婚姻学堂
为了要找出教育在今日世界的危机中担当何种角色，我们就必须先了解这项危机是如何造成的。显然，这是由于我们和他人、财物、观念之间的错误价值观所致。如果我们和他人的关系是基于自我扩张，和财物的关系是基于贪得无厌，则社会的结构必然是竞争性的、孤立性的。如果在我们和观念的关系中，辩护某一种意识形态，而反对另一种意识形态，则猜疑和敌意，是不可避免的结果。
目前混乱的另一个原因，是对权威、领导人的依赖。不论是在日常生活中，或是在小学校、大学校里，情形都是一样。在任何文化里，领导人以及他们的权威都是败坏堕落的原因。我们跟随他人，这其中并无了解，只有恐惧和附和顺从，其结果必导致集权国家的残暴，或有组织的教条主义。
必须始于自我了解才能达到和平，而仰赖于政府，期望于种种团体或权威，只会制造更严重的冲突。如果我们接受了一种社会，其中存在着人与人之间永无止境的斗争和对立，则永恒的幸福便不可得。如果要改变我们的生存条件，首先，就必须改变我们自己。也就是说，必须在日常生活中觉察到自己的种种行动、思维和情感。
然而，我们并非真正地想要和平，我们并不想终止剥削的行为。我们不允许我们的贪婪之心受到干预，或是我们目前社会结构的基础遭到改变。我们让事情照旧继续下去，只做一些表面的改革，因此，无可避免地，有权势的人、狡诈的人便统治了我们的生活。
和平无法借着某种意识形态而获得，它也不依赖于立法。唯有当我们作为一个人，了解了我们的自我心理过程时，和平才会来临。如果我们逃避了应由个人负担的这个责任，而期待某种新的制度来建立和平的话，那么我们只会成为这个制度下的奴隶而已。
当政府、独裁者、大企业以及掌握教会大权的人士，看到这种人与人之间有增无减的对立状态终将导致同归于尽，因此不再有利可图时，他们可能会通过立法或其他强制的方式，强迫我们压抑私人的渴望和野心，同时为了人类的幸福而合作。就如同今日，我们被教育、被鼓励去做无情的竞争，那时，我们将被迫去互相尊重，为全世界工作。
虽然我们那时可能人人有饭吃，有衣穿，有房子住，我们却无法从冲突和对立中解脱。这种冲突和对立只会转变到另一方面去，只会变得更凶暴，更具破坏性。只有道德而正确的行为才是自动自发的，而且只有了解才能为人类带来和平与快乐。
信仰、意识形态以及有组织的宗教，将我们置于和他人对立的状态下。冲突不仅存在于各种不同的社会之间，而且存在于同一社会的种种团体之间。我们必须体会到，一旦将自己和某一个国家视为同一，一旦我们依附于安全感，一旦我们被教条所限制，则在我们自身以及世界中，将出现斗争和不幸。
仅仅教导人们成为了不起的工程师，卓越的科学家、有才气的高级职员、熟练的工人，绝对无法促使压迫者和被压迫者联合团结。我们可以眼见目前的教育制度——它对于造成人之间敌对与仇恨的许多原因都一概容忍——它不曾阻止以国家之名或以上帝之名所行的集体屠杀。
有组织的宗教，以及它在世俗上或精神上的权威，也同样无法为人类带来和平。因为，他们仍是我们的愚昧、恐惧、虚伪和自私所造成的结果。
因为我们渴望在现世或来世获得安全，于是制造出一些制度和意识形态，以确保此项安全。然而，我们拼命求取安全，越是无法获得它。求安全的欲望只助长了分裂，增加了对立。如果我们深深地体会而且了解了这项真理，不只是口头上或智力上的明白，而是全心全意地了解，那么，便会在四周所接触的世界里，着手于根本改变我们和他人的关系。而且，唯有如此，才有可能达到人类的团结和友爱。
我们大部分人都因形形色色的恐惧而心劳神疲，对自己的安全都十分注重。我们希望，借着某种奇迹，战争便会消逝，而同时我们却一直指摘其他国家集团是战争的煽动者，就如同他们也同样把战争的祸患归罪于我们一样。虽然战争有害于社会，我们却随时备战，并且在年轻人的心中培养了黩武精神。
然而，军事训练在教育中有任何价值吗?这就要看我们希望孩子成为何种人而定。如果希望他们成为阴狠的杀人凶手，则军事训练是必须的。如果希望训练他们，支使他们的心智，使他们成为国家主义者——也就是使他们不把社会当成一个整体而对它负责，则军事训练便是一条良好的可循之路。如果我们喜爱死亡和毁灭，则军事训练显然是重要的。将军的任务是设计战争，执行战争计划;如果我们欲与邻人不断地发生战争，那么，让我们不顾一切地造就更多的将军吧!
如果我们活在世上，为的只是在内心以及和邻人之间保持不断地斗争;如果我们渴望流血和不幸延续不绝，那么就需要更多的军人、更多的政客、更多的仇恨——这正是目前发生的情形。现代文明是基于暴力，因此它是自取灭亡。只要我们崇尚武力，则暴行便成为我们的生活方式。然而，如果我们希望和平，如果我们希望在人与人之间——不论他是基督教徒或印度教徒，是俄国人或美国人——有真正的关系，如果我们希望孩子成为完整的人，则军事训练绝对是一项阻碍，施行这种训练，是一条错误的途径。
仇恨和斗争的主要原因之一，是相信某一个特殊阶级或种族优于另一个阶级或种族。孩子没有阶级或种族的意识，是家庭或学校环境促使他有人与人隔离的感觉。孩子本身并不在乎他的玩伴是个黑人或犹太人，是佛教徒或天主教徒;然而整个社会结构的压力不断冲击他的心，影响了他，塑造了他。
这里的问题仍然不在孩子，而在成人。成人制造了一个人与人隔离而充满了虚假价值的荒谬环境。
在人类之间加以区分有何根据呢?我们的肉体可能在组织和肤色方面有所不同，我们的脸孔可能不太相似，然而在皮肤底下的我们是非常相像的：骄傲、野心勃勃、妒嫉、充满暴力、具有性欲、追逐权力等等。除去了标签后，我们是赤裸裸的;然而我们不愿意面对我们的赤裸，因此我们固执于标签——这表示我们是多么的幼稚，多么的不成熟。
为了使孩子在成长中免于偏见的影响，我们首先必须打破心中一切偏见，然后打破存在于四周环境的偏见——也就是说，把我们亲自制造出来的这个不加思索的社会结构破除。我们在家里可能告诉孩子说，阶级或种族的意识是荒谬的，而孩子可能会同意我们的话;然而，当他到学校去和别的孩子一起游戏时，他便感染了这种在人与人之间加以区分隔离的态度。有时，情形正好相反;在家庭中，可能拘泥传统，眼光狭窄，而学校的影响可能使他比较开阔。在上述两种情形下，家庭和学校环境之间永远存在着冲突，孩子便陷于这种冲突之中。
我们与孩子之间必须保持密切的关系，才能让他健全地成长，帮助他具有知觉力，能洞察这些愚蠢的偏见。我们必须把问题加以讨论，让孩子听听人们明智的谈话。我们也必须鼓励已存在于他心中的探究与不满的精神，借此帮助他去发现何谓真，何谓假。
不停的探讨以及真正的不满之情，促发了创造性的智慧。然而，使探究与不满之情保持清醒，是非常困难的。大部分的人都不希望他们的孩子拥有这种智慧，因为和一个对公认的价值加以探究询问的孩子生活在一起，是十分使人为难的。
当我们年轻时，我们都是不满的。然而不幸的是，我们的不满之情不久便消逝了，被我们模仿的倾向以及对权威的崇拜所窒息。当我们年长时，我们便开始凝滞了，变得心怀恐惧而易于满足。我们成为高级职员、牧师、银行职员、工厂经理、技术人员后，逐渐地腐朽了。由于渴望保持我们的地位，我们便支持这个具有毁灭性的社会——它给予我们某种地位和安全。
政府控制教育，根本是一种错误。教育一旦成为国家或有组织宗教的听命奴婢，则世界上便没有和平与秩序的希望。然而，越来越多的政府开始负起监督儿童及其未来生活的任务，因为政府不这么做，宗教团体便会设法来控制教育。
这种把孩子的心灵加以限制，以适合某种政治或宗教的特殊意识形态的做法，在人与人之间滋生了仇恨。在一个竞争的社会里，人与人的团结和友爱是不可能的，而任何改革、任何专制独裁、任何教育方法，都无法促使团结和友爱的产生。
只要你坚称自己是个新西兰人，而我自称是个印度人，则奢言人类团结即是一件荒谬的事。如果，你我在各自的土地上，维护着我们个别的宗教成见和经济方式，则我们如何能成为和平相处的人类呢?如果存在着离间人类的爱国主义，当成千上万的人因为经济萧条而匮乏，其他人却富有繁华，这时怎会有人类的友爱存在呢?当我们被信仰所分离，当一群人被另一群人所控制，当富有的人权势在握，当穷人也同样追逐着权势，当土地分配不均，当有人饱食而千万人在挨饿时，怎会有人类的团结呢?
我们的难题之一，在于我们对这些事物毫无真诚之心，因为我们不愿受到干扰，只在有利的方式下才想改革事物，因此，我们对于自己的空虚和残酷是不太关怀的。
借着暴力，我们能获得和平吗?和平是借着缓慢的时间过程而逐渐达到的吗?显然，爱与训练或时间无关。我想，以前的两次世界大战都是为了争取民主;如今，我们又准备进行一次更浩大、更具有毁灭性的战争，而人民却比以前更无自由。然而，如果我们把权威、信仰、国家主义以及整个阶级区分的态度等有害于了解的种种障碍除去的话，结果会如何呢?我们将会成为没有权威的人，而我们之间彼此有直接的关系——那时，也许就会有爱与同情。
在教育上，就像在其他各方面，重要的是造就能了解而富于爱心的人，他们的内心不会充满空洞的言辞，而是充满只用心灵制造出来的东西。(with the things of the mind)
如果我们要思考、关怀、爱惜快乐的生活，了解自己则是十分重要的。如果我们希望建造一个真正开明的社会，我们的教育者就必须了解何谓完整的人，如此才能将此种了解赋予接受教育的孩子。
这种教育者对于今日的社会结构来说，是一种威胁。然而，我们并非真正想建造一个开明的社会。因此，任何教师如果洞察了有关和平的一切问题，而指出国家主义的真正含义以及战争的愚蠢，他便会立刻失去职位。大部分的教师知道这种情形后，便妥协了。因此，他们也就助长了今日的剥削和暴力的制度，使其持续不坠。
显然，要发现真理，就必须从我们自身中的挣扎和与邻人的纷争中解脱。当我们内心没有冲突时，也就不会有外在的冲突。由于内心的挣扎向外表现而成了世界上的冲突。
战争，是我们每日生活所投射而成的血腥表现。我们每日的生活促成了战争，如果我们不改变自己的话，便会引起国家、种族间的对立，引起对于意识形态的幼稚争执，军队的扩增，对国旗的崇拜，以及许许多多引起集体屠杀的暴行。
世界各地的教育都失败了，它制造出与日俱增的毁灭和不幸。每个政府都把青年训练成它们所需要的效力十足的军人和专家，组织化、集体化和成见受到培植、加强。考虑到这些事实后，我们必须探寻生存有何意义，我们的生活有何价值和目的。我们必须发现，何者才是创造一种新环境的有利途径。因为，环境可以把孩子制造成一个粗野的、感觉麻木的专家，也可以帮助他成为一个敏感、有智慧的人。我们必须创造一个完完全全不同的世界政府，它不是以国家主义、意识形态或暴力为基础。
这一切意味着我们要了解：在互为关系的双方是要相互负责的。然而要了解我们的责任，我们心中要有爱，而非仅仅只有学问或知识。我们的爱越宏大，它在社会的影响也就越深。然而我们都只徒具心智，而无情感;我们培养智力，鄙视谦虚。如果我们真正爱孩子，我们一定希望挽救他、保护他，不会让他牺牲于战火之下。
我想，我们其实渴望武器，也喜欢展示军事力量，喜欢制服、仪式、酒精、噪音、暴力。我们每日的生活是这种残暴与肤浅的缩影，我们由于妒嫉、不加思考，而互相毁灭。
我们希望富有，而我们越富有，便变得越无情，虽然我们可能捐献大笔钱给慈善机构或教育事业。我想我们并不明白我们的所作所为都将造成何种灾难。我们大部分人每天都过着匆忙而不思考的日子，让政府以及狡诈的政客来左右我们的生活。
一切掌握了主权的政府都免不了备战，任何政府都不例外。为了使国民善于作战，能有效地尽职，政府显然必须控制他们、支配他们。他们必须接受教育，以便如机械一般地操作，残酷无情地发挥效力。如果生活的目的和意义在于毁灭他人和被他人毁灭，则教育“必须”鼓励残酷无情。然而我实在不敢肯定我们内心的渴望并非如此，因为，残酷无情和崇拜成功，是不可分离的。
主权国家并不希望他的国民解脱而能自由思考，于是借着宣传或歪曲历史的解释等等手段，以控制它的国民。因此，教育便越来越成为一种教人想“什么”，而非教人“怎样”思考的手段了。如果我们不依赖当时的政治制度而独立思考，我们会成为一种威胁;自由的学院可能会产生爱好和平、厌弃战争的人，或是一些与执政者持相反意见的人。
正确的教育，对于掌控主权的政府显然是一项威胁——因此便被明文禁止，或暗中阻挠。将教育和粮食握在少数人手中，已经成为一项控制人们的方法。只要我们是制造商品以及枪弹的有效机器，政府——不论是左派的或右派的——便无所关心了。
这种情形正盛行于世界各地。这件事说明了身为公民以及教育者，以及对目前政府负有责任的我们，并非真正关怀世上的人是自由或是被奴役，是和平相处或是相互战争，是幸福或是不幸。我们希望在这儿那儿来个小政革，然而我们大部分人都不敢粉碎目前的社会，而建造一个全新的社会结构，因为，这需要我们自身的彻底改变。
另一个方面，有人则设法掀起暴力革命。这些人在助长了目前这个充满冲突、混乱与不幸的社会后，现在却又希望组织一个完美的社会。然而，既然是我们创造了目前的社会，我们之中又有谁能够再组织一个完美的社会呢?相信借着暴力可以获致和平，乃是为了一个未来的理想而牺牲了现在。此种借着错误的手段以谋求正确的目标，是造成目前灾难的原因之一。
感官价值的扩展与受重视，必然造就了经济势力范围等毒素，他们使人与人之间无法合作。社会是你和他人之间的关系;如果没有深入了解此项关系——不是在某种层次上了解，而是当做整体过程而加以完整的了解——则我们必会再制造出同样的社会结构，虽然这社会结构已经过了肤浅的改变。
如果我们要根本地改变目前人与人的关系——它为世界带来了无尽的不幸，我们唯一而且刻不容缓的工作，是经由自我认识而改变自己。因此，我们回到问题中心点：每一个人自己。然而，我们规避了这重要的一点，而把责任推给政府、宗教或意识形态。我们是什么样子，政府就是什么样子，而宗教、意识形态则只是我们自身的表现。除非“我们”改变了，否则便不可能有正确的教育或和平的世界。
唯有爱与智慧存在，才能使所有的人获得外在的安全。然而既然我们创造了一个充满冲突与不幸的社会，使得人人都无法很快地获得外在的安全，这不就表示过去和现在的教育完全失败吗?身为父母和教师，我们切身的责任在于破除传统的思考，而不只是仰赖于专家以及他们的发现。在技术方面的胜任，使我们有赚钱的能力，因此大部分人对于目前的社会结构都感到满意。然而，真正的教育者所关心的，只是正确的生活、正确的教育，以及正确的谋生方式。
我们在这些事情上越是不负责任，国家便越是接收了这些责任。我们面对的，不是某种政治上或经济上的危机，而是人类败坏堕落的危机。这是任何党派、任何经济制度所无法扭转的。
另一个更大的灾难正一天天地逼近我们，而我们大部分人面对着它却毫无反应。我们一天一天渡过，完全和往日一样;我们不想除去虚假的价值观，重新开始。我们只希望补缀式的改革，这种改革只会产生新的问题，接着又需要新的改革。然而，整座建筑物正逐渐瓦解，城墙坍塌，大火在燃烧。我们必须离开建筑物，到新的土地上，用不同的基础，不同的价值重新建造。
我们无法丢弃技术上的知识。然而，我们的内心可以意识到我们的丑陋、无情、失望、欺诈和缺乏爱心。唯有借着智慧，使我们从国家主义、从妒嫉、从权利欲中解脱，那么，新的社会秩序才能建立起来。
和平是无法借着补缀式的改革而获得，也无法借着重新调整旧观念和迷信而获得。当我们了解了存在于表面之下的事物，而因此阻止了这毁灭之流——它因我们的侵略性和恐惧而泛滥横行——和平才能存在。唯有此时，我们的孩子才有希望，我们的世界才能获得拯救。
EDUCATION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE CHAPTER 4 ‘EDUCATION AND WORLD PEACE’
TO DISCOVER what part education can play in the present world crisis, we should understand how that crisis has come into being. It is obviously the result of wrong values in our relationship to people, to property and to ideas. If our relationship with others is based on self-aggrandizement, and our relationship to property is acquisitive, the structure of society is bound to be competitive and self-isolating. If in our relationship with ideas we justify one ideology in opposition to another, mutual distrust and ill will are the inevitable results.
Another cause of the present chaos is dependence on authority, on leaders, whether in daily life, in the small school or in the university. Leaders and their authority are deteriorating factors in any culture. When we follow another there is no understanding, but only fear and conformity, eventually leading to the cruelty of the totalitarian State and the dogmatism of organized religion.
To rely on governments, to look to organizations and authorities for that peace which must begin with the under- standing of ourselves, is to create further and still greater conflict; and there can be no lasting happiness as long as we accept a social order in which there is endless strife and antagonism between man and man. If we want to change existing conditions, we must first transform ourselves, which means that we must become aware of our own actions, thoughts and feelings in everyday life.
But we do not really want peace, we do not want to put an end to exploitation. We will not allow our greed to be interfered with, or the foundations of our present social structure to be altered; we want things to continue as they are with only superficial modifications, and so the powerful, the cunning inevitably rule our lives.
Peace is not achieved through any ideology, it does not depend on legislation; it comes only when we as individuals begin to understand our own psychological process. If we avoid the responsibility of acting individually and wait for some new system to establish peace, we shall merely become the slaves of that system.
When governments, dictators, big business and the clerically powerful begin to see that this increasing antagonism between men only leads to indiscriminate destruction and is therefore no longer profitable, they may force us, through legislation and other means of compulsion, to suppress our personal cravings and ambitions and to co-operate for the well-being of mankind. just as we are now educated and encouraged to be competitive and ruthless, so then we shall be compelled to respect one another and to work for the world as a whole. And even though we may all be well fed, clothed and sheltered, we shall not be free of our conflicts and antagonisms, which will merely have shifted to another plane, where they will be still more diabolical and devastating. The only moral or righteous action is voluntary, and understanding alone can bring peace and happiness to man.
Beliefs, ideologies and organized religions are setting us against our neighbours; there is conflict, not only among different societies, but among groups within the same society. We must realize that as long as we identify ourselves with a country, as long as we cling to security, as long as we are conditioned by dogmas, there will be strife and misery both within ourselves and in the world.
Then there is the whole question of patriotism. When do we feel patriotic? It is obviously not an everyday emotion. But we are sedulously encouraged to be patriotic through school-books, through newspapers and other channels of propaganda, which stimulate racial egotism by praising national heroes and telling us that our own country and way of life are better than others. This patriotic spirit feeds our vanity from childhood to old age.
The constantly repeated assertion that we belong to a certain political or religious group, that we are of this nation or of that, flatters our little egos, puffs them out like sails, until we are ready to kill or be killed for our country, race or ideology. It is all so stupid and unnatural. Surely, human beings are more important than national and ideological boundaries.
The separative spirit of nationalism is spreading like fire all over the world. Patriotism is cultivated and cleverly exploited by those who are seeking further expansion, wider powers, greater enrichment; and each one of us takes part in this process, for we also desire these things. Conquering other lands and other people provides new markets for goods as well as for political and religious ideologies.
One must look at all these expressions of violence and antagonism with an unprejudiced mind, that is, with a mind that does not identify itself with any country, race or ideology, but tries to find out what is true. There is great joy in seeing a thing clearly without being influenced by the notions and instructions of others, whether they be the government, the specialists or the very learned. Once we really see that patriotism is a hindrance to human happiness, we do not have to struggle against this false emotion in ourselves, it has gone from us forever.
Nationalism, the patriotic spirit, class and race consciousness, are all ways of the self, and therefore separative. After all, what is a nation but a group of individuals living together for economic and self-protective reasons ? Out of fear and acquisitive self defence arises the idea of `my country," with its boundaries and tariff walls, rendering brotherhood and the unity of man impossible.
The desire to gain and to hold, the longing to be identified with something greater than ourselves, creates the spirit of nationalism; and nationalism breeds war. In every country the government, encouraged by organized religion, is upholding nationalism and the separative spirit. Nationalism is a disease, and it can never bring about world unity. We can not attain health through disease, we must first free ourselves from the disease.
It is because we are nationalists, ready to defend our sovereign States, our beliefs and acquisitions, that we must be perpetually armed. Property and ideas have become more important to us than human life, so there is constant antagonism and violence between ourselves and others. By maintaining the sovereignty of our country, we are destroying our sons; by worshipping the State, which is but a projection of ourselves, we are sacrificing our children to our own gratification. Nationalism and sovereign governments are the causes and the instruments of war.
Our present social institutions cannot evolve into a world federation, for their very foundations are unsound. Parliaments and systems of education which uphold national sovereignty and emphasize the importance of the group will never bring war to an end. Every separate group of people, with its rulers and its ruled, is a source of war. As long as we do not fundamentally alter the present relationship between man and man, industry will inevitably lead to confusion and become an instrument of destruction and misery; as long as there is violence and tyranny, deceit and propaganda, the brotherhood of man cannot be realized.
Merely to educate people to be wonderful engineers, brilliant scientists, capable executives, able workmen, will never bring the oppressors and the oppressed together; and we can see that our present system of education, which sustains the many causes that breed enmity and hatred between human beings, has not prevented mass murder in the name of one’s country or in the name of God.
Organized religions, with their temporal and spiritual authority, are equally incapable of bringing peace to man, for they also are the outcome of our ignorance and fear, of our make-believe and egotism.
Craving security here or in the hereafter, we create institutions and ideologies which guarantee that security; but the more we struggle for security, the less we shall have it. The desire to be secure only fosters division and increases antagonism. If we deeply feel and understand the truth of this, not merely verbally or intellectually, but with our whole being, then we shall begin to alter fundamentally our relationship with our fellow men in the immediate world about us; and only then is there a possibility of achieving unity and brotherhood.
Most of us are consumed by all sorts of fears, and are greatly concerned about our own security. We hope that, by some miracle, wars will come to an end, all the while accusing other national groups of being the instigators of war, as they in turn blame us for the disaster. Although war is so obviously detrimental to society, we prepare for war and develop in the young the military spirit.
But has military training any place in education? It all depends on what kind of human beings we want our children to be. If we want them to be efficient killers, then military training is necessary. If we want to discipline them and regiment their minds, if our purpose is to make them nationalistic and therefore irresponsible to society as a whole, then military training is a good way to do it. If we like death and destruction, military training is obviously important. It is the function of generals to plan and carry on war; and if our intention is to have constant battle between ourselves and our neighbours, then by all means let us have more generals.
If we are living only to have endless strife within ourselves and with others, if our desire is to perpetuate bloodshed and misery, then there must be more soldiers, more politicians, more enmity – which is what is actually happening. Modern civilization is based on violence, and is therefore courting death. As long as we worship force, violence will be our way of life. But if we want peace, if we want right relationship among men, whether Christian or Hindu, Russian or American, if we want our children to be integrated human beings, then military training is an absolute hindrance, it is the wrong way to set about it.
One of the chief causes of hatred and strife is the belief that a particular class or race is superior to another. The child is neither class nor race conscious; it is the home or school environment, or both, which makes him feel separative. In himself he does not care whether his playmate is a Negro or a Jew, a Brahmin or a non-Brahmin; but the influence of the whole social structure is continually impinging on his mind, affecting and shaping it.
Here again the problem is not with the child but with the adults, who have created a senseless environment of separatism and false values.
What real basis is there for differentiating between human beings? Our bodies may be different in structure and colour, our faces may be dissimilar, but inside the skin we are very much alike: proud, ambitious, envious, violent, sexual, power-seeking and so on. Remove the label and we are very naked; but we do not want to face our nakedness, and so we insist on the label – which indicates how immature, how really infantile we are.
To enable the child to grow up free from prejudice, one has first to break down all prejudice within oneself, and then in one’s environment – which means breaking down the structure of this thoughtless society which we have created. At home we may tell the child how absurd it is to be conscious of one’s class or race, and he will probably agree with us; but when he goes to school and plays with other children, he becomes contaminated by the separative spirit. Or it may be the other way around: the home may be traditional, narrow, and the school’s influence may be broader. In either case there is a constant battle between the home and the school environments. and the child is caught between the two.
To raise a child sanely, to help him to be perceptive so that he sees through these stupid prejudices, we have to be in close relationship with him. We have to talk things over and let him listen to intelligent conversation; we have to encourage the spirit of inquiry and discontent which is already in him, thereby helping him to discover for himself what is true and what is false.
It is constant inquiry, true dissatisfaction, that brings creative intelligence; but to keep inquiry and discontent awake is extremely arduous, and most people do not want their children to have this kind of intelligence, for it is very uncomfortable to live with someone who is constantly questioning accepted values.
All of us are discontented when we are young, but unfortunately our discontent soon fades away, smothered by our imitative tendencies and our worship of authority. As we grow older, we begin to crystallize, to be satisfied and apprehensive. We become executives, priests, bank clerks, factory managers, technicians, and slow decay sets in. Because we desire to maintain our positions, we support the destructive society,which has placed us there and given us some measure of security.
Government control of education is a calamity. There is no hope of peace and order in the world as long as education is the handmaid of the state or of organized religion. Yet more and more governments are taking charge of the children and their future; and if it is not the government, then it is the religious organizations which seek to control education.
This conditioning of the child’s mind to fit a particular ideology, whether political or religious, breeds enmity between man and man. In a competitive society we cannot have brotherhood, and no reform, no dictatorship, no educational method can bring it about.
As long as you remain a New Zealander and I a Hindu, it is absurd to talk about the unity of man. How can we get together as human beings if you in your country, and I in mine, retain our respective religious prejudices and eco- nomic ways? How can there be brotherhood as long as patriotism is separating man from man, and millions are restricted by depressed economic conditions while others are well off? How can there be human unity when beliefs divide us, when there is domination of one group by another, when the rich are powerful and the poor are seeking that same power, when there is maldistribution of land, when some are well fed and multitudes are starving?
One of our difficulties is that we are not really in earnest about these matters, because we do not want to be greatly disturbed. We prefer to alter things only in a manner advantageous to ourselves, and so we are not deeply concerned about our own emptiness and cruelty.
Can we ever attain peace through violence? Is peace to be achieved gradually, through a slow process of time? Surely, love is not a matter of training or of time. The last two wars were fought for democracy, I believe; and now we are preparing for a still greater and more destructive war, and people are less free. But what would happen if we were to put aside such obvious hindrances to understanding as authority, belief, nationalism and the whole hierarchical spirit? We would be people without authority, human beings in direct relationship with one another – and then, perhaps, there would be love and compassion.
What is essential in education, as in every other field, is to have people who are understanding and affectionate, whose hearts are not filled with empty phrases, with the things of the mind.
If life is meant to be lived happily, with thought, with ourselves; and if we wish to build a truly enlightened society, we must have educators who understand the ways of integration and who are therefore capable of imparting that understanding to the child.
Such educators would be a danger to the present structure of society. But we do not really want to build an enlightened society; and any teacher who, perceiving the full implications of peace, began to point out the true significance of nationalism and the stupidity of war, would soon lose his position. Knowing this, most teachers compromise, and thereby help to maintain the present system of exploitation and violence.
Surely, to discover truth, there must be freedom from strife, both within ourselves and with our neighbours. When we are not in conflict within ourselves, we are not in conflict outwardly. It is the inward strife which, projected outwardly, becomes the world conflict.
War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday living. We precipitate war out of our daily lives; and without a transformation in ourselves, there are bound to be national and racial antagonisms, the childish quarrelling over ideologies, the multiplication of soldiers, the saluting of flags, and all the many brutalities that go to create organized murder.
Education throughout the world has failed, it has produced mounting destruction and misery. Governments are training the young to be the efficient soldiers and technicians they need; regimentation and prejudice are being cul- tivated and enforced. Taking these facts into consideration, we have to inquire into the meaning of existence and the significance and purpose of our lives. We have to discover the beneficent ways of creating a new environment; for environment can make the child a brute, an unfeeling specialist, or help him to become a sensitive, intelligent human being. We have to create a world government which is radically different, which is not based on nationalism, on ideologies, on force.
All this implies the understanding of our responsibility to one another in relationship; but to understand our responsibility, there must be love in our hearts, not mere learning or knowledge. The greater our love, the deeper will be its influence on society. But we are all brains and no heart; we cultivate the intellect and despise humility. If we really loved our children, we would want to save and protect them, we would not let them be sacrificed in wars.
I think we really want arms; we like the show of military power, the uniforms, the rituals, the drinks, the noise, the violence. Our everyday life is a reflection in miniature of this same brutal superficiality, and we are destroying one another through envy and thoughtlessness.
We want to be rich; and the richer we get, the more ruthless we become, even though we may contribute large sums to charity and education. Having robbed the victim, we return to him a little of the spoils, and this we call philanthropy. I do not think we realize what catastrophes we are preparing. Most of us live each day as rapidly and thoughtlessly as possible, and leave to the governments, to the cunning politicians, the direction of our lives.
All sovereign governments must prepare for war, and one’s own government is no exception. To make its citizens efficient for war, to prepare them to perform their duties effectively, the government must obviously control and dominate them. They must be educated to act as machines, to be ruthlessly efficient. If the purpose and end of life is to destroy or be destroyed, then education must encourage ruthlessness; and I am not at all sure that that is not what we inwardly desire, for ruthlessness goes with the worship of success.
The sovereign State does not want its citizens to be free, to think for themselves, and it controls them through propaganda, through distorted historical interpretations and so on. That is why education is becoming more and more a means of teaching what to think and not how to think. If we were to think independently of the prevailing political system, we would be dangerous; free institutions might turn out pacifists or people who think contrary to the existing regime.
Right education is obviously a danger to sovereign governments – and so it is prevented by crude or subtle means. Education and food in the hands of the few have become the means of controlling man; and governments, whether of the left or of the right, are unconcerned as long as we are efficient machines for turning out merchandise and bullets.
Now, the fact that this is happening the world over means that we who are the citizens and educators, and who are responsible for the existing governments, do not fundamen- tally care whether there is freedom or slavery, peace or war, well-being or misery for man. We want a little reform here and there, but most of us are afraid to tear down the present society and build a completely new structure, for this would require a radical transformation of ourselves.
On the other hand, there are those who seek to bring about a violent revolution. Having helped to build the existing social order with all its conflicts, confusion and misery, they now desire to organize a perfect society. But can any of us organize a perfect society when it is we who have brought into being the present one? To believe that peace can be achieved through violence is to sacrifice the present for a future ideal; and this seeking of a right end through wrong means is one of the causes of the present disaster.
The expansion and predominance of sensate values necessarily creates the poison of nationalism, of economic frontiers, sovereign governments and the patriotic spirit, all of which excludes man’s co-operation with man and corrupts human relationship, which is society. Society is the relationship between you and another; and without deeply understanding this relationship, not at any one level, but integrally, as a total process, we are bound to create again the same kind of social structure, however superficially modified.
If we are to change radically our present human relationship, which has brought untold misery to the world, our only and immediate task is to transform ourselves through self-knowledge. So we come back to the central point, which is oneself; but we dodge that point and shift the respon- sibility onto governments, religions and ideologies. The government is what we are, religions and ideologies are but a projection of ourselves; and until we change fundamentally there can be neither right education nor a peaceful world.
Outward security for all can come only when there is love and intelligence; and since we have created a world of conflict and misery in which outward security is rapidly becoming impossible for anyone, does it not indicate the utter futility of past and present education? As parents and teachers it is our direct responsibility to break away from traditional thinking, and not merely rely on the experts and their findings. Efficiency in technique has given us a certain capacity to earn money, and that is why most of us are satisfied with the present social structure; but the true educator is concerned only with right living, right education, and right means of livelihood.
The more irresponsible we are in these matters, the more the State takes over all responsibility. We are confronted, not with a political or economic crisis, but with a crisis of human deterioration which no political party or economic system can avert.
Another and still greater disaster is approaching dangerously close, and most of us are doing nothing whatever about it. We go on day after day exactly as before; we do not want to strip away all our false values and begin anew. We want to do patchwork reform, which only leads to problems of still further reform. But the building is crumbling, the walls are giving way, and fire is destroying it. We must leave the building and start on new ground, with different foundations, different values.
We cannot discard technical knowledge, but we can become inwardly aware of our ugliness, of our ruthlessness, of our deceptions and dishonesty, our utter lack of love. Only by intelligently freeing ourselves from the spirit of nationalism, from envy and the thirst for power, can a new social order be established.
Peace is not to be achieved by patchwork reform, nor by a mere rearrangement of old ideas and superstitions. There can be peace only when we understand what lies beyond the superficial, and thereby stop this wave of destruction which has been unleashed by our own aggressiveness and fears; and only then will there be hope for our children and salvation for the world.
