10. Neohumanism - Tools to Change The World

PREPARATION

Objectives of Module 10:

To understand the nature of media lies and how they impact people.
To understand what is neohumanism.
To understand how to use critical study to understand privilege.

Check Your Understanding:

At the end of this module, you should be able to explain the following concepts:

Why do the corporate media act like government and big business propaganda organs in the United States and Great Britain?
Why are stories of violence and sex so common on news programs?
What do ads sell?
What are sentiments, geo-sentiments, and socio-sentiments?
What is Neohumanism?
What are the limitations of humanism?
What is progress?
What is psychic exploitation?
What are culture, civilization, and pseudo-culture?
What is the true goal of education?
What is Neohumanist Education?
Why is critical study important?
What is privilege and who has it?
What are the two kinds of privilege?

Readings to Prepare for Module 10:

CIRCLE TIME

Excitement Sharing:

“What is something good that has happened in your life since we last met? Or would anyone like to read from your journal or share your recent activities?”

The Social Reality: Media Lies

“All governments lie,” said I.F. Stone, a radical American investigative journalist. Amy Goodman, host of the global news program Democracy Now! adds, “especially in times of war” (Peabody 2016). There is no overt government censorship in the United States and Great Britain, yet corporate media act very much like the propaganda organs of the government and big business.

Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman highlighted this in their famous book, Manufacturing Consent. They asserted that money and power are able to filter the news, to keep dissenters powerless and on the outside, and to allow powerful private interests to get their message across to the public. This is because:

The main media outlets are very large corporations that are profit-driven.
Advertising is the main source of their income.
Media corporations rely on information that is fed to them by government and big business.
Big business and government can generate a great amount of negative ‘flak,’ which is public criticism, angry letters, and complaints to sponsors about a news story they don’t like. (Chomsky and Herman 1988). An example of flak is the high-powered campaign to deny and dismiss the scientific consensus that climate change is a real danger and mostly caused by humans. This flak has resulted in the major U.S. media outlets falsely conveying the issue as an open debate in which many are skeptical.

How a poor family survives is not a news story, but whatever a very rich and famous celebrity does is global news. If a teacher, social worker, or other mentor throughout their lifetime empowers hundreds of young people to transform their lives, that is not a news story; yet if a madman picks up a gun and shoots five people at random, that is assured to be world news. To explain why, journalists have a saying: “If it bleeds, it leads.” Because violence and sex are very attractive to people’s baser instincts, when news shows compete for profit, it is much more profitable to have a lot of stories about violence and sex.

More than $545 billion was spent on advertising worldwide in 2016 (Statista 2018). The average United States citizen is exposed to 3,000 ads every single day. There are ads on buildings, sports stadiums, athletes’ uniforms, billboards, bus stops, in doctor’s offices, and many other places. Much of their effect is subconscious. Rance Crain, senior editor of Advertising Age, said, “Only eight percent of an ad’s message is received by the conscious mind. The rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain” (AdAge 1997).

For example, since the Coca-Cola Company began in 1886, it has convinced the majority of people in the world that its product—a clearly unhealthy sugar-laden beverage containing caffeine and phosphoric acid—will quench a thirst better than water, and bring happiness at the same time. Coke’s most recent advertising slogans in media spots with good-looking young people have been “Open Happiness” and “Taste the Feeling.” These happy images affect us subconsciously, so that the next time we’re asked to choose something to drink, many people will unconsciously reach for a Coke (McQueen 2001).

Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success, and most important, of normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be. Much advertising tells us that the most important thing about men is to be strong, rich, and powerful, while the most important thing for women is their appearance.

Author and filmmaker Jean Kilbourne pioneered a shocking critique of how the advertising industry portrays women superficially, and objectifies them, which lowers women’s self-esteem. Sexualized images of women are being used to sell nearly all kinds of goods. This degrades women, encourages abuse, and reinforces sexism (Jhally 2010).

The Social Reality Discussion Question: Media Lies

Our question now is: Have you ever felt subjected to media lies? If so, what were they like? How did they make you feel?

We will go around the room, and ask everyone to say briefly what your opinion is about media lies, and how they make you feel. Please speak for just one minute each.

[After everyone has spoken, 10-15 minutes] Now let’s shift our focus, because, as usual in this course, we want to focus on the solutions.

Cooperative Game – Prejudice:

Participants stand in a line at one side of the room. Ask the participants to walk to a selected area about three meters (ten feet) away if they would answer ‘yes’ to the following question:

“Have you ever been treated differently because of your gender?”

Then invite each person who answered yes to tell the context of how and where it happened, and how it made them feel. Then all of them should walk back to the starting line to listen to the next question.

“Have you ever treated people differently because of your gender?” Those who answer ‘yes’ walk to the other place, explain the context and answer, “What was that like and how did it make you feel?”

“Have you ever been treated differently because of your skin color?” [pause] “What was that like and how did it make you feel?”

“Have you ever treated people differently because of their skin color?” [pause] “What was that like and how did it make you feel?”

“Have you ever been treated differently because of your nationality or religion?” [pause] “What was that like and how did it make you feel?”

“Have you ever been treated differently based on your clothes, hairstyle, body piercings, tattoos or anything else in your appearance?” [pause] “What was that like and how did it make you feel?”

“Have you ever been treated differently due to your age?”

“Have you ever treated people differently due to their age?”

“Are there any other related questions that should be asked?”

[Note: The way the first question is worded may lead men, as well as women, to answer ‘yes’, if they are aware of their privilege, an “invisible package of unearned assets,” such as having access to higher education, gaining psychological self-confidence, or having a sense of belonging or worth in society. In the same way, members of the majority race, religion, etc., may answer ‘yes’ to all the questions due to the deference they are shown and the social connections afforded them.] Afterwards, ask the group the following questions:

How did it feel to stand apart from the group because you have been treated differently?

Does prejudice still exist in this society? What is the root cause of prejudice?

What could be done to dispel stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes? What could you do personally to dispel stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes? [20 minutes. Source: Matt Oppenheim, PhD.]

Prout’s Vision: Human Sentiments and Neohumanism

A sentiment is an emotional tendency to identify with things we like, with that which gives us pleasure. Sentiments are fueled by emotional energy and are a powerful motivational force. Yet our emotions by themselves tend to be blind and unreliable guides to action.

It is common to feel allegiance to one’s family and close circle of friends. In many parts of the world, membership in a clan, tribe or community is vital. Most people also regard themselves to be members or citizens of a certain region or nation, sometimes believing that their country is somehow better and more important than any other. P.R. Sarkar refers to this type of patriotism or nationalism as ‘geo-sentiment.’ Believing that one’s nation is superior to others is expressed negatively in the slogan “My country, right or wrong!” and in discrimination against foreigners. It was this sentiment that gave the emotional justification for colonialism and imperialism.

Identifying more with one’s own race, religion, class or gender, to the exclusion of other groups, is known as ‘socio-sentiment.’ Both geo-sentiment and socio-sentiment have led to countless tragic conflicts and wars that are, in his words, “the black spot of human character” (Sarkar 1981, 91). Politicians who exploit these sentiments to gain popularity may become quite powerful, but they can lead their entire community or nation to ruin.

“Neohumanism” is a term coined by Sarkar, and explained at length in his book, The Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism. It expresses the process of expanding one’s sentiment or allegiance outward from mere self-interest to one of empathy and identification with an ever-larger share of humanity and the universe.

Enlightened education that develops the rational, questioning mind can be an antidote to limiting sentiments and prejudices. When the raw, powerful energy of emotion is harnessed and guided by critical thinking, conscience, and benevolence, it transforms into one of the strongest forces of the universe.

If education expands our sense of identity to include all humanity, we will inevitably feel pain at the suffering of others, wherever they may be. This in turn inspires us to commit ourselves to social justice and service.

Why Neohumanism? The philosophy of humanism originated in Europe during the Renaissance in reaction to the illogical dogmas, sexual abuse, and dominance of the Catholic Church. In that era, powerful clergy demanded blind faith and total obedience. Later, during the Age of Enlightenment, many Western humanists rejected the idea of a transcendent God outside of human experience. Instead they relied on logic, scientific inquiry, and reason, trusting only what could be observed and measured. This freed them from church rule, but it led to a new dogma of material physics and “scientific” materialism as the sole power to decide all truth and fact.

The rejection of God forced humanists to search deeply for the personal and political meaning of such concepts as “liberty, equality, and fraternity,” a slogan of the French Revolution. Humanists struggled to find a more natural and rational morality. Soon, however, they ran into the problem of relative morals. Liberty from what? Equality in relation to what? Good and evil seemed to depend on who was judging.

Within such a relative framework, the purpose of life is not always clear. This can leave the humanist in a spiritual vacuum, without transcendent values or direction—adrift on a sea of shifting, confusing ideas.

Humanism has other limitations. When tied to countries, as in the case of the United Nations, its followers may be plagued by political differences and jealousies. If it is based on the belief that there is nothing greater than the human ego, that there is no higher consciousness within us, humanists can become cynical and materialistic.

The philosophy of humanism may also lead a person to neglect other species, to consider them inferior and to exploit them for profit. Neohumanism urges us to rise above this limitation by including all of life in our definition of what is real, important, and deserving of respect. Although human beings are the most evolved species on this planet, other animals have awareness and feelings, too. Our actions and conduct should show love and respect toward all beings and inanimate objects in the universe.

Thus, an outlook based on universalism and Neohumanism is one that recognizes the spiritual family of humanity, a family that transcends nations and is rooted in spiritual ecology. Neohumanism is an expansive concept promoting physical welfare and security, mental learning, spiritual growth, and fulfillment. Neohumanism frees us from narrow sentiments and doctrines, as well as creating a shared sense of compassion. Viewing all human beings and the rest of this universe as the children of one Supreme Consciousness, one feels that the world’s sorrow is his or her own sorrow, and the world’s happiness is his or her own happiness.

A New Definition of Progress

Every being in this universe is moving—even inanimate objects vibrate on the atomic level. However, movement only has meaning or purpose when it is directed toward a goal. Prout defines social progress as movement directed toward the goal of well-being for all, from the first expression of moral consciousness to the formation of universal Neohumanism.

Prout uses the analogy of humanity as a family, or a group of people traveling on a pilgrimage, who stop if any member of their group is injured or falls sick. The American poet, Carl Sandburg, wrote:

There is only one man, and his name is all men.

There is only one woman, and her name is all women.

There is only one child, and its name is all children (Sandburg 1967).

Human society should facilitate the collective movement and growth of everyone. This requires a collective consciousness and social connection or solidarity.

Progress is commonly thought to mean increases in material comfort, or advances in technology. Prout, however, asserts that no true progress is ever really possible in the physical realm. This is because all physical things eventually decay, and any physical strength we build up will, in the end, be lost by accident, illness, or old age. Physical inventions, while making our lives easier and more comfortable, also create problems, dangers, and side effects. In the past, for example, when people walked or rode animal carts, few suffered critical injuries in accidents—now nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, and 20 to 50 million are injured or disabled (ASIRT 2018).

It is also clear that increases in knowledge, communication, and mental activity are not always truly progressive and helpful to one’s deeper well-being. Stress, anxiety, depression, and mental disease are much more common among educated, urban populations in industrialized societies than among less educated rural people. It is also true that what we learn can be forgotten.

Prout accepts that only those physical actions and mental expressions that promote progress toward the state of infinite well-being are truly progressive. For example, assuring all the right to work and earn the basic necessities of life ensures collective peace of mind. When people no longer have to worry about how they will provide food, clothing, housing, education, and medical care for their families, they will be free to develop their higher mental and spiritual qualities.

Psychic Exploitation

When P.R. Sarkar first introduced Prout in 1959, there was a great need for cultural recovery following the colonial rule of India and the rest of the so-called Third World. Besides political and economic exploitation, the cultural identity of the people had been harmed. Sarkar pointed out the need to reclaim local traditions, knowledge, memory, and identity.

Sarkar explained how psychic exploitation takes place in three ways. First, in both rich and poor countries, public education is neglected. Little money is allotted to public schools, and most elites send their children to costly private schools. Because of lack of proper funding, public schools cannot attract the most qualified people to teach, and cannot afford other curricular and extra-curricular programs that stimulate and enrich the lives of the students. This neglect causes academic standards to fall, teachers and students to lose their spirit, and rising levels of school dropouts.

Secondly, there is a lack of development of social and economic awareness, a factor which maintains the cycle of exploitation. The great Brazilian educator Paulo Freire condemned this lack of critical awareness:

Fundamentally, I think that one of the things that is lacking in us in the learning experience, in both teachers and students, is an experience of critical reflection about our presence in the world. What is generally emphasized in most schools is the transfer of content, transferring information of biology, geography, history, and mathematics that minimizes the importance of your presence in the world (Maheshvarananda 2006).

Freire revolutionized the teaching of literacy through dialogue, recognizing and respecting the knowledge that poor people already have. He also helped them to question the reasons for their poverty in a process that he called “conscientization.”

A third type of psychic exploitation is to instill fear and inferiority complexes in people in order to keep them passive. For example, the capitalist media promotes the idea that anyone can become rich. It can be logically inferred, therefore, by anyone who is not rich, that it is somehow their fault that they are not. Unemployed people often suffer depression, a low self-esteem, and sometimes a bitterness and anger at society which can tragically explode in violent acts of crime.

The dominant message in capitalism is self-centered and competitive: “First get an education; then get a job; make as much money as you can; and buy as much as you can.” The media rarely convey a message of duty toward others in our human family. Many governments and private corporations advertise lotteries and gambling casinos to poor people, encouraging them to dream of getting rich. This selfish, materialistic attitude is expressed as, “I win, you lose,” or more correctly, “I win, and it doesn’t matter to me what happens to anyone else.” This selfish outlook destroys human relations, communities, and the planet itself.

Culture, Civilization and Pseudo-Culture

The social life of people depends on their culture and civilization. Prout defines culture as a variety of human expressions, including traditions, customs, art, language, dress, and diet. In every community of the world, culture has matured naturally along with the development of the human intellect.

Civilization, on the other hand, pertains to the level of humanity and rationality present in a culture. Some traditional cultures have been plagued with superstitions, intolerance, and violence. Other societies may represent a high degree of culture, but if they allow their people to discriminate, exploit, or claim superiority, Prout would regard them as uncivilized.

Prout’s universal outlook recognizes unity in human diversity. It accepts that human culture is really one, with many local variations that enhance the beauty of humanity. The basic nature of the human mind is the same everywhere, but our tendencies are expressed in various ways and amounts in different places. In order for true unity to develop, we must honor this diversity while recognizing our inherent oneness.

Throughout history, some cultures have tried to destroy others. In the past, imperialists used superior weapons to invade and conquer other lands. They told the defeated people, “Your culture is primitive; your religion is defective; your language is unsophisticated.” The invaders used violence and imposed an inferiority complex to break the people’s will to resist.

When colonialism gradually collapsed after the Second World War, capitalists invented clever techniques to continue exploiting the newly independent countries. One of their most powerful tricks has been to impose pseudo-culture.

Pseudo-culture means that which is fake, imposed, and which does not uplift a people. It is a construct of ideas and products that weaken the social outlook of a people and prepare them to be exploited. Pseudo-culture offers to make life more pleasant than it was under their own culture, but in fact, it weakens people mentally and spiritually and lowers their will to resist.

Many of the television programs broadcast around the world promote a U.S. consumer pseudo-culture. This can have a damaging effect on one’s personality. Ads portray a life that seems to be more pleasurable than one’s real life. Such ads can make people want to be rich and white—to enjoy the flashy clothes, cars, and houses that almost everyone in Hollywood TV shows and films seems to have. Most children around the world see their parents struggling, living with much less income and fewer material goods, and so they start to feel that they are backward and deprived of the good life. If children want to be someone else, it means they don’t want to be themselves. Even young children begin to develop a low self-image and inferiority complex because of pseudo-culture.

The corporate-owned mass media continually promote the desire to get rich quick; they do not broadcast revolutionary music, theater or news. Pseudo-culture paralyzes people and breaks their will to fight exploitation. It is very negative and divisive, confusing people as to who the real enemy is and weakening their courage to unite and resist.

An Educational Revolution

Prout recognizes that teaching is one of the most important professions. Education, both formal and informal, should be society’s highest priority. It should be available to all free of charge, funded by the government. However community school systems and universities, in collaboration with teachers and parents, should run the schools, free from political control.

Prout proposes that the media should be taken from the control of the capitalists and run by cooperatives of journalists, artists and educators. These co-ops would try to promote popular education for all ages. It should be inspiring, with uplifting culture, cardinal human values and universalism.

The goal of education should be liberation, to free people from mental bondages and limitations and to promote solidarity. Teaching cardinal human values is very important, rousing in the students a sense of caring for the welfare of others. Our education should begin with mutual respect for different outlooks and ideas. It will strive to make students aware and awaken consciousness.

The Neohumanist system of education is based on “the practice of love for all creation including plants, animals, and the inanimate world” as propounded by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. It includes a harmonious blending of Eastern introversial philosophy and Western extroversial science. The focus of Neohumanist Education is on physical, mental, and spiritual self-development, human values, universal love, and applied learning. Personal growth includes areas such as morality, integrity, self-confidence, self-discipline, and cooperation.

Worldwide, Neohumanist Education is practiced in a network of schools and institutes that span over fifty countries with hundreds of kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, colleges, and children’s homes. This global education network is called Gurukula, which means an institution that helps students dispel the darkness of the mind and leads to total emancipation of each person and of society at large. The Gurukula network of Neohumanist schools and institutes aims to hasten the advent of a society in which there is love, peace, understanding, inspiration, justice, and health for all beings.

At Gurukula, all aspects of the human personality are developed, using an integrated curriculum that empowers the student to know him or herself, and to use this knowledge in order to serve society. The Gurukula curriculum focuses on intellectual ability, but also includes the development of intuition, aesthetics, and an ecological viewpoint. The main campus for Ananda Marga Gurukula is in Anandanagar, West Bengal, India, where an educational township on a 550-square-kilometer rural campus is being built. Current projects include Composite Medical Services, Veterinary Institute, Acupuncture Clinic, Music College, Naturopathy Institute, and Teacher Training College.

Neohumanist institutions, which include educational and research institutes, academies, conference centers, colleges, and universities, have started in the United States (Asheville, NC), Sweden (Ydrefors), Singapore, Argentina, Taiwan, and Italy. These offer adult courses in an array of subjects aimed at liberating the intellect and promoting individual and collective welfare.

Prout’s Vision Discussion Questions:

Have you ever experienced dogma, geo-sentiment or socio-sentiment? Describe the situation.

In your opinion, is there a lack of social and economic awareness among the people of your country? If so, why?

Are fear and inferiority complexes imposed on people in your country? If so, how?

Have you ever experienced racism directly or indirectly? Describe your experience.

Have you ever experienced exploitation directly or indirectly? Describe your experience.

Are lotteries legal in your country? Should they be? Why or why not?

Pseudo-culture means that which is fake, imposed, which has a debilitating effect psychologically and spiritually and which lowers the will of people to resist. Can you give examples of pseudo-culture in your society? How can we decide what is true culture and what is fake?

Do advertisements in your country make young people want to be someone else? Explain.

How many popular songs do you know that inspire people to rise up and make a revolution? What percentage of pop stars do you know that are revolutionary role models? Why don’t more do this?

What percentage of popular TV shows do you know that inspire people to rise up and make a revolution? Why don’t more do this?

Activist Tools: Critical Thinking and Privilege

Critical Thinking: Both advertisements and political propaganda try to manipulate us, often with an arrogant disdain toward the people’s intelligence. In his book, The Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism, P.R. Sarkar prescribes three stages to overcome lies and manipulation. The first stage is critical study. He defines study as “intensive intellectual analysis.” To prevent manipulation, we need to study and carefully analyze.

Study means to gather information from all angles. We should not only rely on books and research, we should talk with people and seek direct experiences to come to a more balanced view about the world and its people.

In the case of advertising, we could study why some ads appeal so strongly to our emotions. Happy actors in stunning scenery with soothing music creates a pleasant feeling in us. If those good-looking actors are smoking cigarettes, then it will cause many people to link smoking with happiness. Cigarette ads convinced many people, including young children, to begin smoking, and to become addicted to tobacco. A coalition of anti-tobacco groups were able to get these ads banned in most countries.

One potential defect in study is due to ignorance, when we unknowingly pass on incorrect information, unaware that we are spreading “fake news.” Another possible defect is due to changes in time, when we unknowingly pass on knowledge that was once true, but is no longer true.

After carefully studying an issue, the second stage to overcome lies and manipulation is to consider the pros and cons of both sides of an issue. If the positive side is predominant, we will give that side our vote. If the negative aspect is predominant, we will decide against the issue.

In the third stage, we need to decide whether this will contribute to the welfare of all. If we develop a firm rationalistic mentality, no one will be able to deceive us by false sentiments, and we will gain inner strength and resolution (Sarkar, 1982).

Privilege: In her article, “White Privilege and Male Privilege,” Peggy McIntosh defines privilege as “unearned power conferred systematically” (McIntosh 1988). Privilege is hard to see for those who were born with access to power and resources. It is very visible for those to whom privilege was not granted. For those who have privilege based on race, gender, class, physical ability, sexual orientation, or age, it is just normal.

There are two kinds of privilege. The first kind includes things of value that all people should have, such as feeling safe in public spaces or working in a place where they feel they belong and are valued for what they can contribute. Tragically, many women and other oppressed peoples around the world face discrimination, invisible barriers, and sometimes violence to prevent them from becoming equals with the privileged classes. The goal of Prout is to create a global society where everyone is guaranteed the minimum requirements, where everyone feels safe from violence, and where everyone has equal opportunities in educational and professional training, as well as a chance to fully develop their artistic and spiritual potential.

The second kind of privilege goes a step further by giving one group power over another. The common practice of men speaking more than women in conversations, for example, is based on a cultural assumption, often unconscious, that men are more intelligent than women. A husband who appears in any way subordinate to his wife is often labeled “henpecked” or worse; the English language contains no specific insulting terms for a woman who is under the control of her husband.

Here are just a few other examples of privilege:

In the United States, statistics show that racial minorities are more likely than white Americans to be arrested. Once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted, and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences. The best national evidence on drug use shows that African Americans and whites use illegal drugs at about the same rate. Yet African Americans are about five times as likely to go to prison for drug possession as whites (The Sentencing Project 2013).
In most countries, there is a disproportionately high number of white males in government and the ruling circles of corporations and universities.
Those in privileged groups have an easier time getting a loan, or renting or buying a house wherever they want. They have greater access to quality education and health care.
Those who are privileged can count on the fact that their nation’s history books will include their experience of history. Indigenous people and women, on the other hand, know that their children will not learn in school about their people, except in mostly stereotypical accounts. Traditionally, history books have not included women who have distinguished themselves, nor has the history of women been taught in schools. From the first recorded law in 2400-2300 BC, which says that when a woman speaks out of turn she will be smacked by a brick, there has been a conspiracy to silence women (Heing 2015).
Those in privileged groups generally assume that when they go out in public, they won’t be challenged and asked to explain what they’re doing, or physically attacked because of their race, gender, or sexual orientation.
Those in privileged groups can reasonably expect that if they work hard and “play by the rules,” they’ll get what they deserve. They can succeed without other people being surprised. If they fail, they will be given a second chance and allowed to treat their failure as a learning experience.

Different groups of people in different countries have privilege. In all the European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, the white race has privilege. Throughout Latin America, the white descendants of Europeans have privilege.

In India, the Brahmin high caste dominates the Hindu religion, Indian politics, and the Indian economy. Discrimination against lower castes is illegal under Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, but the caste system is still very much alive. About half the population is classified as lower caste. More than 47,000 crimes against lower castes were reported in 2016 alone (Couderé 2016). A 2014 survey by the Indian National Council of Applied Economic Research of 42,000 households found that almost one-third of those who were upper caste would not admit a person from the Dalit, Bahujan, or Adivasi communities (the so-called untouchable or casteless) into their kitchen or to use their utensils. Only five percent of the women surveyed had married someone from another caste. At election time, most Indians vote for politicians based on their caste (Chishti 2014).

Those who are privileged think of themselves as just people, not part of any special group; however, others may see them in this way. So, what should people of privilege do to make the world a better place in which all of us can live?

To challenge systems of privilege, we must explore and talk about them. This is usually uncomfortable for those in privileged groups. McIntosh writes that “the pressure to avoid [talking about privilege] is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy,” that is, the idea that those with wealth and power earned it purely by their hard work, talent, and superior intelligence (McIntosh, 1988).

Those who are not reaping the unearned benefits of privilege must challenge those who wield the power of their privilege either consciously or unconsciously. Confronting privilege is often difficult and unpleasant, and sometimes, even dangerous. In fact, though, to insist on equal treatment as a woman, a person of color, an immigrant, or as a member of any oppressed group, is important. Speaking truth to power is absolutely essential in making any significant change in the power structure, whether it be the patriarchy or the capitalist system, both of which are inexorably linked.

Activist Tools Exercise: Mapping Difference

Have each person identify their ethnic background, race, gender, sexual orientation, educational background, religious or spiritual background, economic class (upper class, middle class, working class, other), age, marital and parental status, and whether or not they are disabled in some way. [After everyone has done this.] “You will probably feel that this exercise does not reveal very much about who you really are: your personal story, your character, your hopes and feelings. However, this wheel of diversity says a lot about the social reality that has influenced you during your lifetime. Imagine how your life would change if you suddenly had a different skin color, or a different gender, or a different sexual orientation, or if you were deaf or blind. How would people treat you differently? What opportunities would open or close to you?”

Closure:

The facilitator should remind everyone about further viewings, readings, and activities – Do as many as you can. Ask everyone to share how they felt about the course and how they would like to continue to work for a better world. Please help us improve this course by filling out this evaluation at https://prout.info/course-evaluation/.

Activities—Do as many as you can:

Count the stories on a TV news show. How many of them are about violence or sex?

Find out whether there is an anti-racism organization or campaign in your community. If so, visit them and ask what their challenges and successes have been.

Find out whether there is an anti-sexism organization or campaign in your community. If so, visit them and ask what their challenges and successes have been.

Buy or borrow a popular magazine in your country. Count all the people pictured in all the advertisements. How many of them represent each race that lives in your country? Are the proportions the same as in the general population? Do the same with TV, counting all the people in the commercials. Are any of them overweight? Do any of them have disabilities? Do any of them represent different cultures?

Start a discussion about privilege.

FOLLOW-UP

Evaluate the Study Guide

Evaluate the Group Process

Course Evaluation: Feedback on Group Process

If you were part of a Tools to Change the World Study Circle, in addition to filling out the Course Evaluation at the end of the manual, we would love to hear from one representative about the group. Please fill out this group evaluation at www.prout.info/group-evaluation. Or mail it to us at Dada Maheshvarananda, 6 Breyerton Court, Asheville, NC 28804, USA. Thank you for your participation.

The Group

1) Where did this group meet? Please list place, city, state or province, and country ____________________________________________________________________________

2) What publicity was done to find enough participants? How successful was it?_______________________________________________________________________________

3) When did the first meeting and the last meeting take place? ______________________________

4) How many modules did the group do? ____________

5) How many participants attended at least one session? _____

6) How many of them were under 25 years of age___? From 25 to 50 ___? Over 50 ___?

7) How many participants attended at least five sessions? _____

8) How many participants attended at least nine sessions? _____

9) Do you feel confident enough and interested enough to organize another course? Why or why not? ______________________________________________________________________________

Further viewings:

Abhidevananda Avadhuta. 2012. “Neohumanism (Section 1 of 4).” October 15, 2012. 8 minutes.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. 2011. “We Should All be Feminists.” TEDXEuston. 2011. 29 minutes.

Alister, Paul Narada. 2009. “Neo Humanist Education.” December 8, 2009. 7 minutes.

Johnson, Allan. 2015. “Power, Privilege and Difference with Dr. Allan Johnson.” March 25, 2015. 1 hour.

Peabody, Fred, Peter Raymont, Jeff Cohen, and John Westhauser, directors. 2016. “All Governments Lie – Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone.” Documentary. 1 hour 32 minutes.

Woodland, Dane. 2017. “How Male Privilege Made Me a Feminist.” TEDxYouth@StJohns. December 8, 2017. 8 minutes.

References:

AdAge. 1997. “Viewpoint: Who Knows What Ads Lurk in the Hearts of Consumers? The Inner Mind Knows.” June 9, 1997.

Association for Safe International Road Travel. 2018. “Annual Global Road Crash Statistics.”

Chishti, Seema. 2014. “Biggest Caste Survey: One in Four Indians Admit to Practising Untouchability.” The Indian Express, November 29, 2014.

Couderé, Hanne. 2016. India: “Violence Against Dalits on the Rise.” The Diplomat, May 19, 2016.

Herman, Edward and Noam Chomsky. 1988. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.

Jhally, Sut, dir. 2010. “Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women” documentary.

Maheshvarananda, Dada. 2006. “Conversation with Paulo Freire, Educator of the Oppressed,” in Sohail Inayatullah, Marcus Bussey, and Ivana Milojević, eds. Neohumanist Educational Futures: Liberating the Pedagogical Intellect. Taipei: Tamkang University.

McIntosh, Peggy. 1988. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.”

McQueen, Humphrey. 2001. The Essence of Capitalism: How We can Learn Everything About Modern Companies and the Way the Global Economy is Run by International Corporations from the Biggest Soft Drinks Maker in the World. London: Profile Books Ltd.

Peabody, Fred, Peter Raymont, Jeff Cohen, and John Westhauser, dir. 2016. All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone. Documentary.

Sandburg, Carl. 1967. “Timesweep,” in Honey and Salt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Sarkar, P.R. 1981. Thoughts of P.R. Sarkar. Calcutta: Ananda Marga Publications.

— 1982. “Awakened Conscience (Discourse 9)” in The Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism. Kolkata: Ananda Marga Publications.

Statista. 2018. “Global Advertising Spending from 2014 to 2021 (in Billion U.S. Dollars).”

The Sentencing Project. 2013. “Report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System.” August 2013.

Course Evaluation

Tools to Change the World

Study Guide Based on the Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout) – Level 1

Please help us improve this course by filling out this evaluation at www.prout.info/…. Or mail it to us at Dada Maheshvarananda, 6 Breyerton Court, Asheville, NC 28804, USA. Thank you for your participation.

Your Experience

1) Where did you take or read this course? Please list city, state or province, and country ______________________

2) How did you hear about this? From a friend ___ a flyer ___ TV, radio, or newspaper ___ the Internet (which site?) ______________ other (please specify) __________

3) Did you read or take this course alone? Yes/No

4) How many hours on average did you spend doing readings, viewings and activities for each module? _____

5) Did the course inspire you to do something? Yes/No. If Yes, what? _______________

6) Do you plan to repeat this course? Yes/No and why? _________________________

7) Would you be interested to take Level 2 of “Tools to Change the World” when it is ready? Yes/No

Course Content: 5= excellent, 4=good, 3=average, 2= below average, and 1= needs a lot of improvement.

	5	4	3	2	1
8) How clear was the manual?
9) How useful were the content and tools for you?
10) How did the course develop your ability to think critically about the world?
11) How useful did you find the Activities?
12) How useful did you find the Further Readings and Viewings?
13) How well did the course give you confidence to talk to people you meet about these subjects?

Group Process: Answer these questions only if you took the course with others.

14) How many other people started the course with you? ___

15) How many of those people continued until the end? ___

16) How many sessions did you attend? _____

17) Was the place or places you met conducive for the meeting? Y/N

18) How long were your meetings? ____

19) Did you feel that the length of time was right? Y/N If no, what would have been a better length? ____________

	5	4	3	2	1
20) How much did you feel challenged and inspired by the other participants?
21) How focused were most of the discussions?
22) How well did the meetings start on time?
23) How well did the rotation of facilitation work?
24) How well did you do when you were facilitator?
25) How well did the opening Excitement Sharing go?
26) How well did the Social Reality Discussions go?
27) How well did the Cooperative Games go?
28) How well did the presentations of Prout’s Vision go?
29) How well did the Activist Tools Training go?
30) How democratic were discussions, with everyone getting a chance to speak and no one dominating?
31) How satisfied were you with your effort in this course?

Open-Ended Questions

32) What do you feel were the strengths of this course?

33) How could this course be improved?

34) Would you recommend this course to others? If so, what advice would you give to another person who is considering taking this course?

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