Get Creativity?
By Simon Mitchell
Creativity is central to the management of our individual
lives, but in modern times few people are able to access this as a
resource. Alan Watts writes in The Wisdom of Insecurity:
"We have allowed brain thinking to develop and dominate
our lives out of all proportion to 'instinctual wisdom'; which we
are allowing to slump into atrophy.
As a consequence we are at war within ourselves -
the brain desiring things which the body does not want, and the body
desiring things that the brain will not allow; the brain giving directions
which the body will nor follow, and the body giving impulses which
the brain cannot understand...
So long as the mind is split, life is perpetual conflict,
tension, frustration and disillusion. Suffering is piled on suffering,
fear on fear, and boredom on boredom. The more the fly struggles to
get out of the honey, the faster he is stuck.
Under the pressure of so much strain and futility,
it is no wonder that men [sic] seek release in violence and sensationalism,
and the reckless exploitation of their bodies, their appetites, the
material world and their fellow men".
Globally at the moment there are many problems facing
mankind. Diminishing natural resources and increasing populations
mean that we are in a spiral of entropy. Our investment systems have
been using the capital assets of our planet as income since the beginning
of the industrial revolution. We are putting little energy back into
our planet.
Third world populations look enviously toward the
apparent richness of first world countries, and wish to emulate the
consumerism that appears to make its citizens so happy. Our media
propagate the illusion that we can buy our way out of environmental
destruction, and that retail therapy is the panacea to all dis-ease
and unhappiness.
Although the nature of work is changing there is still
more slavery in the world than there has ever been. Mass production
is shifting generally to third world countries where cheap labour
and the environment are more easily exploited.
Tiny-wage slavery is still cheaper than investing
in up to the minute technology for many third world industries. New
technology steadily gobbles up jobs.
Service, leisure and electronic industries have replaced
much of our manufacturing losses to the third world but now even these
(often part-time jobs) are being 'outsourced'.
Certainly creativity is needed at individual and governmental
levels to produce new opportunities in employment, information, education
and leisure activities. Many of the manufacturing 'jobs for life'
we have lost to cheaper workers have been replaced by part-time, poorly
paid and insecure alternatives.
The development of new forms of employment and the
ability to cope with accelerating change needs creativity at all levels.
Pressures towards conformity stem from, "a demand that education should
primarily the way to enhanced social status and a materially safe
way of life" (T.P. Jones in Creative Learning in Perspective).
Aspects of specialisation (the mystification of knowledge
into 'closed shops') and a centralised government system shift responsibility
away from people.
Many factors make it harder for an individual to act
on their own behalf, on their own belief and to face uncertainty and
possibly ridicule by doing something non-conformist. In education
individual behaviour is still often construed as insulting and rebellious.
Creativity, an Open University guide for teachers
states:
"One of the problems with teaching for creativity
in schools is that many of the personality characteristics and kind
of behaviour associated with them are unpleasing to the teacher.
Independent children who will not accept what the
teacher says, simply because they say it, can be disliked by the teacher,
particularly when such behaviour occurs on a heavy day or with a tired
teacher".
The potential for divergent, self assertive thought
and action is diminished in many sectors of society. People who 'rock
the boat' and question authority are too often seen as a threat to
established patterns.
This has led to a breakdown in sensitivity to needs,
the generation of ideas and the production of creative solutions.
Financial reward and security are conditioned to be the primary motivations
for work and life.
With the coming of automation and factories seeking
the cheapest labour in third world countries, the emphasis in a successful
economy needs to be more biased towards the production of ideas that
create meaningful and sustainable employment.
The education organisations we have are slow to realise
this and much of the training they provide is still geared towards
values established during the Industrial Revolution.
The didactic education system we have is still partly
based on training small boys for the priesthood, five-hundred years
ago. The development of creative potential in individuals is an issue
that the system simply does not know how to handle.
Presently we are between two worlds, leaving generations
high and dry concerning meaningful work and the generation of identity.
"Whilst assimilating that which he has inherited,
and adapting himself to it, man [sic] must also preserve his essential
individuality.
Education must assist the society which nurtures it
by inspiring each generation to add to the culture it has received
by creating something new; there should be no passive acceptance of
what has been handed down from the past.
Serious consideration must therefore be given to the
extent that non-conforming ideas can be considered as an asset for
life in a conforming society".
(T.Powell Jones. Creative Learning in Perspective)
About The Author
Simon Mitchell
Secrets of Creativity http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/secrets.html
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