 to 85 million people are said to have perished during World War II, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties.
I think our early 21st century times are far, far better than the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Our challenges in terms of vaccination, big pharma, big banks etc. do not seem to be anywhere close to the challenges faced by non-German European countries who came under Nazi Hitler occupation and attacks, and Asian countries who came under imperial Japan occupation and attacks.
If the world could come out of that terrible World War II, I am sure we can overcome vaccination, big pharma, big banks etc. problems.
Climate change though seems to be a different order of magnitude problem with some apocalyptic predictions being made by scientists. I think climate change seems to be one of the most dangerous challenges faced by humanity today. Many top scientists seem to be very pessimistic on this matter.
----
In response to a comment, I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited):
Noted your response --name-snipped--. But I prefer to have hope. To lose hope is not good. I would prefer to do my bit in the hope that good will overcome bad.
----
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