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Dear team,<br> Here's another angle on the urgent need to revamp the university (and presumably its curricula?) in an era of 'crisis'<br><br>All good wishes<br>Jonathan C<br><br><div><div id="SkyDrivePlaceholder"></div><hr id="stopSpelling">Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:29:54 +0100<br>From: nicholas.maxwell@UCL.AC.UK<br>Subject: Saving the Planet<br>To: FRIENDSOFWISDOM@JISCMAIL.AC.UK<br><br>
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<div>Dear All,</div>
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George Monbiot published a very good, despairing article in The Guardian today,
here in the UK, lamenting the all-but inevitable failure of the earth summit in
Rio to do what needs to be done. All we have is hope, he concludes, and it
is hope that is the rope from which we all hang.</div>
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<div>
Here is my response, dashed off as a letter to The Guardian, which they may, or
may not publish.</div>
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<div>In his despairing call for a change in the system to save the planet (It's
make or break in Rio just like they told us in 1992), George Monbiot once again
overlooks the one institution that, crucially, must be changed. It is the
university. Our only hope of saving the planet and creating a wiser world
is to do so democratically. But that, in turn, requires that electorates,
the people of the world, have a good understanding of what our global problems
are, and what we need to do about them. That in turn requires that our
institutions of learning are rationally designed and devoted to helping humanity
learn what our problems are, and what we need to do about them.
Dramatically and disastrously, they are not. Universities at present
betray both reason and humanity. They seek to acquire knowledge, and do
not give absolute priority to our problems of living, and what we need to do to
solve them. And the mere provision of knowledge and technological know-how
can actually intensify our global problems. They make modern industry and
agriculture possible, which in turn have led to global warming, destruction of
natural habitats and extinction of species, lethal modern warfare, population
growth, and the other global problems we suffer from.</div>
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<div>As a matter of urgency, we need to bring about a revolution in our schools
and universities so that the basic task becomes to help us learn how we can
change what needs to be changed in the system so that we begin to make progress
to as wise, good a world as possible.</div>
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Best wishes,</div>
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<div>
Nick</div></div>
<div>Website: <a href="http://www.nick-maxwell.demon.co.uk" target="_blank">www.nick-maxwell.demon.co.uk</a><br>Publications
online: <a href="http://philpapers.org/profile/17092" target="_blank">http://philpapers.org/profile/17092</a></div></div> </div></body>
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