GENERATIONS LEARNING TOGETHER
In my brief lifetime I have touched upon whole epochs of human history, from the old folks of my childhood in the South who remembered the world soon after the U.S. Civil War to the young men who conquered it all in WW II; from the joy of one decade to the agony of the next, from the fear of one decade to the fantasy of the next; 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and so on. I have witnessed the crawl of civilization. I have seen the ashes of what once mattered and shared the dream of what might be.
I am alive and evolving at the same time this ancient planet is alive and evolving, at the same time you (and everyone else) are alive and evolving; personal history, family history, cultural history, biological history, we all merge and emerge; on different rides at the same time; or the same ride at different times. We live with our questions and try to inhabit our inadequate answers. And in the pain of our solitude we often succumb to our fear of one another because of our intense need for one another; not only for love, but also for hate.
At this moment in our culture’s history, when science and technology have granted us a greater than ever before capacity for planetary destruction, our primal tendencies toward violent resolution have made us both stupendously vulnerable and stupendously lethal. As we unconsciously surrender to the ancient antagonisms of race and religion, and the profits of war continue to influence political decisions, we increasingly invite the possibility of our own annihilation.
Now, in this early 21st century, we are also faced with an historically unique compression of consciousness. Due to the recent acceleration of ever more rapidly changing technologies, each of the six generations alive today has had its coming of age in a substantially different world. This has created generational gaps of new and as yet unknown proportions. And as we adapt and change to the tune of successive world views, the habits and language of preceding generations become antiquated almost as soon as established. We are so deluged with the products and mind-sets of a technologically driven, worldwide waste-based consumer culture that we hardly have time to consider the ramifications of what is happening to us.
There was a time when my grandparents could maintain and repair their daily technologies mostly on their own, when the knowledge and skill-sets they lived by were of practical value to their children and grandchildren. These skill-sets were often passed on within meaningful family relationships and could even lead to gainful employment for the young. For most societies in the developed world however (and many third world countries as well), this is no longer the case. Even though personal family relationships are still based on traditional roles and assumptions, the tools and toys of accelerated technology have profoundly widened the gap between generations.
Compounding matters even more; in just the past century we have added thirty plus years to our life expectancy, more than in all the preceding five thousand years. And, at the same time, due to the boomer age wave, we will soon experience an astonishing increase in the number of aging citizens. Without knowing what it will mean or how to prepare for it, we are essentially adding another whole generation to a centuries old traditional mix. We are clearly moving into unknown territory.
Longevity on such a massive scale could possibly move us toward a surprisingly new and meaningful "completion" of the human life course. But, unless generational harmony prevails, it could also lead us to “age wars” over limited resources. What these conditions will ultimately mean obviously remains to be seen. But I choose to believe that our extended lifetime will have a profoundly positive affect on the whole spectrum of life stage development, redefining and remodeling all generations at the same time.
Elders make the mistake of assuming the young know little because of their lack of experience, unaware of the youthful brilliance that sees the world “as it is,” through a clear lens of possibility, unencumbered by the judgments of past experience. Youth makes the mistake of assuming that the past experience of elders is trivial and irrelevant because of their lack of knowledge about current trends and technologies, unaware of the wisdom gained through years of problem solving and painful learning. Imagine bringing the strength of these generations together as they discover the possibility of actually learning something from one another.
"We are not what we know, but what we are willing to learn."
The above quote, from Mary Catherine Bateson (daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson), expresses the essential spirit of the “Intergenerational Learning Community” I have been working to promote at the local level. A further statement of hers brings the point home:
“We are convening a new reality when we invite the generations to sit down together and apply their collective intelligence to issues of common concern.”
My proposal is to bring generations together - high school, college, professional, middle aged, elder - in open and honest (respectful and compassionate) group discussion on a variety of issues that affect the entire community - as a kind of advisory council. I believe this ideal of egalitarian communication can be achieved through Dialogue (as evolved by David Bohm); a creative form of inquiry that liberates participants by identifying and then transcending the defensiveness often embedded in our opinions and assumptions.
Dialogues such as these, open to the divergent and necessary viewpoints of all our living generations, will create a uniquely powerful Learning Community, one with potential for accurate, innovative results. I also believe it is the gift of each generation to have an instinctive, coherent view of another generation’s shadow, with profoundly useful insights just waiting to be heard (when they can be heard). The challenge will be to create an intimate intergenerational bond that transcends ego identity.
As idealistic as all this may sound, consider the possibility of discovering a truly holistic human perspective, one in which the viewpoints of every generation, the “collective intelligence,” are equally valued and included.
Like it or not, we are currently engaged in an unconscious and mysterious process of evolving profoundly new adaptations. Habits of the past no longer apply. The challenge now is to bring this process into greater consciousness, from the point of view of all generations, so that we may explore and influence the future for the benefit of all concerned.
© Rabon Delmore Saip 2011
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