Intelligence

The human brain has propelled the evolution of our species. The natural selection which led to the development of the frontal lobe has, in some ways, jettisoned our species out of the non-human evolutionary sphere of the planet. I see our species as out of sync with the evolution of other species, which do not have the capability of synthesizing their own environments and their own DNA. Perhaps evolution itself is evolving.

The implications for humans and the planet are becoming glaringly evident, as polar ice caps melt, flooding increases, the quality of the food supply deteriorates and potable water resources become more precious. While many Green advocates focus backward at the swath of environmental destruction our species has left behind, others wisely look to the future. The truly intelligent of our species consider mobilizing our frontal lobes to place us in sync with the planet's natural environment and attributes. Renewable energy, low-carbon footprints, reproductive education, local food production, biological diversity management. These all make sense and provide a hopeful alternative to the impending train wreck of fossil fuel dependency, real estate profiteering, overpopulation and natural-resource exploitation.

The intellectuals in colleges and universities worldwide have been slow to understand their role in all this. Still clinging to traditional academic hierarchies and bureaucracies, based in arcane competition and publishing showmanship, they have seemingly been incapable of mobilizing their considerable resources to focus on the crucial, real issues facing the planet. Instead, they have focused on the politics of change, rather than change itself. In the U.S., this is understandable, since the funding mechanisms of higher education are highly politicized and capitalized.

So, as our species gapes at its self-induced environmental threats, our public preparatory educational systems are at a low point. The price of higher education is excluding many inventive and innovative minds from campuses. The increasingly undereducated, uninformed and mass-media-mesmerized populace rallies against raising taxes, quality testing and detaching student loans from gouging private banks. Those of academic provenance and privilege, who largely populate and control the influential academic environments, climb a few flights higher in their ivory towers for better views of multi-billion-dollar sports complexes and entertainment venues, where they play chess with star athletes and toe-tap to celebrity performers.

I see publicly funded education as a basic human right and a basic human responsibility of those who have children and the whole society. And, I think it is imperative that publicly funded education includes the highest levels of education available in a society. An intelligent society should provide unlimited, quality education to those who qualify for it. An intelligent society should understand that providing this would yield those with the ideas and skills to save the human species from its own follies.