The Victoria Times Colonist advertised that the University of Victoria campus development committee wants help in determining what the campus should look like in the next fifteen years and how it could serve both students and the community. Would this invitation be a practical opportunity to pass the torch? To fail or succeed, my conscience would be cleared. The theory of reincarnation of souls may or not be true, but that is not the issue. We have no control over the question of the rebirth of souls; therefore, the discussion stops here. What we do have control over is the evolution of human society on planet earth. Futurists predict the development and improvements of inventions, but never to my knowledge, that of social institutions. The institutions of our concern are science, engineering, religion, politics, economics, business and personal health. As an educator, I think that each of these should be discussed and developed as individual subjects from each individual faculty. A social blue print could be drawn in rough detail then fine tuned from all sources of input. The only primary imperative would be the elimination of the money system.
Without money as a limiting parameter, imagination could blossom The only social limitations would be physical rather than economic. Politics and economics will vanish together with all the related social symptoms of crime, poverty, pollution, economic domination, and wars. So many creative, constructive sources of input will blossom that Bill’s and my contribution will be insignificant.
My philosophy of education is to teach the subject rather than the student. Students teach themselves, and education is a life time activity. Students learn in the quiet and solitude of their places of study. The teacher’s responsibility is to motivate the incentive to learn and to provide the material and pressure for self discipline.
This essay is a contribution to motivate department heads that in turn will motivate faculty teachers to prepare lesson plans that include the future with the past.
A most obvious criticism will be that the future cannot possibly be accurately predicted. Of course not, but we also realize that historians write history as they understand and interpret the documents written by other historians. Each country has its own historians and they are often in disagreement with historical truths. As educators we will consider predictions as a science. Science is self-correcting and therefore subject to change with changing circumstances. The only absolute for the future is the end of the money system and that is the only categorical imperative!
A paradigm shift in social understanding must soon begin. Where does change begin? Change begins with the education of our future leaders. The future leaders are now students in our institutions of Higher Learning .Our University and college students still possess some social innocence. They are economically poor and therefore uncontaminated by wealth and power. They still enjoy the freedom of pure thought. They are restless and adventurous. They live on the edge. The future belongs to them and their descendants. Give them a suitable fulcrum and a long enough lever and they will move the world.
Politicians, economists, and business people may stand in opposition but they too are faced with reality and must develop and find wisdom from obvious need for the end of the money system. There is a saying that a politician will never start a parade but is more than willing to lead a parade. Our future citizens will form the parade. Let the parade begin!
Young fertile minds are to be encouraged to rethink all social institutions. Since institutions, like all of nature are subject to evolutionary change, isn’t it reasonable to assume that in a democratic society each citizen should be encouraged to assume some responsibility to understand the need for intelligent information that leads them then to progress towards wise decisions?
The visitor listed the institutions as science, arts, technology, politics, religion, education and health. Institutions begin and develop or end with education. Education has developed society to its present high level. Just as nature operates at different energy levels, so does social progress. A quantum leap will land us into the energy age and what we now consider to be social problems will then be understood as social symptoms. Symptoms of a dying body! The cure for these symptoms will be an end to the money system.
Society is now in what could be called a Time Warp. A Time Warp is also an Inertia Warp. Only a very large social pressure can pressure society out of this time warp.
Will this small message from the future be a catalyst to germinate an insight to such massive change? The visitor from the future said that the message would not influence anyone in high positions of power. Bill McLean and I agree that against the influential power and control of the money system and special interest groups, this message is only a drop of water into a vast ocean of bias. The message is simple and clear in its wisdom. Bill’s and my consciences are now clear.
Bill McLean is a fictitious name and he wishes to remain anonymous. I am only a messenger with nothing more to say. I have fulfilled a moral obligation. My influence is insignificant but perhaps the reader will find it of special interest and worthy of careful thought.
Where did Bill’s visitor from the future come from? We do not know, but each time I ride for a spin and stop at Cattle Point I look for him and I dream on.
Jack McLachlan