Canadian Omnibus Studies

What Humans Want and How They Decide

Comment on “Remodeling Education for an Emergent Future” by Lalith Ananda Gunaratne, Ottawa by Anna Frank

“Of all knowledge first we need to gain is about self-first, our own nature, interconnectedness with the natural environment and uncertainty of everything. Next is to build up complement academic knowledge.” [1] Since the dawn of humanity, we wanted to know, and we had to know to survive. So, what and when did it all go wrong?

The science of “I want and I need” overlaps with science of “I know and I think”. However, what now, when “I don’t know” has become such a common statement among youth and kids, and finally adults. Our impressions and decisions are reflections of our education and experience. Education itself is complex experience. We are what we know, and we know what we have learned. So why is there so little in our educational institutions that actually contributes to the creation of better functioning people for the era we live in?

Most of the problems, and the complexity of solutions, depend on human behaviour. Our learning conditions our behaviour. The first role model for us traditionally has been family members, but there is so much mistrust within the family today, and its role is no longer clear. In a world where parents misbehave, kids can think that is the norm. When did all of this start? When did we, as a society, lose control over education and its purpose? It is not just in the West or the East, it is a global trend and a global ache. We humans have lost our role models and those that teach what it is to be a human. There is a general impression that we live in an era of divorce, one without unity or joint action. Politics, education, and the economy are all going in their own direction, without any concern or cooperation with the others. So, let’s start from the beginning:

ASPECTS OF EDUCATION TODAY:

• PREPARATION FOR THE JOB
• CREATING ACTIVE ECONOMY MEMBER
• TRAINING TECHNOLOGY MIND AND PROBLEM SOLVER
• TO UNDERSTAND
• TO DISCOVER
• TO KNOW
• TO CREATE
• TO EXPLAIN
• TO TEACH OTHERS
• TO COMMUNICATE
• TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
• TO RECOGNIZE THE PROBLEMS
• TO LEARN ABOUT OTHERS
• TO SOCIALIZE
• TO GROW
• TO MANIPULATE INFORMATION

Is there a limit to education like there is a limit to growth? Has education in an era of limitless growth became useless now as we are reaching our resource consumption limits? What do we need to change? However, before we seek the answers to that, we will focus first on a few more issues and questions: The main role of education has been totally forgotten in recent decades and replaced with mere discovery and creation of new things.

What is our purpose!?

Whenever I was talking to my students and kids, I know, as well as adults, most of them would be quite surprised when I asked simple question: Who are you? What do you want to do? What will make you happy?

Most of the conversation would go towards happiness and finances, but it was a rare occasion to find the person who seeks and questions existence and their purpose. Somehow humanity has accepted all the answers given as being absolute truth and have stopped wondering. Education today wants us to accept without questioning all definitions and scientific knowledge as it is stated. Religion wants us to accept 2000-year-old books and not question them. If you question the rightness of the teaching itself, you will fail in the existing system. It is expected to be an observer and to accept knowledge, but not to seek for it. You are not to wonder who are the teachers, who wrote the rules, how were these rules created and what you can do? There is no freedom to refuse or to try. Errors are deemed expensive, everything has to be perfect, and there is no room for mistakes or failure. So what happened to the trial and error method? What happened with traditional experimental methods? It is expected today to simply accept filtered information and then call it knowledge. And remember, we have been learning since birth, so having a great variety of learning methods available at the university level is too little, too late, especially when we know that when we view humanity as a whole, less than 10% stay that long in the education system.

Limits of learning

CACOR member Robert Hoffman [2] in his presentation acknowledged that our biology is well adapted to deal with the immediate, but not the long-term complex, systemic issues. He suggests, “The human mind is not capable of dealing with the chaos of 4-5 variables not linearly linked at the same time.” But why?

The limits of our capacity to learn is fear. One of our greatest fears is that there is no purpose to our lives, that we can’t change anything, and that all things are predestined. Similarly, we fear that everything is uncertain, we do not actually know WHY, cannot not WHY, and that maybe there is no answer to the ultimate question. Another problem with learning are the expectations and roles we take on as children and then as adults. There is the “success” story that we all want to be. Anything else is viewed as something diminished. But, humans, all humans are precious beings, unique in time and within the universe. All humans have something to offer. So, what then would be an ideal model of education for today? One effective model is to move from a Newtonian system, to an evolutionary or a living one. Hoffman in his paper Systems Modelling: Bridging the Gap Between Science and Policy Analysis suggests that ‘systems simulators’ may be an effective means for communicating the understanding of complex problems. [3] According to him, simulators are explicit and communicable representations of the mental models that guide our perceptions and actions.

Gunaratne states:

“Unlike the deterministic models of classical science, the simulator approach is open to adaptation or learning as we humans have choices and the final outcome is not usually known. Our choices open us to many influences, both external and internal. My interest is with the internal, where behaviour depends on many variables and is predicated on emotions. As our quantum self is an integral part of the system, our personal biases and prejudices create inconsistency and disequilibrium, when we leave things open-ended. This is because our penchant for the short-term and linear simple process is exacerbated by our Newtonian education, which seeks deterministic solutions to our problems. Quantum weirdness is not even touched in our education as it leaves things open, grey and uncertain. We are uncomfortable with the grey – we seek absolute, short-term solutions because they provide us with an anchor. Most of our anchors are material, based on economics and financial flows and temporally located in the “now”. Our consumerist world has evolved on this “instant gratification” premise and Western philosophy’s separation of mind and matter – as Descarte proposed, has been the platform.” In most cases, because of our own biases, without even realizing that we are shutting down a new dimension, we do not even entertain these possibilities.” [1]

So, education today itself fears the unknown. What type of beings would we get once we teach that we don’t know everything, explore the unknown? What humans would walk the Earth, once we would say that we know that there are other dimensions, but we just don’t know how to reach them? Would their lives would be wasted if they simply spend them searching for the doors to other dimensions? What would happen to girls who we now teach that they are a different biological concept than boys, but rather we are all simply humans? What would happen to humanity if education systems would not develop and support fears, but rather hope? What if we teach them that they can be and should be better than us, as they can know what we know and yet have time to learn more than us? What would happen with humanity where “I am” would be replaced with “I wonder”? Where would change lead when a farmer is valued and has the same importance as a doctor? The fact is that they are both essential for the health of humans. One grows or raises food that is the essence to our health, while the other is catching us in our failures (such as when you break a leg because you tried to climb). There are crucial elements of education that Gunaratne explains:

• Learning to be Comfortable with Living Systems
• Mindfulness
• Letting Go
• Emotions
• Working with Evolutionary Living Systems

In short, he explains the challenges around which education should be focused. Education is not simply about making a good worker but about raising a good human. Education should help parents and families, should support them in their efforts to raise good, happy human beings, because in time this will contribute to making a happier humanity. Our sole purpose is not to work, or to pay bills, or just deliver kids. Our family should not be limited to those based on DNA resemblance, rather our family should be all those who share the same energy and views, and who are part of our way. Education should prepare us for wondering and not to train us not to wonder.

What humanity and the economic system we would have in that case is the next story.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE by Anna Frank

“We must go down to the lowest depths before we can touch bottom and rise again.” [1]

When there is talk about the climate change one cannot avoid talking about people. It is quite clear now that people and nature are part of one unity. There is only ONE world and we all have to share it with all living creatures. With every breath we take, we influence what that world will become. Most discussions about the climate change are about the human role in it. There is a huge effort to prove that no matter what humans do, our actions are independent of nature. So, where does that leave us?

The traditional definition of a natural disaster echoes this human centered focus. It is a natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great economic damage or loss of life, more precisely human life, as in many cases the loss of animal lives is considered damage only in so far as it has an economic aspect. Climate change often triggers natural disasters. However, the linear conclusion that to climate change is to blame for everything is not true.

Climate change is not some entity that has will and the power of decision and holds a grudge against people. Climate change is simply a consequence of actions, human and natural. Only with proof that the world is untouched by humans, could we say that we do not influence climate change. This of course is not the case. Whatever we do, whatever change we make, moves like numerous dominos in a chain, and forever changes the world we live in. If we refer back to my previous article about human education, it is exactly in our assumptions of the predestination of things that lays a trap and is the generator of denial of our influence.

We have 7 billion or so people on this planet, and each one uses resources, land, and water and influences ecosystems. Humans, like any other life forms, have requirements for survival, but we are far needier and impose a greater strain on our environment than any other life form we know. It is our teachings, which consist of social and familial customs as well as any formal education system, that form our mindset towards our responsibilities, roles and position within the natural cycle. What defines our teachings? Within our modern-industrial society, these teachings inform how we see life, how we view others and ourselves, how we feel about ourselves, who we want to recognise us, and whose approval we want to gain. In societies that rely on nature as a source and not a just a resource, teachings are oriented more towards discovering an inner purpose with the aim of becoming a fruitful part of its cycle.

When researching climate change one cannot avoid researching religion, politics, social values and structures. All of them influence on an elemental level everyone. Each person contributes to, and is affected by, climate change. Moreover, each person will act in accordance with the teachings that he or she is following. Finally, we all act according to the situation we find ourselves in, where basic survival is above any other value.

According to some estimates, there are over 4,200 religions in the World. Just among Christians, there are more than 33,000 different interpretations or denominations. We all have some beliefs. Even the belief that there is no God is a belief. We tend to follow beliefs and values that we have been taught. Given this background, what is the chance that 7 billion people can agree on anything? We are not short of knowledge or vision that shows our current way of living is not sustainable, but we lack agreement as to what to accept that is a better way of living. The problems lie in our human values.

“We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us, and wealth classified us.”[Anonymous]

Humans are a reflection of nature and they express all its complexity. We have changed everything we could. We move rivers and mountaintops; we dig through, and dig out resources from the depths of the Earth. We are transferring energy and consuming it. We have disturbed the natural equilibrium. Climate change is not induced by the actions of one state or any one human but still we see that some suffer the effects more than others do. Those who stay without homes and resources are forced to move somewhere else. We witnessed in 2015 and 2016 the problems associated with, and the resistance to, accepting large numbers immigrants or refugees.

People in general are just not educated to deal with these sorts of changes. Everywhere, starting from their first steps children are exposed to their own society’s “dos and don’ts”, to different teachings, values, traditions and beliefs. If, due to a natural or manmade disaster such as warfare, you were forced to leave your home, you as an individual would need an adaptation period to accept what has happened and to assimilate to your new environment, to learn about it, and to accept new ways. However, events in the world are moving too fast to allow that time. Consequentially, people tend to continue to practice their traditional values. It is what they know. When confronted with a new environment having differ values and norms, one can ask, whose values are “more” right? Whose are wrong? Which way is better and why? We don’t have enough knowledge about the world to judge the depth and the severity of change we have set in motion. How deeply do we influence nature and how has this changed nature in turn influenced us? The energy balance equation is disturbed; we do not return what we take from Nature and at some point in time, somewhere, somehow equilibrium has to be established.

The Planet Earth – The changing World

In their analyses of planetary atmospheres in 1965, Lovelock and Giffin spoke about the importance of the Earth atmosphere for the life on the planet:

“In 1965, we were interested to know the extent to which information on the chemical composition of planetary atmospheres could constitute direct and primary evidence of life. In other words, could the chemical analysis of a planetary atmosphere constitute a life detection... Confusion often attends attempts to apply the thermodynamic concepts of entropy and equilibrium to living systems and this present topic is no exception. It is generally agreed that it is a property of life to reduce its internal entropy through the assimilation of free energy and the excretion of degraded energy to the environment. Controversy can arise, however, over the size of the maximum unit of life. There is, for example, no doubt that an animal has a highly ordered chemical composition but its environment to which disorder is rejected includes the atmosphere; it might seem pointless therefore to seek evidence of life by looking for order in the chemical composition of the atmosphere. If instead of individual living organisms, however, the planetary ecosystem itself is regarded as the maximum unit of life, the problem resolves. In an ecosystem, the atmosphere can have an ordered role as the conveyor belt for products between, for example, the plant and animal kingdoms of Earth, or their analogues elsewhere. With this large unit, the atmosphere is an internal component of the living system and the environment is now space, to which disorder is rejected in the form of degraded solar energy. ...If the atmosphere of the Earth is a biological contrivance, then it is reasonable to consider that the components are maintained at an optimum or near optimum composition for the ecosystem. For example, the Earth’s climate if strongly dependent upon the atmospheric pressure, that is the total amount of oxygen and nitrogen and on the concentration of red absorbency gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor. The concentrations of these components are directly or indirectly under biological control. It may not therefore be an unreasonable speculation to consider the possibility that the Earth’s climate is also maintained at or near an optimum for the ecosystem.” [2]

Since then we have highly altered ecosystems and the atmosphere. We launched new particles and radioactive elements into the environment. Can we still avoid responsibility for changes that are ongoing on the Earth?

Species are disappearing, air is changing its structure, waters are polluted, land is disturbed and there is no doubt that humans do influence changes and that some are even triggered solely by human’s activities. Nevertheless, this is old news, in the 1970s an alarm bell rang. In the book “The Limits to Growth” [3] , some quite stunning conclusions were given almost 50 years ago.

• If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.
• It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his individual human potential.
• If the world’s people decide to strive for this second outcome rather than the first, the sooner they begin working to attain it, the greater will be their chances of success.

What it has been done since then? Unfortunately, for many the world has become even more divided. It is common knowledge that there is such thing as the “First World” and countries of the “Third World”. However, in fact we have only one world. One has to be aware that parallel with the rise of environmental awareness, we were dealing with the effects of Imperialism, Communism, and Capitalism’s Globalization of the economy. Humanity has faced many problems by trying to define, with force at times, whose way of life is the most valuable on the planet. There were many things going on globally. As mentioned in my previous article, there are far too many issues for the average human brain to contemplate at the same time, and too many of them will have a long-term impact beyond one life’s span. Social networks, and sometimes mainstream media, report atrocities and the political silence that follows. Climate change, wars, social breakdown, moral breakdown are among the news coming like waves without cessation. We need to hold accountable those who are responsible among them, bankers, global corporations and governments.

We, humans, are losing our own habitat. If we continue this, we will become endangered, with no one there to save us and without capacities to save the world we desperately need. We all need to change our habits and to do that we need to change concept of what it means to be a successful human. I will address only few problems:

1. Political denial and issue of need of some people to have ultimate power over the world.
2. Lack of the habitable environment and the rise of human population.
3. Need of humans to practice their right on land, air and water, food, education, health, ultimately love, and lack of acceptance that all humans have equal rights.
4. Lack of political and social will to treat all humans equally.
5. The social divide and the huge issue of refusing to see yourself as part of the problem but moving problem to the “others”
6. Giving power to “them” and accepting the status quo because we tend to live in the day and not to project or address long-term consequences.

A crucial issue for solving current environmental problems is how to influence and change individual values and needs. Humans are not isolated sticks in a field, ones that you just can pick up, shape and easily mold. Humans are far more complex than just being eating, sleeping and reproducing entities. In general, people need to learn the reasons why sustainable living is good and necessary for their own survival. In the end, it is all about people. We made many of the problems; we need to fix them. To apply solutions, to heal the planet we have to start by accepting the complexity of people and their diversity and figure out how to improve generally held values. That cannot be done overnight and it has to be done from the first breath. Each child is a step towards the solution if this child is thought to be part of nature and safe within society.

Are the adults willing to change? That is the next issue.

GDPR Compliant Privacy/Data Protection Policy

General Information about Data Collection

When you access any of our websites, information of a general nature is automatically collected. This information (server log files) includes, for example, the type of web browser, the operating system used, the domain name of your Internet service provider and the like. This is only information that does not allow conclusions about your person. This information is technically necessary to correctly deliver the contents of web pages requested by you and is mandatory when using the internet. Anonymous information of this kind is statistically evaluated by us to optimize our website and the underlying technology.

To protect the security of your data during transmission, we use state-of-the-art encryption techniques (such as SSL) over HTTPS on our web surveys.

Contact

If you contact us by e-mail, the information you provide will be stored for the purpose of processing the request and for possible follow-up questions, we do not store this for future contacts for any other purpose.

Deleting or blocking the data

We adhere to the principles of data avoidance and data economy. Therefore, we only store your personal data for as long as is necessary to achieve the purposes mentioned here or as provided for by the various storage periods provided for by law. After discontinuation of the respective purpose or expiry of these deadlines, the corresponding data will be routinely blocked and deleted in accordance with the legal regulations.

Using Google Analytics

Dufferin Research websites use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses so-called "cookies", text files that are stored on your computer and that allow an analysis of the use of the website by you. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, due to the activation of IP anonymization on these websites, your IP address will be shortened beforehand by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be sent to a Google server in the US and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other services related to website activity and internet usage to the website operator. The IP address provided by Google Analytics as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data. You can prevent the storage of cookies by a corresponding setting of your browser software; however, we point out that in this case you may not be able to use all functions of this website in full. In addition, you may prevent the collection by Google of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading the browser plug-in available under the following link and install:

Browser Add-On to Disable Google Analytics

Cookies

Like many other websites, we also use so-called "cookies". Cookies are small text files that are transferred from a website server to your hard drive. This automatically gives us certain data, such as IP address, browser used, operating system from your computer and your connection to the Internet. We only issue temporary session cookies that expire upon survey completion. No persistant tracking cookies are left on your computer or smart device.

Cookies can not be used to start programs or to transfer viruses to a computer. Based on the information contained in cookies, we can pass survey data in small non-contextual pieces (without ANY associated personal data) to be reassembled in a single record on one of our servers.

In no case will personal data collected by us be disclosed to third parties or a link to personal data will be established without your consent.

Of course you can also view our website without cookies. Internet browsers are regularly set to accept cookies. You can deactivate the use of cookies at any time via the settings of your browser. Please use the help features of your internet browser to find out how to change these settings. Please note that some features of our website may not work if you have disabled the use of cookies.

Your rights to access, rectification, suspension, cancellation and opposition

You have the right to receive information about your personal data stored by us at any time. In most cases there is none, but you are encouraged to enquire should you have any concerns. Likewise, you have the right to correction, blocking or, apart from the prescribed data storage for business transactions, deletion of your personal data. Please contact our data protection officer. The contact details can be found at the bottom.

You can make changes or revoke your consent by notifying us with effect for the future.

Change to our privacy policy

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure that it complies with current legal requirements or to implement changes to our services in the privacy policy, such as: For example, when introducing new services. Your new visit will be subject to the new privacy policy.

Ask the Privacy/Data Protection Officer

If you have questions about privacy, please email us or contact our Privacy Officer:

Contact:

Rick Frank 1-613-204-1070

Sponsored by: Study conducted by: In partnership with:

Burnaby Municipal Elections Poll Sept/Oct 2018 | | Data presented below is weighted data to reflect adult (18 years+) based on 2016 Federal Census.

1. With a municipal election on October 20 which candidate are you most likely to vote for?
2. With a municipal election on October 20 which candidate are you most likely to vote for?
3. With a municipal election on October 20 which candidate are you most likely to vote for?
4. Do you have a favourable or unfavourable impression of mayoral candidate Mike Hurley?
5. Do you have a favourable or unfavourable impression of mayoral candidate Mike Hurley?
6. Do you have a favourable or unfavourable impression of mayoral candidate Mike Hurley?
7. Do you have a favourable or unfavourable impression of current mayor and mayoral candidate Derek Corrigan?
8. Do you have a favourable or unfavourable impression of current mayor and mayoral candidate Derek Corrigan?
9. Do you have a favourable or unfavourable impression of current mayor and mayoral candidate Derek Corrigan?
10. Do you agree or disagree that it is time for a change and to give someone else a chance to be Mayor of Burnaby?
11. Do you agree or disagree that it is time for a change and to give someone else a chance to be Mayor of Burnaby?
12. Do you agree or disagree that Derek Corrigan has done a great job as Mayor of Burnaby?
13. Do you agree or disagree that Derek Corrigan has done a great job as Mayor of Burnaby?