Adam Moen
America the beautiful, America, the land of the free and home of the brave, America the land of opportunity — rhetoric that defines our culture and the post-industrial revolution psyche. This mindset is reflected internationally as America is recognized as the pinnacle of choice and liberty. After experiencing the thorough conditioning and illusionary tactics of the United States system as a whole, millions of generation Y’s are learning how the system is designing us to fail at life and is inhibiting the development and maturation process of youth all across the country.
A combination of the K-12 educational system and structure, extracurricular activities movement, encouragement of attending Universities, and the societal pressures on joining the work force are distracting today’s youth and recent adults and leading us to live and breathe the wrong values.
Introduction:
As a year 1990 birth I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a thorough product of American life. I have experienced my youth in the in the comfort of an upper-middle class Twin City suburb. The middle child of 3 brothers, I commonly was caught observing and calculating the actions and reactions of people as I followed my older brother around and tried to comprehend everything that occurred. Then, I would use this knowledge to turn and torment my younger brother for little more than the pure joy I got from seeing him hopelessly frustrated. Call it youthful ignorance, experimentation, or plain old playtime, but this behavior was a learned one. Gradually as I grew the layers of society began to emerge through the educationalized and publicized veil of ignorance spoon-fed to our youth using every messaging capability possible. This paper outlines the social conditioning and manipulation evident in our K-12 educational system, extracurricular activities, college, workforce, and popular culture leading our youth to celebrate a human-detrimental value construct.
K-12 Educational System:
The poor performance of the United States public educational system is no new news given the math, science, and literacy global testing boom. Suddenly “engineering” programs are popping up all over the nation as we teach our children how to make wooden chairs using 3-D printing or tiny robots that sort marbles. $200,000 went to my high school to purchase equipment and support the creation of the “fab-lab” (part of a $15 million high school remodel). It is great to see money being put into our educational system, but what are we actually supporting?
The engineering program coordinator is quoted in a local paper saying “this is about addressing what our kids need to learn and how we get them excited about learning those 21st century skills that business leaders say they so desperately need.” First off, let us make decisions based on the best interest of the children, not what “business leaders say they so desperately need.” I am fairly confident that if we all took advice from business leaders all the time we would be in a lot more trouble than we are — I am a finance major at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
IBM conducts a global survey of the world’s CEOs and in 2010 about 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, followed by 52% for integrity. A fab-lab can inspire creativity, but this is what is often called a band-aid solution. In the United States children hit their peak level of creativity at age 5. Studies by Paul E. Torrence from the University of Minnesota has identified how children use between 80-90% of their creativity capacity at age 5 and this rapidly decreases throughout our schooling reaching about 10% capacity as a senior in high school.
We test in stagnant settings, define time limits, select the “best” answer from 4 or 5 available choices, and conduct nearly the same structure in class every day. I cannot imagine a real world business problem that has the above listed characteristics. Suddenly, we throw an “engineering program” in a school and say that that is going to prepare our students? The people who solve these black and white problems from the 4 available solutions listed below are the same ones saying we need to start teaching engineering, math, and science skills in schools to keep up with the “global economy” and “prepare our children for the workforce.”
How about preparing our students for life? Ability to solve ambiguous problems and flexibility are the emerging leadership values listed in IBM’s 2011 survey of world CEOs. But we are so concerned about measuring and ranking people that we cannot see past the measuring tape at the detriment we are causing to each child’s definition of their self and ability.
The most excruciating days I can recall from my educational experience are 3-4 days after a test when we are given our graded papers. I never enjoyed seeing other student’s scores and I detested being asked how I did on the exam. Constantly student would be asking around trying to determine where they rank against their peers. This appeared to be the most important thing above the actual knowledge acquired and students would wallow when friends succeed and rejoice when they emerged superior. We rank children and give them a place amongst their peers based on their ability to perform in this tiny, insignificant challenge. Instead of a student feeling good for learning, we use competition as the motivational tool for progress from the very beginning. Yes, it captures the student’s animalistic desire to survive and be superior to its peers for the sake of reproductive preservation. But this is really only necessary in a society where there is scarcity.
We have a society that is founded on the idea of scarcity and fear. Really, every student will be taught nearly the exact same thing for the remainder of their education with a slight ability for students vary in course rigor. We will not run out of opportunities to learn and we do not have to compete for places to establish ourselves at the top of the knowledge chain. This striving to exert superiority reinforces the individual ego and separates the human from the actual self and others. We get caught in an idea of what it means to be superior and the ego is fed with each success or affirmation elevating “us” above to rest.
The illusion of this importance manifests itself as students engage in negative behavior such as cheating, bullying, and sabotage for advancement. This occurs frequently in a kindergarten classroom, just ask my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Mohn. Ironically, this also occurs in corporations and government, just ask congress. The system is perpetuating this behavior, it is not that humans are inherently bad; we are just programmed to destroy others on our journey to the top.
Future education must move away from using competition as the motivational tool. Finally, it must account for ambiguity and encourage original creativity as opposed to the defined and measurable separating skills amongst students.
Extracurricular Activities:
I recently was on a leadership retreat for a business school mentorship program and I asked about 10 different people the reason that they joined this organization. For every single person I talked to the conversation when something along these lines:
“So why do you want to be a part of this group?”
“Oh, umm, leadership experience I guess.”
“Why do you need leadership experience?”
“Ah, to put on my resume.”
“Why do you want this on your resume?”
“So I can talk about it in the interview process and get a good job.”
“Why do you want a good job?”
“So I can make a lot of money.”
Several of the people explained the reasoning behind wanting to make a lot of money was to pay off student loans, help support their struggling family, or become financially independent of their parents. These are terrific reasons to want to work hard although there were a few who chuckled and said “to be rich.”
We have taught our youth to do things because of delayed gratification. Studying allows you to do well and get into a good college. Athletics allow you to get recognized and perhaps get a scholarship. Clubs and leadership opportunities get you into a good college which in turn allows you to get a good job. These are all too common statements that end up being our motivation for doing things and our intention is wrong from the start. We should be studying, joining teams and clubs for ourselves, for fun, to learn about dealing with people, and to push ourselves to find our capabilities rather than allowing this diction bestowed upon us to become our motivation.
We wonder why our society drastically pillaging the earth for resources to create more stuff? We focus on the gratification from reward rather than the gratification of performing something here and now for the sake of doing it.
Encouragement of Collegiate Education:
The two previous “recessions” have been largely influenced by bubbles in certain economic markets marked by exponential and seemingly unstoppable growth. In the early 1990’s and early 2000’s we had the dot-com boom followed by the real-estate boom in 2006 and the “financial crisis” of today’s media rhetoric. Now economists are saying the next “bubble” to bust will be that of student loans. Harvard economist Richard Freeman estimates the growing risk of a debt bubble with total U.S. student loan debt is surpassing $1 trillion. Now, with 1 of 2 college students unemployed or underemployed, based on an analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers, students are chasing debt payments with bleak career prospects. This was not the utopia of higher paychecks touted by our high school counselors – whose measure of success is often percentage of graduating seniors going to a 4 year bachelors.
Now, since these loans are free from bankruptcy penalties and many are supported by federal programs, colleges around the nation are noticing people will pay the price. Since the year 2000, higher education costs have risen by 87%, far outpacing all other industry inflation, even healthcare. The race is on between more frequent loans, lower interest rates, and rising tuition. Money is exchanging from the government, through students, and back into private colleges or government universities. Unfortunately, in this scenario, the student cannot charge a premium for being a middle man. We are told this is natural and part of the experience when in reality it is a dangerous game of money laundering with serious psychological states of students absorbing the majority of the burden.
Encouraging high school students to continue gathering secondary education is important, but the illusion of a four year degree leading to a full-time job is fading with each monthly report of slow job growth from the Labor Department. Technical schools and community colleges are excellent options for students to continue exploring education rather than convincing every high school graduate that the way to make the most money is to go to college and be happy. If this was the case, collegiate anxiety and depression would not be as high as it is now. According to the 2011 University of Minnesota’s College Health Student Survey, 22 and 26% of students report being diagnosed with anxiety or depression respectively. Also, 15% of campus reports stress from financial distress as a major contributing factor to their inability to perform academically.
We are misguiding high school students to the realities of college. The fact that a 4 year degree leaves you better off than exploring other options is a fairytale waiting to burst like the bubble it rode in on.
Entering the Work Force:
Why do student go to school? My response as a 19 year old entering a large public business school with a reputation amongst area employers: to get a job. I was directed and driven as an undergrad and I was compelled to make the “right” extra-curricular and academic choices to prepare myself for the working world. I routinely went to student groups, attended networking sessions, and worked to gain leadership positions to fill all of the white space on my resume. As a sophomore I had a full-time internship with a reputable accounting firm, and junior year I went on to one of the largest insurance companies in the US, and held a consultant role at a boutique strategic consulting firm. I continually was stacking up experience so I could go into the next interview and talk about all of the things I had learned from my previous employment experience.
This coveted knowledge, so readily available through the business school undergraduate advising and career staff, is exactly what the rest of campus was failing to hear – and we were resented for it. My roommate of senior year was a Cinema and Media Studies and Comparative Literature double major and never once had a conversation with his academic advisor about the realistic career options given this choice. I fully support liberal arts educations as I think they resonate to the true value of college: expand one’s mind and grow. Career conversations and realistic income figures need to be available for people considering potential academic paths. Unfortunately much of that information would be discouraging for a variety of students to pursue a passion. If this is the case for perhaps English, philosophy, political science, culture studies, foreign language, art, and many more departments, it is the onus of that department to equip their students with much more than knowledge. Real-world experience must be a central component to these curriculums as they are forced to compete with higher paying careers such as business and engineering.
My business school has something called the Consulting Enterprise. The administration selects about 10 undergrads to put on consulting projects with area business. I worked for a local client for a year with 4 other students to solve a business problem and the client was paying upwards of $40,000 for our services. We took the “course” for 3 credits and our program director was responsible for finding engaging projects that provided relevant world experience. The School of Journalism has a similar program in which students are placed on teams on local accounts to actually produce advertising campaigns for clients.
These work-study programs proved to be one of the most valuable activities from my entire collegiate experience and truly separated me from other job applicants. Liberal arts departments can innovate to provide similar real world experience but here is the caveat – someone must pay. Students doing projects for make-believe clients does not demonstrate the actual working world as it does not equip students to go out and sell work to real clients. Granted many liberal arts supporters retreat to academia to avoid ever having to participate in our economic system – understandably so – although the vigor and gumption required of being an entrepreneur is lost when it is not displayed by those visible figures in the field. Someone must make the money come in the door and take responsibility for the subject’s ability to generate measurable value to the economy. Boom, we have just lost every person who has ever studied something in liberal arts. The idea is that one must be able to apply ones skill in the economy currently. We are teaching subjects that have no visible applicability in the economy. Luckily, liberal arts are of tremendous value to our society. However, few have found appropriate ways to apply these functions within the economic machine. Be it apathy or contempt, neither helps introduce us distracted contributors to the beauty of knowledge for humanity’s sake.
Expanding the mind with the words of Voltaire, Kant, and Marx have its benefits, but the norm of our current society is to join the work force. When applying for jobs during school and after graduation people want to know what you have done. We had courses in the business school about how to speak to things that are on our resume. I wouldn’t expect this knowledge to be common place in many other areas of study and we must educate others on the skills to convey the appropriate messages to those making decisions at the next step of life. We constantly focus on the delayed gratification of life; however, we are not preparing people to attain the next level. Our system of perceived ability to climb social and professional ladder is perpetuated by the occasional President Obama, Oprah, Steve Jobs, or Michael Jordan tale of the wonders of American opportunity. In the common man’s reality, all signs point to status quo.
Conclusion:
This illusion of American opportunity is possible because of the design of this “American” life. The systems mentioned above are the environments impacting the youth and are training them to become slaves to the status quo. American is designing its youth to fail by avoiding the powerful joining forces of life that are oneness, collaboration, and compassion. The current emphasis on competition, individualism, and materialism are eroding our definition of self and limiting our ability to see our potential to impact reality and ultimately destroying our planet and soon to be our civilization. If we do not change the structure of these institutions, we cannot expect our youth to emerge from underneath the thumb of the oppressors and bring forth the creativity and potentiality necessary for the advancement of civilization.
A walk down theoretical ally:
We must abandon the status quo. It is safe, it is change free, it is easy. People like easy predictable life because it reduces complexity. Our mammalian brain is constantly taking billions of stimuli from our perceived external world and reducing the billions to millions to thousands to hundreds to tens so that our consciousness can piece together a scenario of which we observe and believe to participate. This systematic deconstruction of potential reality is commandeered by today’s media and social machine for the advancement of innate animalistic behaviors. Individualistic, lustful, jealous, and materialistic desires are celebrated by reality television, stories of the American dream, movies, sit-coms and mainstream music.
These shared forms of “reality” are extraordinarily attractive to our base mind as it feeds our most powerful ability to be empathetic and collaborative while at the same time implanting seeds of unfulfilling lifestyles. We absorb this medium of commonly accepted reality pasted together by the editing labs of Hollywood simply because it paints a universal reality accepted by the masses and creates a shared experience of which humans bond. We talk of the episodes, plays of the football game, awards granted to the elite in homes, places of business, and vacations.
This Hollywood “reality” has infiltrated our very own perceptions of what is real and has become universally acceptable as reality. In this instance, television, movies, radio, and mass Internet has become our most common form of reality shared amongst humans. Even though our individual experience make up the collective consciousness of actual potential reality, this form of fabricated mass media reality has become even more powerful than our own individual perception of reality because of human’s ability to relate to the material and use it as a part of our daily life. We are blindly accepting alternative fabricated scenarios as universally accepted truth simply because of the fact that many people are aware of this reality scenario. We seek strength in numbers because of our innate collaborative nature, however, this is cannibalization of humanity perpetuated by main stream media becomes a more powerful form of potential reality.
In our daily live, potential reality is essentially what we as individuals perceive as possible during this life. Each thought, emotion, and feeling literally creates the potential reality for our perception and we as conscious humans have the power to influence this very potential reality. The future becomes shear potential situations that our consciousness can create. Each scenario that has ever existed has existed infinite times in consciousness and multiple people experiencing, believing, and willing for events. Within the physical realm of possibility, these events will occur out of human’s ability to shape potential reality.
After all, our own individual perception of reality is only the expression of our own individual consciousness. And this consciousness is under fire. This individual consciousness is linked to a greater entity that connects us all. This is why scientific discovery happens almost simultaneously around the world. Countless studies have shown once a thought is projected into our realm of consciousness, it becomes easier to grasp for humans.
Researchers have identified what is called the 100th monkey effect. Researchers in Japan have observed that once the 100th monkey of a group learns an observable trait that this trait becomes innate in the next monkey that is born. This learned trait becomes either coded in the DNA or easy for consciousness to connect to applicability. If it is coded in the DNA it demonstrates our genetic flexibility of life and/or if it is the ability of our self’s to latch onto thoughts easier because of the more frequent thought wavelength or energy occurrence in our consciousness, it demonstrates the connectedness of us all. It is manifested though thought, emotion, and feeling in the collective consciousness that we absorb with our bodies and minds. This capability is not unique to humans. We are merely a species that has evolved with life.
Now, the main stream media is more powerful than ever and is implanting potential detrimental scenarios and messages into our field of awareness to distract us from our own ability to impact reality. On top of our short-sighted educational system, nearly every message blasted at the impressionable youth is directing our youth to this incorrect value construct: promote individualism, competition, and materialism. For some reason, material good will bring us the sense of happiness we all are striving for. Realistically, this sense of happiness comes from a strong sense of love and belonging. Brene Brown, now famous from over 6 million views of her first talk on vulnerability and shame at TEDxHouston, discusses how individuals living wholeheartedly and happily have a strong sense of love and belonging. These are the lasting elements of life that will traverse death and give us eternal place in this conscious reality.
Cars, houses, clothes, and toys will provide momentary senses of joy and happiness; however, relationships and memories of shared experiences will be the true legacies of man and the mark of a man’s significance on the human race. Perched atop the social pyramid with dollars in hand will not be our legacy of life left behind. The journey to the “top” — with good intention or bad — experienced by those around and within one’s self, is the lasting impression that marks our individual journey to reach nirvana. After all, if each man is not individually responsible for his/her respective contribution of the collective experience we will not achieve this desired state of nirvana, also known as heaven on earth. Luckily we each possess the power to reach this state of nirvana if we so choose to turn our focus inward and absorb the power of the moment that is now. We can choose to live in a state of gratitude for life, which has brought us to fruition, and seek to develop this graciousness within our self thus facilitating the overall amount of gratitude and appreciation in the now.
Often when I meditate, I thank the monks and people along side of me promoting gratitude and happiness in the moment so that I may attract those frequencies of thought and strengthen the overall feeling of gratitude and happiness in the moment. I contribute to the ripple effect of thoughts and feelings when I occupy these like mental states and promote the ability of others to reach the same frequency of being as I and those around me. We each have the power to contribute to this transcendental metaphysical state if we turn our focus inward and decide to take hold of our reality.
This is the key in reinforcing the correct value construct: one of gratitude, cooperation, appreciation, and love. We must challenge ourselves to live as much as possible of our conscious moments to this ideal if we are to have any hope for humanity to surpass this current state of disharmony. Pacha Mama (Mother Earth in the Mayan language) is in a state of disharmony with man. Our Earth’s retaliation on the civilizations of man must be a sign to anyone not believing in chance. Those of us not relinquishing our power to impact life in the present must identify the importance of our own contribution to reality and not diminish the impact that one individual can have on the whole.
The Maharishi Effect has proven the power of an individual subscribing to the correct value construct. Maharishi was an Indian monk, most famous for his teaching of the Beatles in the early 70’s, who conducted a small experiment within two different Indian villages. He took subsets of the population and had these groups practice loving kindness meditations to increase compassion. He noted a 15-30% decrease in crime in the village in the subsequent year. He found that to create a noticeable change in behavior of a population, only the square root of 1% of the population is required to occupy a different mental frequency. This demonstrates the power of man to influence the behavior of the collective.
We can decide to occupy this compassionate mental state, one of gratitude, cooperation, appreciation, and love to literally change the world in the present moment. If we so choose to be creators of our own reality we will change the world. As written in the Bible, the Kingdom of Heaven lies within. Once one decides to live this state, be it a minute or a lifetime, we can bring about our Kingdom on Earth. Only then can one recognize the true form of heaven or earth, nirvana.
