Creative Consciousness
3. Creativity and Social Evolution
Obstructive anachronisms in the society acquire formidable force of resistance to progress. Only the physical destruction of war is capable of destroying them. Post war periods are known for their infectious social creativity. WWI was hailed as the war to end all wars. But the social psychology of Europe at that time thrilled with the intensity that war offered as an outlet for its pugnacious energies. An Englishman commented that forty years of peace was intolerable to the national psyche. So, the first war half-consciously prepared for the second war. It was assumed that this horrendous war would mark the end of all wars. The end of the second war offered abundant opportunities to end wars forever, but the subconscious urge to prolong the spirit of war was too pronounced. Hence, it was followed by the intense tension of the Cold War for another 45 years.
True to this theory, the great post-war periods of the 20th century were expansive social creativity. World War II was followed by the founding of the UN, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the European Economic Community. The end of the Cold War was followed by the birth of the European Union and the WTO, and most especially the creation of the World Wide Web as the first truly global social organization. The full value of the Internet has not yet become apparent. It is a field of complex organizational growth in cyberspace, without which the advances of the last two decades would have taken centuries. Imagine the creative moment of such a field. The emerging revolution in online education is another creative evolutionary moment waiting to unfold.
Life is entirely creative. All her moments are creative moments. Each man has a different vision. For Steve Jobs, the founding of Apple Computers and launching of the iPod were such moments and their impact spread to reach the whole world. Trade is creative, creative of wealth. Money is the power created by trade. Coins, currency, checks, credit cards are its higher creative accomplishments. It was for trade that the English came to India. But they soon discovered an opportunity to found an empire. At a time of political confrontation in the early 1970s, the monetary benefits of trade motivated Nixon to make a trip to China, with momentous consequences which remain largely invisible, for it effectively eliminated the possibility of war between USA and China.
Montessori, Summerhill and Glenn Doman mark creative moments in early childhood education. They all made education creative. For the child who is memorizing, a moment of original understanding is creative. Similarly, it is a creative moment for the teacher also when he shifts from addressing the memory of the students to addressing their creative minds.
Certain periods in history have been known as creative periods, such as the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in England. People living during such remarkable times will be creative in one way or another. Shakespeare is the most outstanding of many examples. Fashion marks a transient form of creativity at a shallow, superficial level. In many families and institutions there will be a highly creative person whose aura spreads through the whole family and institution. When that person leaves, the creative atmosphere also departs with him. The place loses its luster. When Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, Nehru went on the radio declaring that the light had been lost over India.
A creative leader or a creative ideal can now give to the world such an inspiring atmosphere. This is a period in which the entire world population can inwardly expand towards higher values of light and felicity. Even the negative indications are indicative of the opportunity. Half-way through Obama’s first presidential term, there was a marked change of attitude towards nuclear weapons. After 20 years, the Palestinians revived their efforts for economic planning. The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy was founded in Germany and seeks a solution for the issues that affect the countries of the Levant. The Arab Spring is a negative movement, but a positive symptom of the Spirit of the times.
Fields like music and Market are wholly creative, each in its own way. Music has a creative effect when sound turns melodious. The market is creative of profits when it functions creatively. Traffic systems are quite ordinary and routine. But when we compare traffic systems in organized and unorganized countries, the creative role traffic regulation plays in promoting the welfare of a nation becomes apparent. Studying levels of corruption, implementation of human rights, implementation of law and levels of education reveal the complementary impact of each one on the others. Social Development is a creative field of study which is still in its formative stages.
4. Individual Creativity
A foundation named after Croatian physicist Nicola Tesla is trying to identify young people with the potential for genius. The traditional belief is that geniuses are born and not made. Creative consciousness when cultivated can form the bedrock on which genius flowers. Thirty years ago, a report submitted to the Club of Rome spoke about the essential role played by the service economy, the unorganized sector, and the non-monetarized sector. The author’s thought has not yet received the recognition it deserves. It is a work of a genius.
Creativity expresses through enormous energy. To organize that energy into consciousness is further greater work. Energy comes from aspiration. Aspiration for what? When we aspire for what is already there, it can be described as ambition. When we aspire for what is as yet unrealized, it is creative aspiration. Evolution is not confined to biological species; it occurs in societies as well. Evolution is organizing itself under the surface in every sector of society. The shift from memorization to understanding in education is a significant evolution in that field. It can go one step further from conscious understanding to subconscious or subtle understanding, intensifying the evolutionary process. It is not unknown in the world.
In business and politics astute leaders possess a subtle form of understanding capable of sensing the pulse of the market or the people. Such leaders become very popular. Steve Jobs says he acquired intuitive perception during six months of his stay in India and relied on it for crucial successes in his life, such as invention of the Macintosh computer, Pixar’s Toy Story, the iPod, iPhone, iPad and the highly successful Apple Stores. Lincoln possessed the uncanny intuitive sense to know just how much the public would support and tolerate and how far he could push the Northern states to abolish slavery without precipitating an open revolt. Food rationing introduced during the Second World War continued in South India until 1952 out of belief that removing it would lead to hoarding and sky-rocketing prices. The then Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, C. Rajagopalachari, intuitively perceived that rationing could be abolished without any ill-effects. People feared that prices would soar immediately. He was proved right when instead of rising, prices declined slightly. When people wondered how he managed to do it, he said that he did it relying on intuition. If the world’s knowledge of intuition is brought into the field of education, it would revolutionize the field and transform teaching into a creative process.
Science has immensely benefitted the world through the discovery of phenomena such as electricity and magnetism, etc. Equally momentous consequences will issue from the discovery of creative consciousness, rather the process that can result in creative consciousness. Even a momentary spark of creativity is highly productive. Sustained creative expression will benefit mankind in unimaginable ways.