Looking to History (Part 2)
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Continued from Part 1. Click Here.
Alvin Toffler
(author of Future Shock) wrote… “The illiterate of the twenty-first
century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn and relearn.” As a cultural historian and sociologist,
Toffler seems to have accurately predicted our times with an unprecedented
amount of displaced, skilled workers within an economy and government that
seems to be toddling unsteadily on baby steps as it tries to make sense
of a politically and economically new world.
We would do well to remember that, at various times, China was the most
advanced civilization in the world. And yet it spurned trade with the ignorant
West at a key point, and was soon left behind in a static culture. Saladin
once ruled the greater part of the educated world in the Middle Ages, an
area that is now regarded at best as a substandard in its educational and
social services. Tuscany, hub of the world’s first great Renaissance,
Rome, the conquering architect of great social and sociological advancements,
Greece, Sparta, Egypt…at one time each of these societies stood at
the forefront of leadership and commerce achieved through creative invention.
However, each of them died in turn when the wealth and success fostered
of their creativity became more important than the creative thinking which
had built them.
Bill Russell says, “There is no inherent benefit in doing something
a certain way merely because it has always been done that way.” Bill
Russell, for those who don’t remember, was an exceptional pro basketball
player who is credited by many with changing the way the game is played.
Along with that change came, coincidentally, television and Russell’s
exciting, high scoring style enhanced the popularity and mercantile value
of professional basketball. Whether naturally or through diligent work,
Russell arrived at the perspective quoted above. This thought enabled him
to do things differently and better than anyone had previously. Moreover,
when he retired from basketball, he became a successful businessman in a
large part, which he attests to, due to this perspective.
While Bill Russell may not rank with DaVinci, Galileo or Napoleon in terms
of changing the world, we use his example for exactly that reason. Rather
than being a far-off figure, Russell represents more of an everyman and
thus perhaps stands as a better or at least more personally identifiable
example than, say, Einstein or Newton. This “basketball player”
not only defined and illustrated the core of creative thinking, but he demonstrates
its power twice; in being a giant among his field (basketball), and then
in moving from a successful athlete to successful businessman, at a time
when African-Americans were generally prevented from being “successful
businessmen”. In both cases his success came through “not doing
something a certain way because it has always been done that way.”
If he had, then he probably would have been just one of many forgotten athletes
and he certainly would not have had the temerity to begin or to pursue a
business career at a time when there was no real precedent for black entrepreneurship.
Like Sparta, Egypt and Rome, Mr. Russell’s creativity applied in a
specific direction lifted him above and beyond his peers, Russell did not
simply decline and fade as these great civilizations did, as many who achieve
a level of greatness do. His creativity, when applied, prevents him from
accepting any stagnation or walls of status quo resignation.