It was only too long ago that I too kept a journal when I took a class on ethics. My recollection of that one particular class is as hazy as the sands of time but I do remember my time at my alma mater as being the best times of my life. Life at this particular university is a far cry from where I am now. It had (and still has) a very strict and disciplinarian air about and almost everyone knew where they stood in the grander scheme of things within the university. In fact many consider us to be a throwback to older days when universities, much like the one I am in now, are 'progressing' ahead instead.
And that's what worries me. For the most part universities nowadays place a very heavy emphasis on 'speed'. If anything is an indicator of progress and development, its 'speed'. Students are expected to take on more classes and courses, semesters become trimesters and as such are rushed out to quickly take their place amongst their peers to contribute to the 'nation's development'. But what is the consequence of this? Students are becoming increasing enmeshed in a system which promotes quick succession of tests culminating in 'finals'. I have often seen how competitive students have become, concentrating instead on exams rather than absorbing the contents of the class.
The class becomes a 'feeding ground' rather than a place where ideas are exchanged and introspection and free thought encouraged. We are concerned more with 'Arts of War' rather than thinking and deliberating about what it means to be virtuous and to have lived the good contemplative life.
In my time as a student ethics, we were arranged in a circle with the instructor sitting in the centre. As the class began we had to engage with both the reading assigned, the instructor and also our fellow students. We would never dare to say that we had not read the assignment as we would be embarrassed as that would be an indication of the fact that we were lazy. As a result all of us would be poring over the reading, absorbing and of course engaging with it, as is required of us. Things in my institution are markedly different. Here power point notes are king. Readings are instead relegated to the nether realms becoming all but piles of paper to be thrown once the recycling truck comes along. Why so?
Learning and the values in which surround it have certainly changed since my days. The internet brings the world to us in a matter of seconds, nay...nanoseconds. Information now comes to us at the speed of thought. And this too has brought monumental changes to the way we think about a lot of things. Faster and faster we go, progressing into a future saturated with technology which eases communication but at what expense?
Do we often stop to think about the consequences? Do we often thing about the changes in which super-technology has brought along with it? How does technology make us think about fundamental concepts of such as ethics? Does speed, technology and progress help us think more deeply about the very questions which make us human? Does technology help us deliberate or think more thoroughly about the human condition?
In the past, where i had received my education, my instructors often told us how important it was to have a sense of right or wrong. It doesn't matter what makes up right or wrong, but it mattered that you believed in the concepts of right or wrong. The most important thing of all is that you have beliefs, principles and that you have what we refer to as a moral compass.
During my time as a student, it was important that we lived according to an Honor Code which reads, "A Cadet will lie, cheat, steal nor tolerate those who do." That was the fundamental creed in which we had to follow. Those who broke the Honor Code stood to be ostracised by others within our small community or even expelled. Unfortunately such is not the case in many of our universities here. Ethics has been reduced to such a level in that it serves only to fill the 'elective' requirements of a syllabus rather than being a university wide course open to all.
Ethics at its very essence is not something which tells you what to do or what it right or wrong but rather something which compels you to have a sense of right or wrong, and to hold steadfast to your beliefs. It makes you think deeply about the values and cultures we have grown up in. It makes us critically assess the ideas which hold us in their grip everyday.
This morning a student posed a brilliant question. Do we need religion to be ethical? Well religion certainly has many positive moral values but as a system of beliefs in itself, it is also open to abuse. In the wrong hands religion can become self-serving and divisive. So is it wrong to have a mind of your own? No it is absolutely correct to have your own thinking or principles about certain issues. The most important thing is for you to have your own moral compass, your own conscience and of course the courage to be your own person.
On the other hand I was also equally disturbed by how disengaged our students are from the larger scheme of things. 'Politics is dirty.' 'Politics is divisive and dangerous.' 'Politics is someone else's problem and it is not mine because I can't change anything anyways.' Why is this so? Why do students themselves believe that they need to be 'guided'? Students themselves are part of the greater society and often have much in which they can contribute too.
Thus they cannot afford to be disengaged. If anything with the relative financial and societal independence they enjoy, their university years are perhaps the best years for them to explore and engage in ideas. So this leads me back to the question; why the reticence? why the feeling of disengagement? what do they really believe in? Where is their moral compass?
