OP-ED: Time to take an objective look outside our own boxes
One of life’s fascinations is intellectual curiosity, or lack thereof. Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo DaVinci’s acquaintance, wrote, “He was not motivated by wealth or material possessions.” In his own notebook, DaVinci publicly denounced men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of the desire for wisdom. He described wisdom as the sustenance and truly dependable “wealth of the mind.”
For that reason, DaVinci surrounded himself with friends who were skilled and learned in engineering, mathematics, medical research, the arts and science. He believed “ideas are often generated in physical gathering places where people with diverse interests encounter one another serendipitously.” DaVinci sought out friends who could spark new ideas “by rubbing together their diverse passions.”
As the author of DaVinci’s, Steve Jobs’ and Benjamin Franklin’s biographies, Walter Isaacson stated, “Steve Jobs liked his buildings to have a central atrium for associates to mingle, and young Benjamin Franklin founded a club where many of the most interesting people of Philadelphia would gather every Friday.
One of the greatest personal challenges I’ve encountered has been working in environments where there was little or no diversity of thought or where egos and blind hubris provided the driving force behind the group’s decisions. Like-minded people often are tortured or, worse yet, engage in torture of others because of their lack of diverse opinions, and this lack of intellectual curiosity is most often the result of a form of unacknowledged closed-mindedness we observe regularly in social media.
This is not to say that these people are not intelligent, but simply that their opinions are often restricted to the short list of environments, people and ideas to which they have been exposed. Or more disconcerting, to the virtual brainwashing that can come from these restrictive environments and the potential lack of intellectual curiosity that goes beyond their own limited groupthink. It’s a little like Vladimir Putin’s circle of advisers.
One of the most profoundly troublesome movements that was only a suggestion decades ago has morphed into reality now, the dumbing down of America. When our education system was at its heyday, and we were leading the world in math, science, and even the arts, our intellectual questioning and intelligence seemed to become a cumbersome speed bump for some of our policymakers.
As we now know, regardless of party, it seems the majority of our national politicians are often on their own personal journey to garner material wealth. They did not like being questioned with valid, well-examined arguments, and seem to have discovered a way to continue to achieve their goals by ensuring the continuing dumbing down of America.
Unfortunately, they are achieving this goal. It is being heavily driven into our education system through the creation and promoting of private and specialty schools that do not encourage diverse thinking, by paying below-average salaries to teachers, and removing our financial ability to attend even public universities.
The most degrading and shameless actions that seem now to be a part of our lexicon is the public shaming of education itself: science and intellectual curiosity. This is an aggressive attempt to move us back to an era of blind loyalty to whichever philosophy can bring the most control, power and wealth to the fewest number of people.
Fifty years ago, Carnegie-Mellon University initiated a concept of research that would change the world on many levels. Professors were placed in multi-disciplinary office pods with a coffee area in the middle. This created a type of intellectual diversity referred to above which began to occur in a very organic manner. As diverse conversations between the professors of various disciplines started to work together, they created new ideas and unique discoveries.
As we quickly move to what feels like the Dark Ages, let’s all take an objective look outside our own boxes. And please, Vladimir, look outside your warped, toxic, heartless circle of like-minded villains and stop wallowing in your hubris.
Nick Jacobs of Windber is a health-care consultant and author of two books.