Everyone is a politician. Either a mature or immature one.

Today, I want to talk about “Education” versus “Schooling.”

First, let me recap that we are all politicians by nature:

• No one may choose to be a politician because everyone’s natural condition of biophysics existence makes them one already.
• Through conscious state development after birth, the biophysics nature does neither prevent a human to remain as an immature kind of politician, nor does it force a human to become a mature politician.
• The maturity of our conscious state development is a result of other human animals helping us to learn courage and gain skill to be with others and the nonhuman surroundings, versus being dominated, exploited, and oppressed by other fearful human animals.
• The consequence of the mature conscious state politician is a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully. The consequence of the immature conscious state politician is a culture of violence from domination, exploitation, and oppression by unjustly distorting biophysics needs into “privileged rights” or “charity” for those that “get with the program” of the frightened dominators.

Now, let’s understand how these points above might change the thought, talk and action of the two kinds of politicians toward the “behavior problems” (Lionel Tiger & Robin Fox) in various culture roles.

IN GENERAL:

Understanding, naming, and framing issues as problems in terms of becoming fully human, and in a deliberative context about what are WE going to do, together with officials and knowledge field scholars.

Clearly discern whether nature is the cause of the problem, or whether the system of relating to each other, as the cause of the problem.

Continue to learn from the results of our actions, by posing them as a problem.

This means that all moms/dads/offspring/siblings, all teachers/ students/ classmates/administrators, all physicians/patients/clients/nurses, all clergy/ congregants, all employers/employees/board members/shareholders/customers, all elected/appointed/career officials, judges/police/attorneys, all activists, hermits, are politicians. All titles, all roles in a culture are created by politics.

Remember, the point of my blog is: We want to form a “Critical Mass of Critical Conscious Mature Politicians” to authentically put in practice “liberty and justice for all, to survive and thrive peacefully.”

IN SPECIFIC:  LET’S APPLY THIS NOW TO “EDUCATION” vs. “SCHOOLING”

During family child rearing practices, as well as in youth groups, preschools, public schools (which I like to call state compulsory attendance facilities), camps, sports, acting, music, fine arts, and other organized groups for youth such as play-dates, Internet, and children’s other media encounters, we have to ask:

Is everyone involved a teacher-student and a student-teacher practicing education?

Are all the participant politicians as big as life using law to rule relations from a Critical conscious state by everyone?

Is everyone learning from each other how to be critical and creative with reality?

Is our thought, talk, and action a disposition toward knowledge that is technical, practical, and emancipation, to form a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully, together? (Juergen Habermas)

The opposite scenario – which we want to overcome – is:

Everyone involved is only an instructor or a student practicing schooling.

All are either instructors or students, limited to be only as big as their knowledge field.

All use law to rule relations from a Naïve or Fanatic conscious state, to bring students into a logic of sectarian knowledge, so their thought, talk, and action will “get with The Program.”

“The Program” is merely technical or practical, but with no discussion of emancipation, let alone its application.

“The Program” forms a culture of domination, exploitation, and oppression violence by creating privilege and “charity” for a few.

Thank you for reading, and thinking about this.

I look forward to your comments.

Bob Walker

I realize, the authentic form of a mature politician’s cultural practices of thought, talk, and action, is what is often referred to as “being civilized.” For me and probably for you, being civilized must also be biologically feasible, or it would be a source of poor health by forcing behavior counterproductive to good health. As it turns out, mature politician relations leading to a culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully, is biologically the most favorable for health and healing, whether we are hermits, members of organizations, or simply conscious beings, anywhere on earth, regardless of age or sex.

Although the terms “political, in politics, and a politician,” are very common, I want to avoid here “immature politician” references that are based on slogans, sound bites, euphemisms, habits, traditions, hearsay, spin, or personal “expert” agendas.

That said, here is my special request:

I am not asking you to believe that anything in this blog is the truth, for the truth cannot be given to you. You must discover it. To discover it, there must be in a state of critical conscious development, in which there is “direct perception” (Jiddu Krishnamurti). This is, what I understand, must be the daily practice of a mature politician, in all relations with other human and the nonhuman surroundings.

For example, when a candidate for an official office in an organization, a parent, teacher, clergy member, or anyone says, “I believe,” a mature politician would respect their right to believe anything. A mature politician would ask: what do they understand, and how has that become known to them, and why would they want you to have that idea also? Finally, a mature politician would want to weigh with them in deliberation, how the idea contributes to liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully.

I am asking you instead: If anything I mention here is opposed to your way of understanding or belief, I ask you to temporarily suspend your resistance to what I propose. You may be right, and I may be wrong. But by suspending your belief or understanding temporarily to consider these ideas together, we practice a mature politician’s approach. Together, we try to make knowledge that is at once technical, practical, and emancipation, which is necessary for an authentic culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully.

As the Israeli journalist and novelist Amos Oz said to Jeffery Brown during a recent interview on the PBS NewsHour Bookshelf (Dec. 26, 2016), about the purpose of literature (I’m paraphrasing): Let us look one more time at things we have seen a million times, and perhaps see them afresh. This way, we can reconsider what we were sure we knew, or are convinced of.

BIOLOGY MAKES YOU POLITICAL, IN POLITICS, AND A POLITICIAN

So, here is what is going on, to the best of current knowledge. At birth, all human animals start with a Primal conscious state stage of development. At this stage, they are oblivious to a self, others, and their surroundings. Natural law rules human animal behavioral relations, thought, and expression, with other human animals and non-human surroundings, uninformed by Human law.

In my next blog post, I will pick up here and explore this theory in depth.

Bob Walker

Personal or public policy, law, and practices are formed from human conscious state stages of mature or immature development. Let me suggest what this means, again relying on Paulo Freire .

All humans at birth are biologically in a Primal conscious state stage, oblivious to self and any nonhuman surroundings. With the help of other humans or on our own, we begin to transform into a Naïve conscious state stage with fragile arguments about cause and effect. Before birth, we had lived in the microclimate of the womb and, I should add, usually with very little effort on our part, with some exceptions. It was very copacetic; although, it was getting a little cramped toward the end or our stay when suddenly all hell broke loose, and we were born. More about that in the next episode.

Back to the Naïve conscious state stage. This is a tricky stage of development. The “fragile arguments” leave us vulnerable to influence by mature or immature politicians such as teachers, parents, elected/appointed/career officials, clergy, employers, peers or siblings, and any other human culture role having influence on our interpretation we might make as our “reality”. The mature politician practices being critical and creative, posing all cause and effect interpretations with us as a problem, in a disposition toward knowledge that is technical, practical, and emancipation (Juergen Habermas), in order that we will discover how to transform the reality together. While the immature politician practices by dehumanizing us, by “helping” us to adapt to a sectarian knowledge about cause and effect, so we will “get with their prescribed program”.

The mature politician helps transform our conscious state of development from the Naïve to the Critical conscious state, converting any fear about relating with other humans and the nonhuman surroundings. Together with the mature politician, we can gain a mutually discovered understanding, toward the risks and benefits of an authentic culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully. – By contrast, the immature politician “helps” us through domination, exploitation, and oppressive violence, to transform our Naïve conscious state into the Fanatic conscious state of ourselves and into a distorted version of the culture of liberty and justice for all to survive and thrive peacefully.

I know this is a skeleton of conscious state stages of development. But try to think of examples of your daily relations with other human animals and the nonhuman surroundings in these terms.

With my next post (in a day or two), let’s consider, in brief format, the five interrelated biological imperatives that make you political, in politics, and a politician.

Bob Walker