Daily Times

The world is changing fast and a number of us already feel outdated and out of step. There is now more and more emphasis on specialization, service delivery and most importantly speed with which these two are achieved. The vast and over whelming amounts of technical and digital information in all fields today are too much for anyone to master in a short span of time, and that is why the urgency to get it done in one life time.

As we need to train ourselves and acquire the necessary information and skills to reasonably generate enough income to feed our families and ourselves in the post industrial revolution economic conditions, our natural response is to try to find ways to rush through the process of acquisition of knowledge and skills, which can maximize income.

Another aspect affecting our training in this modern age is the dominating influence of computer-machines. It seems for many, engaging with artificial intelligence is easier and more enchanting than to engage with natural intelligence, and the flawless robotic lover could be more captivating in many ways in our pursuit of perfection. The nature of our learning today is oriented towards the use of computers and intelligent machines, and this has shifted the focus of refinement from humans to machines.

By implication, the more revenue an individual can generate, the more sophisticated and more successful s/he must be and vice versa. We have all heard the American phrase, “if you are so smart; how come you ain’t rich?” In every sense of the word, money is success and for very good reasons

There is a direct relationship between skill development and money. The idea of acquiring skills today is primarily for service delivery mostly through machines and in exchange for money. Therefore, if there is enough money being made in exchange for services, there would be by logic, adequate useful skills developed by an individual. This would by assumption also mean that an individual must have successfully gained enough sophistication on a personal level to be able to provide such services that can generate revenue.

By implication, the more revenue an individual can generate, the more sophisticated and more successful s/he must be and vice versa. We have all heard the American phrase, “if you are so smart; how come you ain’t rich?” In every sense of the word, money is success and for very good reasons.

In case of all the skilled and highly paid professionals like lawyers, doctors, engineers, and now artists, professional skill refinement is not distinguished from personal. In case of business owners, personal refinement is even more directly gaged by money.

It is perhaps reasonable to go along this standard of success and refinement since increasingly we are getting more and more dependent on the revenue generated on an individual level, as family and land support of the olden days is not there anymore. The harsh reality is that all of us need to survive on our own in this ruthless plastic world of material and money and the single most decisive factor in our survival is money.

However, this is the point where some confusion starts creeping in. In our efforts to generate money and also judge individuals by it, information is confused with wisdom and technical advancement is confused with personal refinement. An individual is considered to be holistically developed if s/he is an ‘informed and computer-literate technician’.

There is hardly any relationship between specific skill development and personal refinement. Without holistic development and personal refinement, an individual trained in the art of sword fighting would kill the innocent if it meant more money and power. A carpenter can shape wood into nice furniture, a plastic surgeon can restore a mutilated face back into a beautiful one, and an artist can paint beauty on canvas, but how sophisticated and refined we are as individuals depend on how holistically we have developed with a balance of intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ).

As opposed to our modern education and training approach of focusing solely on professional skills, most traditional processes of skills acquisition involved to a great extent holistic development aimed at inculcating traits and characteristics needed for human refinement in general as well as in particular for the specific trait.

For instance, if one had to learn music in the olden days, the master would make the pupil wait it out and demonstrate respect, patience and self-control before teaching him anything. Similarly, for every new thing to be taught, the appreciation for it as well as the capacity (zarf) to handle it had to be acquired before learning the new skill. Most importantly respect for the skill as well as finer human qualities was taught and deeply inculcated. A musician would be taught to not just respect music and his/her master but also the musical instrument to the point of being sacred. Imam Jaffar Sadiq (AS) highlighted this aspect when he taught his students, “seek knowledge and with it adorn yourselves with clemency and respect.”

Traditional training took us to the path of self-improvement along with skill development as is obvious if we look at the old masters, their masterpieces and their lives. Modern approach and current methods, on the other hand, though help us acquire technical expertise directly sellable in the market, but take us away from personal refinement as the entire focus is on skill development.

We could continue to argue about the merits and demerits of traditional and modern approaches to skill acquisition but the real question is if human refinement and holistic development is even required when the need and desire are solely money and power. If human history is of any relevance here, it seems the less there is faith in the transcendent, the less the personal need to refine and more the need for making money by all means necessary.

Imam Ali (AS) said, “Authority, power, or wealth do not change a man; they only reveal him.” In the final analysis, it is our worldview that determines if we choose to change ourselves for the better along with making money, or relentlessly pursue acquisition of wealth, power and authority till death do us part.

The writer is a saxophonist, visiting professor at NCA, scriptwriter, voice-over artist, and a member of the AUTAQ Policy Think Tank on Culture under the Lok Virsa