Look to make change in New Year

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

December 16, 2009

Look to make change in New Year

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D.

In 15 days, 2009 will give way to the New Year, 2010. Time does not stand still, life evolves and changes. And how the world has changed!

Change comes in different forms. Some change occurs without our input; some change is of our making. Some changes are positive, other changes cause us to feel regret. But in the ages-old process of renewal and new

beginnings, the advent of a new year brings us opportunity to look forward to the inevitable changes that will challenge us in 2010.

Some of us like the slogan, "Yes, we can," and speak of change, but leave to others the hard work of bringing it to fruition.
Some like the conventional way of looking for "good leaders" to foment change. Yet "good leaders" do not fall from heaven; they are humans and are here among us.

I wrote in this space before that leaders are leaders because they have ideas, they commit to changing the status quo through sharing ideas, connecting people who desire the same, creating hope and instilling a belief that in time nothing is impossible through determined and continuous efforts. Then, "Yes, we can."

And it is you, rather than someone else, who can make change happen. Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, a founder of modern political science, said, "One change leaves the way open for the introduction of others."
Last week I suggested we begin small but wonderful things that would inspire others to imitate us, so we can open Machiavelli's door for bigger wonderful things to follow.

Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people." Thus, to the conventional standard of "good leadership," we should add the need for a "good citizenry" as the best engine of change, a powerful force of transformation.

The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself" is a good starting point.

I've written in this space about Jeffrey Kluger's cover story for Time magazine, which posited, "the savage and the splendid" coexist in the same person, "morality and empathy" and "savagery and bloodlust" are "writ deep in our genes." People "do come untracked," he wrote, but the "overwhelming majority" don't "run off the moral rails."
Wisdom comes slowly, but it comes. That's hope.

The search for peace in a "good society" is eternal. A former university colleague introduced me to the writing of Indian spiritual sage Jiddu Krishnamurti, who posited that in a world of friction and disharmony among friends, within families, between office workers, society members and nations, "it is possible to live ... sanely, happily, intelligently, without all the battle going on inwardly and outwardly."

In his book, "This Light in Oneself," Krishnamurti philosophizes that life is "a constant struggle" and a "battlefield" within ourselves and outwardly: "That is what we call living."

Life's "order" gives way to "confusion and chaos," he says, because in our relationships, actions, thinking and way of life, we focus heavily on the "me." This breeds pettiness, narrowness and shallowness in life.

Meditation, he says, helps transform the mind and instill compassion, love and energy, and he advised that we engage in an "Inward Revolution," to live in the present, here and now "in goodness" -- that is, not to preach love and practice hatred, not to preach killing, stealing and libelous behavior, and to embrace high principles.

Lord Buddha has taught all these -- if only man practiced his teaching.

As usual at this time of the year, I recall a presentation by New Zealander John Sax at a regional conference in Manila, where he spoke of the "highway of humanity" on which all of us are travelers, and free to choose to get off on one of the two exits.

On Sax's exit named "Great," travelers can stop at stations called love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, humility, honesty, truth, generosity, forgiveness and self-control. On Exit "miserable," there are stations called hate, misery, conflict, cruelty, meanness, unfaithfulness, brutality, pride, dishonesty, falsehood, misery, unforgiving and no self-control. Which exit do we choose, Sax asked?

We are what we think, and are thinking, which determines the quality of the future. It's based on ideas, opinions, information, experiences, values and beliefs acquired from family, school, friends, religious faith and occupation.
As we move on to the New Year, let's look at areas in ourselves that need change and then we can move on to change the world.

Let me share with you what I have learned: Positive attitudes breed positive results; you cannot always control your life circumstances, but you can control your attitudes toward those circumstances; what whips you is not defeat but your mental attitude toward it; a positive attitude produces a positive perception and changes the situation for the better; thoughts can be developed.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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"I Am What I Learn" Winners

"I Am What I Learn" Winners: "Three students win the 'I Am What I Learn' video contest and will receive a $1,000 prize."

Learn to be imaginative in thinking

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
December 9, 2009

Learn to be imaginative in thinking

A Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D.

Last week, I presented Tim Hurson's philosophy that our future depends less on what we know and more on what we think: How we think determines the quality of what we do, the life we lead.

As we're now only two weeks away from Christmas, a season to be joyful and reflective, it is worthwhile to continue examining his ideas. Maybe it would help inspire some readers' New Year's resolutions.

Lest we miss the point, it's not that what we know is unimportant. To the contrary, knowledge is an essential element of quality thinking. But unless we apply it and think critically, we cannot get to the root of any problem. So crucial is it to think critically that the Foundation for Critical Thinking dubs it not only a "core value," but also a "requirement for economic and social survival" in the 21st century.

French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire said, "No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."

I've previously observed in this space the analogy that water is hot at 211 degrees, and boils at 212. That extra degree makes all the difference. The steam produced by boiling water can power an engine. A crucial bit of knowledge can be the difference between success or frustration in a science laboratory.

British Dr. Alec Bourne's well quoted, "It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated," and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Homes Jr.'s, "The main part of intellectual
education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts alive," spearheaded Hurson's "think better to do better."

Man, a creature of habit, thinks what he has always thought and does what he has always done. He repeats past thoughts and actions, which have become patterned -- "fossilized," says Hurson, who also called the
process, "reproductive thinking" -- as opposed to "productive" thinking. The outcome is predictable.

In his book "Think Better," Hurson advises: Don't repeat past thoughts and actions. That kills creativity. Start "thinking new thoughts" – think outside the box.

World-famous Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote, "Imagination is the beginning of creation: you imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will." Physicist Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Hurson asserts, "To create the future, you have to be able to imagine." In my column last week, I quoted Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman, who said he is not ready to cede the 21st century to China "just yet," because he thinks although China may have a lot going for her, America still has "important things" that cannot be commoditized. One is "imagination." Americans still have the ability to "imagine and spin off new ideas" to thrive -- "What your citizens imagine now matters more than ever because they can act on their own imaginations farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before -- as individuals," Friedman wrote. The other "thing" that is not a commodity is "good governance, which can harness creativity."

Good governance includes, among other things, accountability, transparency, equity, inclusiveness and rule of law. There is no creativity where free thoughts are curtailed as in an autocratic regime and imagination is just a word.

As we connect these dots, we should use this holiday season to reflect on what we want for our own future. Imagine it, as Shaw and Hurson would say. Friedman would say, imagine and "spin off new ideas." For
Friedman, people who have new ideas, who imagine and innovate, are the one who prosper.

If you have 3 minutes and 36 seconds to spare, you would find it worthwhile to Google "212" and watch a very inspiring video about how your life can change by turning up the heat one extra degree, from 211 to 212 degrees. As the video caption says, "It's your life."

The video advises: "Having a simple, clearly defined goal can capture the imagination and inspire passion." And it assures: "The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it possible."

It tells you on the screen: "To get what we've never had, we must do what we've never done." In other words, stop repeating the old. Obviously, nothing is going to change until a first step is taken to head toward a desired goal. And you don't need to see the end of the road before you make your journey. English essayist Dr. Samuel Johnson, who published his Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, said it well: "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome."

So use this holiday season to begin your journey. The 19th-century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh produced more than 2,000 artworks, though he died at 37. He's known today as one of the world's great painters. In his words, "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."

So, let's begin our first small things today. If we do something wonderful, other people may imitate us. Today, show a smile, say hello, wish someone a good day, say thank you, demonstrate compassion and humility.

And we will see still water ripple in wider and wider circles when the surface is disturbed.

A proverb goes, "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

A Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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In the new year, 'think better to do better'

A Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D.ge

In four weeks, the New Year will be upon us. Usually, around this time of the year, I dust off reading material from my library shelf, looking for something that will energize me for the new year ahead.

A Christmas present from my wife, given several years ago as I settled into my retirement from teaching, "Think Better," by Tim Hurson, a specialist of a firm that provides training, facilitation and consultation in productive thinking and innovation, is, again, what I read: "Your future will depend less on what you know and more on what you think."

A lifelong student, I try to learn something new every day. Since my retirement, each day seems extra special and precious -- for which I give much thanks. I smile as I read what Winston Churchill, who led Britain to victory against the Axis powers in World War II, said: "It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations."

My regular readers know I am a real quotations buff. Some may see them as platitudes, but I find a kernel of truth in those I share in this column. As each presents a way of looking at the world, I learn from them. As 19th century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Our best thoughts come from others."

So I find this time is a good time to remind, and reconnect with Hurson, who has a pragmatic, readable style: "It's not what you know but how you think" that determines your future and your life. His philosophy may be summarized in five words: "Think better to do better." 

Quality of thought 

Surely each of us thinks. That ability separates us from animals, which operate on instinct. But some people confuse opinion -- an idea unsubstantiated by knowledge -- with thought -- which involves careful analysis. This careful, reasoned thought can be characterized as critical thinking.

The Foundation of Critical Thinking posits, "all thinking is not of the same quality. ... Much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or downright prejudiced." High-quality thinking improves our quality of life and the quality of everything we do.

The Foundation's publications describe the pitfalls of "aimless thinking" -- the "monkey mind," as Hurson calls it. Rather, we should engage our mind in generating further questions -- the foundation sees this process as a "substantive learning" -- "A mind with no question is a mind that is not intellectually alive." 

'Essential questions'

Without further questions, a mind does not know how to proceed or to process. Recall Aung San Suu Kyi's call on her compatriots to maintain a "questing mind."

Hurson, an optimist, assures us that whatever intelligence quotient, IQ, or creative quotient, CQ, your brain may have, "every brain ... can be taught to think better: to understand more clearly, think more creatively, and plan more effectively."

Thus, any person can develop and grow.

Like the foundation, Hurson urges us to "keep asking new questions," even if it seems clear and obvious what the answers are, because to stop asking questions is to stop productive thinking and deny ourselves new possibilities. We need to ask "essential questions" in order for us to deal with "what is necessary, relevant, and indispensable to a matter at hand," whether in reading, writing, speaking, or doing anything.

Recently, I logged on to a Web site and spent time dissecting a former Cambodian professor's call for a "progressive and systematic overhaul" of Cambodian society to enable the country to gradually resolve its current economic, institutional, legal, political and social problems. As I found Dr. Tith's explanations of the main causes of the inertia and the failure of new ideas, capable leadership and entrepreneurial spirit to grow in Cambodia, to emanate from a dearth of quality thinking, I wrote about his call in my columns.

I also wrote in this space of my thinking about how it is desirable to have a hundred different thoughts bloom in the garden of ideas to enable us to choose from the best, to develop and improve society. My recent columns deal with ideas, commitment and change. Change upsets some people as their world is disturbed.

Yet, as we are the product of thoughts, what then do we become when ideas and thoughts are seen as damaging to progress and development? I dread what authoritarianism can do to mankind.

Last week, I wrote about Thomas Friedman's "The Power in 11/9" when people power brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989 without firing a shot. Friedman's thoughts: "Where there is people power wedded to progressive ideas, there is hope -- and American power can help. Where there is people power harnessed to bad ideas, there is danger. Where there is no people power and only bad ideas, there will be no happy endings." 

Imagination 

On Nov. 22, Friedman's "Advice From Grandma" says most seem to agree that "it's all but certain that China will own the 21st century." But Friedman is "not ready to cede the 21st century to China just yet," because America still has important things that can't be commoditized -- one is "imagination," and Americans still have the ability to "imagine and spin off new ideas" to thrive. The other is "good governance, which can harness creativity."

Friedman is worried about America's ability to forge "optimal" solutions to her biggest challenges, and suggests America "need(s) better citizens."

As we're prepared to leave the old year behind, I look to renewing "Think better to do better" for myself, and wish the same for my readers in the New Year 2010!

A Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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