"What for You is Reality"

What for you is reality?

Now that the summer season is coming to an end and another study term beckons one might be interested in the thoughts of the acclaimed author and “thinker” Robert M. Pirsig and his book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I had heard of this book but had never read it (and, as someone who wonders about "things" wondered why I should have discovered this particular book at this particular time in a second hand bookshop in Florida... in fact the dusty musty bookshop with the eccentric grumpy bookseller wearing a pair of lopsided spectacles that were held together with a sticking plaster could have been straight out of a book itself...) anyway Pirsig (speaking essentially about his own experiences) writes about teaching, were

…you teach and you teach and you teach with no time for contemplation or research... you just teach and teach and teach until your mind grows dull and your creativity vanishes...

He goes on to explore the question, what makes an educational establishment? Is it the building? The design of the building maybe, the name of the university or college or school?

Is it the physical structure, the bricks and mortar that constitute the educational establishment? As he thought about this he begins with reference to a church building which had been sold and was now being used as a bar with all sorts of raucous and drunken behaviour taking place. Quoting from his book

A number of people complained to the church officials about this. The priest delegated to respond to this wondered about the people complaining and how this revealed an incredible ignorance of what a church was. Did they think that the bricks and mortar, the shape of the roof constituted a church... no the building in question had been de-sanctified, this was no longer holy ground and that was the end of it...those who couldn’t tell the difference between a bar and a church were simply revealing something about themselves?

Might the same confusion exist around our (I mean our society) thinking about what makes a university, college or school. The real school or university is not a group of buildings that can be defended by the establishment. Pirsig asks

What do you think the real university is?

His response

The real university has no specific location, pays no salaries, and receives no material dues. The real university is a state of mind. It is that great heritage that has been handed down to us through the centuries and which does not exist in any specific location. It’s a state of mind which is regenerated throughout the centuries by a body of people who traditionally carry the title of professor, but even that title is not part of the real university.

It is not about titles and accreditation and status

…the real university is nothing less than the continuing body of reason itself...

The legal entity, (the establishment)

…cannot teach, does not generate new knowledge or evaluate ideas. It is not the real university at all. It is just a church building the setting, the location at which conditions have been made favourable for the real church (or university or college or school) to exist.

Might we consider in these terms questions around the need for formal recognised qualifications what do they measure exactly, are they but stepping stones leading in a particular (career) direction? Or maybe they are tangible symbols of a position in society? If we explore this term “quality” in terms of quality of opportunity and in particular the (now redundant it is argued) vocational nature of teaching (vocational in the caring sense, that which is familiar to anyone who has enjoyed the help of a hospital nurse; or the teacher we remember, the one that picked us up when we fell over) and that great heritage that Pirsig talks about one must wonder, what are we as a society sacrificing in this great drive for material wealth. Have we sacrificed quality for quantity in almost every sphere of our lives?

Were I going with all this, one might ask, and sure have I not better things to be doing? Well maybe… but lets consider Pirsig’s thesis in terms of inequality and injustice. Ireland, a country striving it seems to pursue the western “Anglo Saxon” societal model has become a reflection of that which its people railed against in the nineteenth, twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Its “common” people the majority “rose up” against the exploitation of the weak and the less able to the benefit of those established in power. Recently it has been reported that the wealthiest in this country are claiming the highest percentage of grant assistance to go to the “exclusive” universities at the expense of the less wealthy and that hundreds of children are homeless in this era of prosperity, and that CORI are reporting that the gap between the rich and poor has grown even wider? Further the children’s charity Barnardos reports that in the Ireland of today 1 in 10 children live in consistent poverty.

Increasingly it is those who can pay that continue to support a traddtion of patronage that comes with attendance at those exclusive institutions where an association with a name maintains a status quo and where by those in positions of power and privilege hold firm their grip.

Whilst in the so called developed countries such as Ireland above, this grip is subtle it is nevertheless a very powerful one and the resultant oppression is corrosive and obscene. Again the evidence above points to an injustice inflicted on those less able.

The clothes may be different but the reflection it seems, is the same as it ever was leading to questions around the human condition.

If we return for a moment to Pirsigs ideas around what constitutes a university it seems to me that, yes the locations, the buildings, the incredible and beautiful nature of the structures designed by those who really care about quality do in fact contribute to the learning (and teaching experience). An apprentice studying at the school of architecture founded by the celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1920’s said that “a great building starts with a great idea”. One cannot but be moved by the incredible “form” of the Stirling Building at Leicester University or the “atmospheric” conditions wrought by the history that has been contained within places like Trinity College Dublin, Cambridge and Oxford in the UK, Harvard, Princeton in the US. One cannot help but be touched by the spirit and the presence of John Henry Cardinal Newman who had a “great idea” and founded University College Dublin and of those great minds Patrick Pearse and James Joyce that have contributed to that ‘university space.’ The injustice is (and we must ask this question) have these institutions in effect been hijacked by those who can afford to pay?

Of course one can find paths and connections in any direction to anywhere if one keeps going but the point is, that if we look at the voluntary sector in Ireland and in particular at the work Respond and others are doing in the area of community development and education one could reasonably come to the conclusion that somewhere at sometime someone cared.

Robert Pirsig,s book is essentially a book about caring. It’s about caring for what you do and it’s about how one leads ones “quality” life.

We are all supposedly born equal in terms of opportunity, a level playing field as it where, and, depending on Gods gifts as to ones talents and abilities the world is ones oyster. However the reality is, is that the human condition has this primordial need it seems, to do better than your neighbour and this has created all sorts of humps and bumps designed to tether and tie those less able in all sorts of knots.

For me however, there are those out there, who think and wonder about these things, and write about them, and talk about them, and even sing about them. Paulo Friere like Robert Pirsig lamented the systematic ironing out of the creative wrinkles within our classrooms particularly at primary level. Of course it is more difficult to control a bunch of independent thinking creative human beings than it is to control automaton bodies. However it is inexcusable to systematically design out the creative spirit because in effect what you are doing is no less than an attempt to constrain the un-constrainable… that is…the essence the souls of our young people and to me this is the greatest injustice of all.

Pirsig was literally halted in his tracks thinking about the systems designed to shape and mould (in fact he ended up in a mental institution) and when the head of his department asked “are you teaching quality?” (and essentially his book explores this complex question in incredible detail) he despaired unable to answer in simple terms.

In effect what do we mean by quality? The question of quality can be explored in scientific terms as a search for that which can be “proven” further it can be explored in terms of metaphysics as a search for the “ultimate nature of reality”. “

Quality of life” what do we mean by that? For example if we look at the nature of “God” within ‘our’ lives (by ‘our’ I refer to all people) we must consider the nature of reality, what is real, is God real? Well, to the majority of people God is both a physical and emotional “reality” adding to the quality of their lives. Our explanations around the nature of the world and the universe one that includes God helps us as questioning human beings to understand or make sense of our place in the universe. Of course many were and are sceptical including some of the great philosophers including Hume, Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, wary of beliefs about the world or universe that where not empirically verifiable. However the question of our place in the universe remains still pretty much beyond our comprehension.

The above is just a train of thought and whilst it might seem to border on the negative, it did not start out as a negative piece nor should it be seen as a negative piece. It central thesis is a questioning of what is real. Is the issue of inequality, injustice, the drive for power at all costs real? For me what is real is, that one child crying tears because of the pain in his belly through hunger is just as real as the child who has lost her mother and father and brother and sister in war or the child who cries at night having suffered unimaginable horrors.

It is a questioning of the human condition in space and time. It is a questioning of our existence and how “cards are dealt”.

The great philosopher Rene Descartes considered the nature of reality and our existence.

…if all physical objects are entirely removed from existence then would space, that “invisible three dimensional grid” still exist? Descartes thought not… because space is the framework in which we understand how physical objects are related to each other…

But those children’s tears; are they to be considered in purely physical terms, rather than in terms of each person’s unique soul. No the human condition will never allow that and whilst the way of the world (at present) seems to be a world with… those who have a lot… those who have a little less… those who have slightly less again… down to those who have nothing of material value at all… each of us regardless is possessed of real dignity and humanity precious and never-ending.

Robert Mc Cann September 11th 2006.