Civilization and Beyond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 282 pages of information about Civilization and Beyond.

Civilization and Beyond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 282 pages of information about Civilization and Beyond.

Large scale research and experiment should go a long way toward developing the skills required by competent and successful planetary leadership.  Political experiments like the United States of North America or the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics or the League of Nations or the United Nations, the planet-wide search for petroleum or the joint scientific efforts that went into the splitting of the atom, have given us opportunities to develop the science and art of planet-wide leadership.

Behind and beyond our training courses—­our formal educational system (which should be in the front rank of our priorities)—­we could train apprentices in every occupational field, selecting the most apt, the most eager, the seemingly best qualified and giving them every opportunity to try out their skills and improve their qualifications in their chosen fields of endeavor.

Aspirants for any occupational assignment would divide themselves into three groups:  those who feel that they have chosen wisely, find themselves in congenial surrounds and want to spend coming years in the occupation of their choice; those who are uncertain and still unable to decide upon the field of their life activity; and third, those who have chosen badly, are dissatisfied with the occupational groove in which they find themselves and who are ready to move into another field at the first opportunity.

The well adjusted will constitute the elite of their chosen occupations, learning its skills and joining with other well satisfied professionals in passing on their enthusiasm and knowledge to the next generation of aspirants for inclusion in the same production teams.  The undecided should be the object of special attention.  They have entered an occupational field on an experimental basis and should be advised and helped during the experimental period when they are deciding to make a go of it or to try for something more congenial or at least more acceptable.

Misfits who have made a wrong choice and who have no clear call to stay where they are should be advised and helped to find more congenial occupational surroundings.

We may think and experiment with this selective process as though it was easy and probably final.  Nothing could be further from the reality.  Even the best adjusted have moments of uncertainty and indecision about their occupational futures.  The less adjusted spend a part of their lives looking around for a more attractive field.

In every field, some of the best adjusted go as far as their interests and capacities carry them and then shift over into other occupations which, in turn, offer them more chances to employ their talents to greater advantage.

In every field of human endeavor individuals come and go.  They should stay where they seem to be useful and go when their usefulness is decreasing or coming to an end.

Balance between status and change is as desirable for the individual as it is for the group.  The decision to stay or go should remain open to the endless round of individuals who comprise any working team.  The existence of such flexibility is limited, however, by the need to maintain a working force of interested, alert, eager individuals—­skilled, adjusted and disciplined in group endeavor and achievement.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Civilization and Beyond from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.