Our society is awash with moral judgments. The media is rife with pronouncements, both good and bad (though usually bad), of this political event, that celebrity or movie star and a further distant occurrence. We, fortunately, don’t have to think because we are being given the thought — though think we must, if we truly want to be free: but, wait, I am free. I am told, in virtually all democratic countries, that I am free because I live in a democracy: I am free, aren’t I? “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. … In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. … And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.” (1) These oft-used quotes from George Orwell are there to remind us that deep thinking itself is not innate. Critical thinking is a skill that must be nurtured and enhanced. It does not come to us naturally. We have to, therefore, make our own moral assessment of how we want to live our life.
Thus we come, once again, to the device: the cell phone. The mini-computer that I hold in my hand is a wonderful tool. It presents the full array of knowledge and yet is a portal to all evil and mental destruction. “Wow! That is a little dramatic, don’t you think?” I am no longer so sure. “It is a question that keeps some parents awake at night. Should children be allowed to take mobile phones to school? Now economists claim to have an answer. For parents who want to boost their children’s academic prospects, it is no.
The effect of banning mobile phones from school premises adds up to the equivalent of an extra week’s schooling over a pupil’s academic year, according to research by Louis-Philippe Beland and Richard Murphy, published by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. (The study) found that after schools banned mobile phones, the test scores of students aged 16 improved by 6.4%. The economists reckon that this is the “equivalent of adding five days to the school year”.
The findings will feed into the ongoing debate about children’s access to mobile phones. In the UK, more than 90% of teenagers own a mobile phone; in the US, just under three quarters have one. The prevalence of the devices poses problems for head teachers, whose attitude towards the technology has hardened as it has become ubiquitous.” (2)
The great dilemma facing all parents, teachers, and educators, of course, is that you can’t teach thinking. Quite the opposite: you can kill it. For a truly strange analogy: The gum tissue in your mouth is a lot like thinking. Good dental health requires good gums. If you touch the gum tissue or have surgery on it, however, the gingiva shrinks and never grows back. The poet, sage, and musician John Lennon (1940-1980) leaves us with some thoughts to aspire us:
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
A closing thought: I always say that I have never been shot, stabbed or blown up, so the world is a good place. Now I do have one caveat – but, I have been robbed! Yes, sadly, it is true. I live an extremely frugal life and I assiduously guard the funds that I have. To this end, I have two wallets: a big wallet where I keep my cash and a small petty-change purse for casual purchases. I make an elaborate ceremony out of moving cash from the big to the small. This is to remind me of the Chinese idiom (to paraphrase): man walks on two feet, money runs on four. The other day at the gym, I left my locker unlocked while I went and had a shower. Four hours later, I opened my wallet to access some funds. Someone, nonetheless, had accessed my funds earlier. After my initial anger and burst of profanity and general ill feeling, I felt extremely sorry for the thief. I can always make more money, but the pilferer has received a heady and negative dose of bad karma. This is hard to lose on judgment day.
An amusing occurrence: I just love the Internet. It has replaced “a man’s” desire to actually talk to officials and find out the real facts. After all: if it is on the Net, it must be true. I am Canadian, so I don’t need a Transit Visa through China, do I? No, of course not, it says it on the Internet. I once flew from Vancouver on my way back home to Taiwan. It was an inexpensive flight that was to transit through some forgotten airport in northern China. As I exited the aircraft, I remarked that the airport seemed forlorn and distant in time. The Chinese customs’ official in his condescending and perfunctory way asked me why I didn’t have a visa. To be even more dramatic, in answering, I softly “rolled my eyes” (You should never be rude to “country bumpkins,” should you?). “I don’t need one,” I responded. “Who says?” came the riposte. “The Internet,” I responded, rather more sheepishly than before. While he checked this fact, I missed my connecting flight to Taipei, had to get a Temporary Chinese Visa and stay the night in an unheated hotel room. I am now somewhat more circumspect about Internet facts.
Just for fun: America – I Need You
This week, please reflect on how you will continue to be true to your own hopes and aspirations.
Every day look for something magical and beautiful.
Quote: The good is always the good and correct behavior is always correct. If you aspire to live a life that fails in its earnestness, you will live an unrequited life. This is simply the truth.
Footnotes:
1) George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949
2) Schools that ban mobile phones see better academic results