“Anyone who has done any thinking, even a little bit, knows that it is painful. It is hard work-in fact the very hardest that human beings are ever called upon to do. It is fatiguing, not refreshing. If allowed to follow the path of least resistance, no one would ever think. To make boys and girls, or men and women, think-and through thinking really undergo the transformation of learning-educational agencies of every sort must work against the grain, not with it….
Not only must we honestly announce that pain and work are the irremovable and irreducible accompaniments of genuine learning, not only must we leave entertainment to the entertainers and make education a task and not a game, but we must have no fears about what is “over the public’s head.” Whoever passes by what is over his head condemns his head to its present low altitude; for nothing can elevate a mind except what is over its head; and that elevation is not accomplished by capillary attraction, but only by the hard work of climbing up the ropes, with sore hands and aching muscles. The school system which caters to the median child, or worse, to the lower half of the class; the lecturer before adults-and they are legion-who talks down to his audience; the radio or television program which tries to hit the lowest common denominator of popular receptivity-all these defeat the prime purpose of education by taking people as they are and leaving them just there.”
Mortimer Adler
Invitation to the Pain of Learning
Adlerian Psychology is utter tripe. I just wanted to get that out of the way before I made commentary on this quote.
In God’s providence the article that this quote came from was sent to me after spending a day studying the history of psychotherapy and propaganda in America. In that study I was introduced to Edward Bernays (1891-1995), considered one of the most influential men in America in the 20th century. Bernay’s propaganda techniques emphasized bypassing people’s reason and manipulating them by going after their unconscious fears. Now, I give no tuck to the Freudian idea (Bernays was Freud’s nephew) of the “unconscious,” but Bernays’ used that idea to transform America’s political conversation as well as its approach to advertising. What I think was really happening in Bernays’ work was not the capturing and manipulation of unconscious fears but rather Bernays was using symbols that were already packed with a great deal of a-priori conscious but un-articulated meaning that Americans embraced. By manipulating symbols Bernays was able to bypass the explicit nature of communication for a implicit communication and thus created a whole new era of social manipulation in the fields of advertising and political conversation. In short what Bernays was doing is he was taking the symbols of America that non-epistemologically self conscious Americans embraced and he was playing with them to achieve mass propaganda and mass manipulation.
The cure for Bernays’ manipulative technique, which is still a tool that is used to manipulate, is found in Adler’s quote. The reason that Bernays could succeed is that Americans don’t want to engage in the hard working of thinking — and if that was true in early 20th century America (Bernays hayday) how much more true is it today. Only the hard work of thinking can aid Americans in seeing through the smoke and mirrors legerdemain that modern propagandists (and their name is legion) use to continue to manipulate people.
As long as we continue to be a people who think that education should be “edutainment” (a combination of entertainment and education) and that reading should be FUNdmental (a recent slogan to get kids to read) or that our news should be “infotainment” (a combination of entertainment and information) we will continued to be cork-screwed as a people. Thinking and education is hard work, as Adler tells us and anybody who doesn’t realize that or that can’t accept that is testifying that they are not educated nor do they spend any time thinking.
To finish, I also want to use this quote to make a couple of points about the Church.
First, all that money you are paying your minister is being paid to him so he can engage in the hard work of learning God’s truth and thinking God’s thoughts after Him. He isn’t being paid to be a social butterfly or a CEO of a growth industry. He isn’t being paid so he can be one of the entertainers who give you “relgiotainment,” and he is not doing his job if he doesn’t make your head hurt by insisting that you think. Part of the reason the Church is floundering is that Bernays’ techniques have come into the Church. The Church has become a propaganda center where people are manipulated into supporting a product that can’t give what it promises.
Second, if you have a Pastor, who makes you break out your dictionaries then break out your dictionaries and thank God for him. It is true that the Pastor has a responsibility to help you understand. He should take the time to explain thoroughly difficult concepts and words but he should explain them as if he is explaining them to adults. As such you must do the work of helping the Pastor help you understand. The Church in America has spent the last 100 years serving as a co-dependent upon the School systems dumbing down of America. The only way that this dumbing down process is going to be reversed is if Pastors quit talking baby talk in the pulpit. Remember, Adler’s words, “nothing can elevate a mind except what is over its head; and that elevation is not accomplished by capillary attraction, but only by the hard work of climbing up the ropes, with sore hands and aching muscles.”
Laymen if you want to see through the manipulation and propaganda that is going on in this culture you must learn how to think and be willing to do the hard work of thinking. One way to aid you in this is to find a Church and Pastor that is willing to treat you like adults and who are already engaged in the hard work of thinking.
“you must learn how to think and be willing to do the hard work of thinking.”
Thank you, as that is precisely what Adler is saying!