The joy of learning

As a parody of Keats on things of beauty, the act of learning is a joy for ever. Acquiring and creating knowledge of the hitherto unknown is one of the greatest quests of an evolved and cultivated human mind. The joy of learning is intrinsic to the inquisitive mind as is, say the joy of scaling lofty heights or of breaking new ground in various domains of the human endeavour. The question that begs answers is this: in what ways, if any, is the joy of learning related to individual success – and happiness. And, can individual success and happiness co-exist? Not the success and happiness of the ecclesiastical kind that is arguably of a different genre and that is supposed to subsume the one that is rooted in the way how we live our quotidian, professional lives dictated by our material goals, here and now. In order to come to grips with these questions, it is both necessary and useful to distinguish success and happiness as understood in a general sense of these terms from what would pass for as genuine counterparts of them. Once that distinction has been clarified, it would seem to follow that the two are intimately tied to each other, of course of the latter kind. Else, there is a certain dichotomy at work, a kind of uncertainly relation between the two involving the almost impossibility of the two co-existing together – a sort of uncertainty relationship between the two, redolent of the Heinsenberg’s uncertainty principle that one learns in quantum mechanics.

That having been said let us get to the nub of the issue under discussion. At the outset, let it be noted that the willingness to merely live for survival is a great drag on happiness, even though striving to survive in a world of cut throat competition has become an unavoidable necessity of sorts in the world of today. Which is why we are witness to a rat race in staying afloat in a world where the odds are heavily stacked against those who are outpaced in this competition. Nowhere has this obsession for staying relevant struck its roots deeply as much as in the academic world, where this survival mania is ubiquitous in the universities, institutions and across nations and only those among them manage to stay afloat

   

who are among the “fittest for survival” of the lot.
However, the price that such an attitude has exacted from those who are into the rat race for survival is that, for the most part, they end up losing on other important aspects, and in a big way. My reference is to the happiness that actually comes from living life on one’s “own terms and conditions” but that sadly goes for a toss as such epistemic virtues as passion, compassion and peace of mind get lost in the process. This is because the act of ‘living to survive’ essentially entails living one’s life based on how others would want you to live it, whereas living one’s life according to one’s own principles, bespeaks a life that is under complete control of one who is living it. Which is why the happiness that accrues to those who live a life of the latter kind would count far more than the one where one is required to conduct it as per the whims and fancies of others. That would entail living a life that is marked by ‘visibility’ of the individual in sharp contrast with the life of anonymity that is unencumbered by external pulls and pressures. Thus the choice is obviously between the visible success and the invisible happiness. After all in ordinary circumstances, the twain would never meet in the life of an individual beyond a certain level.

On the same analogy, the success that comes from happiness is to be adjudged as being of a higher order compared to the kind that flows from success that has been attained under ‘negative’ peer pressure and the survival syndrome of the individual. Such success of the latter variety which comes more as a result of an attempt to outsmart those around them and less by the desire to bring the best of themselves is doomed to remain shallow, short lived and far from satisfying howsoever great the visibility, pelf and power that may have accrued to the individual on the basis of that ‘success’. In the conditions of life determined by the zeitgeist, it’s sadly the latter who carry the day in terms of the quick returns that come their way as they root for living a life that is dictated by how one would wish the world to look at them. Let me hasten to clarify that peer pressure within reasonable limits is a good thing as it can act as a catalyst to deliver to one’s potential, without setting great score by accolades and recognition which would come to him anyway. The bottomline is that the more one hankers after recognition, the more it would elude him, unlike in the case of those of the former kind who look at their work as a labour of love and thus witness in themselves the combination of the joy of learning with genuine success-and happiness.

There is thus a case for pleading that the dichotomy as referred to above is not universal in that it does not apply in the case of those who are immensely talented apart from being completely immersed in the pursuit of their passion determined by their uncommon abilities. In the case of such individuals, success and happiness would come together naturally and the dichotomy would seem to disappear. The sad part of the story, however, is that the lesser mortals – those who are not blessed with such amazing talent and abilities – would have to settle for either of the two, not both at the same time. In other words, the success that results from limited abilities of the individual shall necessarily be of a limited kind as that is motivated by how one would wish others to look at them, whereas the happiness which is quintessentially personal and impervious to evaluation by the external agencies would not be subject to such quantification. In the former case, the sheer desire to ‘make it big’ and attain to a certain level of acceptability among the peers would perhaps yield reasonable dividends in terms of their professional attainment but that would cost the individual dearly in terms of their identity and happiness.

That is a snapshot of the kind of scenario that is presently visible especially in the educational institutions dotting the landscape in India and elsewhere in the region where a large section of the ‘visibly successful’ academicians invariably come across as those who are not ‘visibly happy’. Whereas a certain dose of adulation and professional recognition from the peers and co-professionals are hardwired in us as natural human instincts, the insatiable thirst for ‘recognition at any cost’ that they seek from those who are perceived as successful gets the better of them as in the process, they subject themselves to avoidable stress to bear upon them during the course of their professional work. That inevitably engenders self-pity apart from feelings of ill-will and bilious contempt for those around them who may be genuinely successful, and that naturally results in a less than friendly ambiance at he workplace. The preponderance of such an atmosphere of rancour and jealousy amongst the academicians is all-pervasive in our universities and research institutions that may be pinned down mainly to this environment of unhealthy competitiveness which is further exacerbated by a pathological insistence on ‘output’ in the system.

Finally, to ensure individual peace and happiness leading to genuine success, this lopsided emphasis on ‘output’ which acts as a great spoiler of merit and shall have to go sooner than later. In the case of India, the crisis is further complicated by the sheer bulk of those going into certain professions while boasting of little talent of being there in the first place, a situation that is made many times more untenable by the systemic indifference to the need for fostering a culture of merit and excellence in our institutions. Unlike in most parts of the developed world, our universities present ample testimony to this systemic rot more than is encountered elsewhere in the world. The need is surely for taking urgent steps to reverse this trend by those in authority who would do well to avoid throwing their weight around while persisting with such inanities as this disproportionate insistence on research output in our universities and research institutions. Apart from that, it is equally important to create conditions for openness, honesty and freedom of thought and expression in our institutions so that there is no room left for anyone to manoeuvre their academic ‘achievements’ at the cost of those who richly deserve them but are left behind in the fray. That would help build a healthy and stress-free ambiance at our workplaces and thus save vast amounts of talent in our institutions being lost in the vortex of misplaced priorities and misplaced notions of achievement and excellence.

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