Education of Monsters in Society

A professor in the Kyeongyang magazine brings to the attention of the readers the way we educate monsters. John Stuart Mills the economist and philosopher is paraphrased: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

In a world that praises those who abandoned their beliefs in order to make secular monetary gain is a present day reality and many are awed by those who follow their beliefs. However, those who follow their beliefs not infrequently bring fear and pain to those around them.

The professor then gives us a profile of Anders Behring Breivik, a mass murderer who killed 8 and injured many others in an  explosion in Oslo, Norway,  and going to an island where a youth labor group was meeting killed another 68. He was against multiculturalism that the labor party sympathized  with and helped. The professor asks the readers what prepared this young person to perpetrate this horrendous act and publicize it on SNS with the above quote from John Stuart Mills.

On Facebook, he made known to the world that he spent on self-study 14,500 hours on business adminstration and history and another 3,000 hours studying religion and finances, sufficient, he says on Facebook to get a master's degree in the subjects.

Of all the animals on the earth humans have the ability to think but at the same time are the cruelest.  When some judge another to have done something not liked we hear of cases where they kill and justify their acts.

Moreover, when justification is made as a group or on a social level, the result is beyond imagination. The Nazis were able to kill six million people in six years and  justify their actions at the collective level. Scholarly studies often fosters this ability to justify our actions.

We all understood that study and knowledge make us better persons. This was the way we looked at learning because in the past education was to cultivate our humanity and was consistent with our reason. Consequently, the more study the chances that such a person would have a well formed character and  moral sense was taken for granted.

However, scholarly study at present is not what it was years ago. Today study is to enable a person to logically systematize thoughts so as to convey ideas. To study a lot is to master the subject with no concern for the person's self-betterment and building of character. A person misunderstands dialogue as the ability to present his position, his or her efforts to elaborate their opinion is what is important and when not accepted they despair and often express hostility.

Korea's devotion to study is second to no other country in the world. The numbers that go on to college is high and the years spent in study continue to increase but at the same time horrible and shocking events continue to appear in society.There are many varied reasons but our educational system can't be excluded. 

Thoughts can help to destroy ourselves and others but also to sacrifice ourselves for others. From an early age, we need to educate to see the pain of others and want to help, this will make the world a different place in which to live. Otherwise, we will be producing 'philosophers' like Breivik who think what they do is for the betterment of humanity.