Late Benazir Bhutto once referred to one of her political rivals as an “Educated Illiterate” meaning perhaps that he lacked prudence, righteousness or other attributes that define a literate person despite having high academic credentials to honk about. This oxymoron “educated illiterate” may not be specific to that particular politician only, as in hindsight, it holds probably true for a larger section of our so-called educated class as well, who have been to the best of schools, colleges or universities of the world and as yet have to their record, indulged in most despicable and debased acts of moral violation and chicanery against their fellow human beings. The intent here is not to start some kind of riot amongst people by discrediting them for being learned or scholastic. The sole purpose is to highlight a disconnect between education and goodness.
The history of human civilisation — past and present is replete with the instances of barbaric violence committed against fellow humans during multi conflicts and wars fought on this earth that trigger in us those appalling and grisly stories of concentration camps at Auschwitz or the hideous tales of genocide as these remain a big blot on human civilisation. The very thought of them makes us shudder at the savagery and barbarianism unleashed by men on other men, women, and children.
The present age described as the information or internet age has undoubtedly made our lives easier, faster and better, however, it has also brought along with it new forms of commission of grave and heinous crime. The decades of the twenty-first century are tinted with the wanton ‘acts of greedy men and women who reward cruelty’ and delight in human suffering.
The question arises, are these men and women devoid of conscience? Has the moral fabric of human beings been dismembered? What is more horrifying and shocking to notice is that the perpetrators of all these acts of violence and crime against humanity have been executed by “learned engineers who built Gas chambers; educated physicians who poisoned Children…….” It proves that there is no connection between human development and education.
There is another tribe of educated illiterates who, we may have encountered in our life at some point of time and suffered their unconscious incompetence, be at our workplace/ personal or in social space. Their virulent/pernicious behaviour makes them the rightful owner of the title ‘educated illiterate’. The first are individuals who are the product of some high-end expensive English schools or colleges, whose starched and stiff etiquette towards others is deleterious. They equate their excellent communication skills (that is the only skill they seem to have learnt from their alma mater) with the lofty concepts of modernity, liberalism or secularism and they believe they are the sole custodian of these cherished ideals. Any contrarian view is ridiculed or rejected with contempt and condescension. Because of their unrepentant elitism and constricted vision, they remain all their life reality denier when faced with some threatening information.
There is another brand of individuals who are overly educated people who have an opinion on anything and everything be it politics, paintings, art, poetry, literature, etc. and thus suffer from the delusion that ‘I-know-it-all’. These intellectual snobs are generally self-acclaimed ‘elevated souls’, who position themselves on ‘hathi howdah’, and consequently find it difficult to climb down the aisle to interact /communicate with the common man. They come across as intolerant, acerbic, and indelicate if their scholarship is challenged. Unfortunately, words like humility and modesty are alien to them. Besides, another problem with these “book-trained intellectual elites” is that they never realise that life goes beyond books. Their cognitive biases make them see the world through the prism of these pedantic men and women, who may have lost their relevance in the new reality. Thus, these intellectual snobs who suffer from the frog-in-the-well syndrome, come across as unreal and fake — disconnected from reality. They are like that stagnant water that starts stinking after a while.
Other sets of people include those men and women who have reached the top rung of the achievement ladder in their career and they find it hard to digest the success and retain the equipoise. They take themselves very seriously as if they have already ‘arrived’ in life and secretly wish people around them to be in awe of them. They assume that they have now the power to dictate and control people by dint of their position, hence conformity from their people is expected and appreciated. They live in those proverbial Ivory Towers giving access to only a few and the chosen ones to their sanctum sanctorum. They focus majorly on instrumental goals linked to success, do not invest in their personal or professional relationships that leaves lonely and isolate at the top.
Some people are victims of their wrong parenting or adverse environment that feeds them with distorted truths about life or people and carry this parental baggage all through their life. They process their world through past experiences, consequently are fixated to displace the pictures held inside their mind despite having been exposed to different conducive, favourable environments. Their self-defeating behaviour cannot accept that change is constant. They are not perhaps bold enough to endure the identity crisis that accompanies new behaviour. They cause many people discomfort and dissatisfaction.
The other class of people with whom we are generally familiar with are the wealthy men and women of this world who suffer from what is called ‘rich-ass-hole syndrome’, hence do not like to mingle with hoi polloi of the world because of wealth differential. They like to place themselves higher on a self-assessed “class ladder because they fancy that they are the modern-day emperors of the world, thereby, feel entitled to lord over others. They are constantly in the race to acquire more and more wealth to showcase their superiority and money power over others. They in their ignorance equate rapaciousness to happiness, tranquillity or peace of mind. These ignorant people do not realise that real happiness lies in transcending or controlling one’s greed or avarice and not in being overly consumerist. They do not understand it is the relationships that give real meaning, joy and optimism to life.
One common pattern found among these educated illiterates is that they all seem to be trapped in some kind of ghetto thinking, stinking of some ego biases, belief biases, cognitive biases, etc, bringing them to the same gutter level of thinking as any of those illiterates who could not buy education for oneself. Prized degrees or high grades do not necessarily make decent men/women without humanity in their hearts.
The larger question arises has our formal academic systems of education both at lower and higher levels, failed us in producing human beings who are as Shakespeare puts it “too full o’ the milk of human kindness”. Have we failed to invent an education system that is free from repression and biases? These concerns were raised and deliberated in the past and also in the present by many renowned social scientists, educationists and other learned men. But somehow, their voices get lost in the din of those mercenaries with tunnel vision who are committed to producing human beings as money-spinning machines who could produce and amass wealth, thereby, ignoring human development as the critical function of education. Anton Chekhov, rightly says that we remain savages just like the majority of people despite having been very well educated.
Education is intrinsically conceived to be a liberating force that should set man free from all that is iniquitous, evil or wicked in the world and fill their hearts with compassion, tolerance and respect for their fellow human beings. It should, as Rousseau said, “make him a reasoning man, and we expect to train a young child by making him reason!…If children understood how to reason they would not need to be educated.”
The first-course correction for our overzealous and myopic educationists and policymakers would be to grant equal weightage to the dual role of education — striking a balance between education as an instrument with particular financial yields in the labour market and the intrinsic value of education in providing a context for human development. Consequently, the focus has to shift from emphasising getting high grades, better jobs, a rich lifestyle, etc, to Dharma-centric education that promotes a strong sense of duty and responsibility. We, as responsible citizens of the world, need to understand that mutual dependence is the key to create and sustain a peaceful and sustainable world. But, before that, we need to first train our children to manage their world inside before they learn to manage the world outside. They can handle the problems outside if they have been able to reconcile their problems and contradictions within.
The sign of an evolved and educated mind is that they acknowledge there is a difference in the knowledge level of people yet they accept them as they are without making any judgements about them. They believe in principles of equanimity and co-existence. They follow life’s most important mantra: ‘Let Go’. They do not carry unnecessary baggage of hurt, anger, and disappointments. They travel light.
The example below makes a distinction between unconscious competence and unconscious incompetence that characterises an evolved mind and an ignorant mind:
“An Indian film star was detained and questioned by the US customs and border protection officer at Newark airport in 2009 that shocked the actor since it went counter to the treatment he expected in line with the iconic status he enjoyed in India. So where does this reaction come from? Did not he know that America does not have a culture of fawning over celebrities? Former President Dr APJ Kalam was also frisked at Delhi airport by an American airliner — Continental Airlines in 2009. Although it violated the protocol, he went through the process without any complaint. It made news only after three months of the event.” Differences in knowledge levels differentiate us into an educated and an educated illiterate class.
The writer is from the FORE School of Management, New Delhi.
One common pattern found among these educated illiterates is that they all seem to be trapped in some kind of ghetto thinking, stinking of some ego biases, belief biases, cognitive biases, etc, bringing them all to the same level of thinking as any of those illiterates who could not buy education for oneself. Prized degrees or high grades do not necessarily make decent men/women without humanity in their hearts.