E
ducation fohttp://www.forcingchange.org/files/1874178/uploaded/Issue9Volume1.pdfEducation for Indoctrinationion:
UNESCO and Seven Complex
Lessons
F rcing Change, Issue 9, Volume 1 www.forcingchange.org
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -2- www.forcingchange.org
By Carl Teichrib
Special Note: This report on UNESCO and education is fairly detailed, and may be tedious for some. However, in order to properly understand the relationship and influence of this United Nations body on our society, it is imperative to review the material with a certain level of depth.
Please read this report with care, thinking through the implications of UNESCO’s worldview.
Editorial Note: In all quotes by Julian Huxley, the acronym UNESCO was originally spelled Unesco.
For the sake of consistency, all uses of this acronym will employ full capitals, including quotes from Huxley.
“The supreme motivating concept of the future is synergy: men and women of all nations coming together under leaders of great
vision, who see that the pursuit of a common ideal, one world, one Earth, one people, is the reason for all existence.”
— Desmond E. Berghofer, founder of Creative Learning International.1
If you want to radically alter society’s future, the
most effective way is to shape young minds today.
This is not a utopian ideal; it’s a tried and tested
concept. Youth and children are the most impressionable
demographic group on the planet, and
what impacts them now directly correlates to
action later in life. Furthermore, what influences
youth today doesn’t just shape minds for tomorrow;
it challenges adults to change current behaviours.
This is especially true as children, passionate
to a given cause, apply parental pressures in
order to shift lifestyle choices and/or mindsets.
Advertisers and marketing experts have understood
this fundamental concept for decades, and
have successfully exploited the youth/child element
through every conceivable venue. And it
works, as an analysis of the multi-billion dollar
fast food industry easily demonstrates. Without
question, the minds of children and youth are like
fresh pages, open and ready to receive and imprint
a myriad of messages. This is why education is
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -1- www.forcingchange.org
UNESCO Logo
so important – it is the direct implanting of information
in such a way that a desired outcome is
achieved.
Typically public/general education is viewed as
having two interlocking components: academic
advancement and character growth. As parents we
want to see our children advance in knowledge,
wisdom, and intelligence; and to develop the mental
tools needed to continue learning throughout
life. We also want our children to embrace positive
character attributes, both for the betterment
of the individual and the community at-large. In
other words, we expect education to shape children/
youth into intelligent and responsible citizens.
Ironically, the character side of this equation is
somewhat of a switch from the past, when prior
generations understood that those chiefly responsible
to instil the proper attitudes and codes of
conduct were parents. This reality played itself
out when a child misbehaved in school. For youth,
the issue wasn’t so much what the teacher might
do, but how Dad or Mom would deal with the
problem when you got home. After all, how you
behaved in school was a reflection of your upbringing.
Alluding to the power of education, one UNESCO
document states, “the potential of education
is enormous. Not only can it inform people, it can
change them.”2
Although this appears simple at the outset, it’s a
telling remark, especially as education has largely
assumed the role of character development. And
what is the attitudinal direction being pursued?
A look at UNESCO, the educational arm of the
United Nations, gives us a window into “education”
as a change agent for world citizenship.
A Philosophy of World Change
Federico Mayor, Director-General of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) from 1987 to 1999, was
quick to recognize the linkage between education
and future change,
“Education, in the broadest sense of the
term, plays a preponderant role in this development
aimed at fundamental changes in our
ways of living and behaving. Education is the
‘force for the future’ because it is one of the
most powerful instruments of change.”3
Poised on the edge of the 21st century, Mayor’s
comments were not aimed at the traditional basics
of education (reading, writing, arithmetic), but
were couched in the context of global change. In
the Preface of a UNESCO document titled Seven
Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, the
Director-General provided a grand vision,
“But we can be certain of at least one thing: if
we want this earth to provide for the needs of
its inhabitants, human society must undergo a
transformation. The world of tomorrow must
be fundamentally different from the world we
know as we step into the 21st century and the
new millennium.”4
How different must the world become, and in what direction is this transformation taking society?
In 1947, Julian Huxley, the Director-General of UNESCO, wrote a short but important work on his organization, which was founded in 1945 but didn’t come into effect until the following year. Titled UNESCO: Its Purpose and its Philosophy, Huxley openly proclaimed an evolutionary, secular humanist rationale for this important UN organ;
“…the general philosophy of UNESCO should, it seems, be a scientific world humanism, global in extent and evolutionary in background.”5
In fleshing out this evolutionary philosophy, Huxley demonstrated the desire for direct management in the formation of human culture. As you read through these assertions, carefully consider the deeper implications Huxley impressed.
• “Our first task must be to clarify the notion of desirable and undesirable direction of evolution, for on this will depend our attitude to human progress…”6
• “Thus the struggle for existence that underlies natural selection is increasingly replaced by conscious selection, a struggle between ideas and values in consciousness.”7
• “From the evolutionary point of view, the destiny of man may be summed up very simply: it is to realise the maximum progress in the minimum time. That is why the philosophy of UNESCO must have an evolutionary background, and why the concept of progress cannot but occupy a central position in that philosophy.
The analysis of evolutionary progress gives us certain criteria for judging the rightness or wrongness of our aims and activities.”8
• “…UNESCO must constantly be testing its policies against the touchstone of evolutionary progress. A central conflict of our times is that between nationalism and internationalism, between the concept of many national sovereignties and one world sovereignty…”9
• “The moral for UNESCO is clear. The task laid upon it of promoting peace and security can never be wholly realised through the means assigned to it – education, science and culture. It must envisage some form of world political unity, whether through a single world government or otherwise, as the only certain means for avoiding war…Specifically, it its educational programme it can stress the ultimate need for world political unity and familiarize all peoples with the implications of the transfer of full sovereignty from separate nations to a world organization. But, more generally, it can do a great deal to lay the foundations on which world political unity can later be built.”10
As the educational agency of the United Nations,
Huxley overtly tied UNESCO’s philosophy
of evolution/world government into the process of
public learning. Consider this statement,
“…since the world to-day is in process of
becoming one, and since a major aim of
UNESCO must be to help in the speedy and
satisfactory realisation of this process, that
UNESCO must pay special attention to international
education - to education as a function
of a world society…”11
Huxley suggested other interlocking pursuits in
the quest for world change, such as eugenics (the
art of guiding human evolution through controlled
breeding),12 population control measures such
as “birth-control facilities” and reversing the
“wrong” ethics of modern medicine (an increase
in population/longevity is negative to evolutionary
progress),13 renewed policies towards agricultural
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -3- www.forcingchange.org
Julian Huxley, first Director-General of UNESCO
productivity along with social welfare in an evolutionary
context,14 and the use of propaganda and
the “techniques of persuasion” as “Lenin envisaged”
to “overcome the resistance of millions to
desirable change.”15
Pulling all of this together, and using human
conflict as a motive for world change, Huxley
wrote,
“…the task before UNESCO is necessary, is
opportune, and, in spite of all multiplicity of
detail, is single.
That task is to help the emergence of a
single world culture, with its own philosophy
and background of ideas, and with its own
broad purpose. That is opportune, since this
is the first time in history that the scaffolding
and the mechanisms for world unification
have become available, and also the
first time that man has had the means (in the
shape of scientific discovery and its applications)
of laying a world-wide foundation for
the minimum physical welfare of the entire
human species. And it is necessary, for at the
moment two opposing
philosophies of life confront
each other from
the West and from the
East…
You may categorise
the two philosophies
as two super-nationalisms;
or as individualism
versus collectivism;
or as the American
verses the Russian way
of life; or as capitalism
verses communism; or
as Christianity verses
Marxism; or in half a
dozen other ways…Can
this conflict be avoided,
these opposites be reconciled, this antithesis
be resolved in a higher synthesis? I believe
not only that this can happen, but that,
through the inexorable dialectic of evolution,
it must happen…”16 [Italics in original]
Think about it: As a pretext to world unity, what
would happen if Christianity were to amalgamate
with Marxism? A new brand of social gospel
would emerge, centred not on Biblical foundations
but on humanistic consensus, with societal transformation
as the centerpiece.
What would happen if individualism and collectivism
were to blend? A new civilization of global
democracy would be born, one that places “community”
above persons, and elevates the commons
(i.e., environment) ahead of the “narrow self-interests”
of individuals.
And what about the synthesis of capitalism and
communism? Such a hybrid would be called “economic
globalization.”
Does any of this sound familiar?
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -4- www.forcingchange.org
UNESCO Values Chart
UNESCO and Seven Lessons for
Education
In 1999, UNESCO invited Edgar Morin, then
Director Emeritus of Research at the French
National Centre for Scientific Research, to help
formulate a better understanding of the basic philosophies
underpinning world change education.
Essentially, it was hoped that Morin’s work would
“stimulate discussion on how education can and
should act as a force for the future.”17
Morin focused on “seven complex lessons” or
“seven facets of essential knowledge” that he felt
was needed “in education for the future in all societies.”
18 The “seven complex lessons” are,
1. Detecting error and illusion:
“Everything we know is subject to error and illusion.”
19 Employing the observations of Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, the architects of The Communist
Manifesto, Morin contested that Man is
continually in a state of intellectual delusion and
error.
In attempting to explain the restructuring of
ideas, doctrines and beliefs in the establishment of
a new civilization, Morin attacks all foundations
of truth. This includes “official beliefs, sovereign
doctrines…unquestioned received ideas, uncontested
stupid beliefs, [and] triumphant absurdities…”
20 Anything that “rejects evidence” to
uphold it’s own belief structure is deemed error
and/or illusion. However, this idea, Morin admits,
is generated by ideas,
“…Myth and ideology destroy and devour
facts.
And yet it is by ideas that we can perceive
the shortcomings and dangers of the idea.
Whence the inescapable paradox: we have to
lead a crucial battle against ideas but we cannot
do it without the help of ideas.”21
Morin deals with this paradox by providing a
recommendation: “We should always remember to
keep our ideas in their place as mediators and not
identify them with reality.”22
If this seems nebulous, that’s because it is. It’s
an attempt to walk a philosophical tightrope that
immediately throws the traveler down a dark pit.
In a sense, it’s the equivalent to emphatically declaring;
“there is no truth, and that’s the truth.”
But why would the author of this UNESCO
report follow this path of no-truth/no-reality?
Because education, according to Morin, is an act
of creating globally accepted “meta-viewpoints on
the noosphere.”23
What is the “noosphere”? It’s the hypothesis that
all of humanity’s consciousness is prompting transcendent
evolution: a mystical premise that fits
hand-in-globe with the Gaia concept of a living,
interacting, evolving bio-Earth. In other words,
new world-views need to emerge that embody the
“facts” of cosmic, conscious evolution. In contrast,
illusions and errors – ideas, beliefs, or doctrines
that oppose this special awareness – must
be “relativized and domesticated.”24 [Italics in
original]
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -5- www.forcingchange.org
Benefits of Forcing Change membership...
Access to every issue of Forcing Change, our
fully documented monthly publication.
Membership-only admittance to a large assortment
of source documents, including many rare
items, all in downloadable PDF.
Access to specialized e-reports such as The
Power Puzzle: A Compilation of Documents on
Global Governance.
Direct access to media files, reading lists, audio
features, and more!
As Morin concludes in his first complex lesson,
“If we can hope for basic progress in the 21
century it would be that men and women
could stop being the unconscious toys of their
ideas and not only their ideas but their own
self-deception. The major responsibility of
education is to arm every single person for
the vital combat for lucidity.”25
Intellectual houses built on foundations of truth
and reality are not appropriate for this New Global
Age. Rather, education that leads society into a
netherworld of shifting values is the key to world
unity. Why? Because pliable people are easily
mouldable.
2. Principles of Pertinent Knowledge:
In this section the UNESCO author hits on an
important point: if we want to understand the
world today, we cannot compartmentalize knowledge.
Rather, we have to see how various fields of
study overlap and work together, giving us a more
complete picture.
As the report states, “Society includes historical,
economic, sociologic, religious dimensions…Pertinent
knowledge must recognize this multidimensionality
and insert its data within it.”26
Morin isn’t wrong. In fact, this is a significant
part of the Forcing Change modus operandi – a
type of competitive intelligence/macro-approach
to information and knowledge.
However, the worldview embraced by Morin
and UNESCO seeks integrated knowledge as
a factor in an evolving global culture. “In this
planetary era we have to situate everything in the
planetary complex and context.”27
As another UNESCO document reinforces,
“…the true challenge, which the international
community must face, is to visualize planet-sized
policies, strategies, and lines of action…”28 And,
“Planetary citizenship must facilitate interaction
among citizens of the world, to build wisdom
and imagery on a planetary scale. Strengthening
the idea of a world civilization will provide
the stage for communicating, interacting, associating
and rejecting what will not fit in global
codes. People must become citizens of Earth,
not a single culture.”29
3. Teaching the Human Condition:
The “human condition,” according to UNESCO
and Morin, is an evolved cosmic condition.
“The particles that make up our organism
appeared in the very first seconds of life in
our cosmos, fifteen billion (perhaps?) years
ago; our carbon atoms were constituted in one
or several suns that preceded our own; our
molecules combined in the earliest convulsive
times of the Earth; these macromolecules
joined together within whirlwinds and one of
them, growing ever richer in molecular diversity,
metamorphosed into something new
and very different from the previous, strictly
chemical organization, to create living self-organization.”
30 [Italics in original]
This is fascinating. Morin completely contradicts
one his country’s most famous scientists,
Louis Pasteur, discoverer of the established Law
of Biogenesis [which states that life cannot arise
from non-living matter]. If Pasteur were alive
today, it’s highly doubtful that UNESCO would
embrace this eminent chemist. After all, Pasteur’s
worldview – “the more I study nature, the more I
stand amazed at the work of the Creator” – flies
in the face of UNESCO.
Morin, on the other hand, completely ignores
the proven work of his fellow Frenchman.
“A bit of physical substance organized itself
thermodynamically on this earth. Soaked in
brine, stewed in chemicals, jolted with elec-
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -6- www.forcingchange.org
trical charges, it came to Life…We, the living,
are a straw of the cosmic diaspora, a few
crumbs of solar existence, a tiny budding of
earthly existence.
We are part of cosmic destiny but we are a
fringe group: our Earth is the third satellite of
a sun cast our of its central throne to become
a heavenly pygmy wandering among billions
of stars…
Five billion years ago our planet was
formed, apparently an aggregate of cosmic
detritus from the explosion of an earlier sun
and four billion years ago living organization
emerged from a macromolecular whirlwind
in the midst of howling tellurian storms and
convulsions.
The Earth produced and organized itself
within its dependence on the sun and, when it
developed its biosphere, constituted itself as a
biophysical complex.
We are both cosmic and terrestrial beings.”
32
And therein lies the crux of the matter of the human
condition according to UNESCO: we are cosmic
entities. Cosmic accidents to be more precise,
but cosmic nonetheless. As Morin tells us,
“…every human being, like a point in a hologram,
bears the cosmos within himself. We
should also see that every human being, even
a person confined in the most ordinary life, is
a cosmos in himself.”33
In concluding this third complex lesson in education
for the future, this cosmic/evolutionary order
leads us down the path of fate and citizenship.
“Education should show and illustrate the
multiple facets of human Fate: fate in the human
species, individual fate, social fate, historical
fate, all these fates mixed together and
inseparable. One of the essential vocations of
the education of the future will be the investigation
and study of human complexity. It will
lead to knowledge [prise de connaissance]
that will give awareness [prise de conscience]
of the common condition of all human beings;
the very rich and necessary diversity of
individuals, peoples, cultures; and our rootedness
as citizens of the Earth…”34 [Italics and
brackets in original]
4. Earth Identity:
Understanding Morin’s stance on Earth identity
isn’t difficult. This is the culmination of education
for UNESCO: world civilization. Three quotes
from Morin will suffice to illustrate this point.
“Our planet requires polycentric thought that
can aim at a universalism that is not abstract
but conscious of the unity/diversity of the human
condition; a polycentric thought nourished
by the cultures of the world. Educating
for this thought is the finality of education of
the future, which in the planetary era should
work for an earth identity and conscience.”35
“…we can glimpse the potential of a new creation
– earth citizenship – in the third millennium,
born of seeds and embryos contributed
by the 20th century. And education, which
both transmits the old and opens the mind to
the new, is at the heart of is new mission.”36
“Today, the fundamental global objective of
all education aspiring not only to progress but
to the survival of humanity is to Civilize and
Unify the Earth and Transform the human
species into genuine humanity. Awareness of
our humanity in this planetary era should lead
us to a new unity and reciprocal commiseration
from each to each, from all to all. The
education of the future should teach an ethics
of planetary understanding.”37 [Capitals and
italics in original]
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -7- www.forcingchange.org
5. Confronting Uncertainties:
In German Hegelian philosophy, the dialectic
runs like this: Thesis, opposed by Antithesis, is
reconciled in Synthesis. Repeat this process until
the Final Goal is achieved.
Although Hegelian philosophy in its many forms
can be difficult to grasp, this dialectic is understandable.
In order to achieve the Final Goal,
an initial Thesis is put forward – call it the First
Agenda. This First Agenda is radical, and will
never be accepted as it stands: it needs a modifier.
Hence, an opposing idea or force, Antithesis,
is brought into the picture – call it Planned Opposition.
In the inevitable disorder that occurs,
reconciliation/appeasement is demanded, and the
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -8- www.forcingchange.org
agreed upon new position, the Synthesis, moves
the process one step closer to the Final Goal.
Repeat until the last Synthesis becomes the Final
Goal. [See the Hegelian Dialectic chart, produced
by Calverton School].38
Another way of expressing this is to use the
Latin term, Ordo Ab Chao: Order out of Chaos.
To achieve the Result, introduce Chaos. Out of the
cry for Order, introduce a Solution that brings the
desired Result.
This philosophy can be found in Morin’s UNESCO
report under the fifth complex lesson. Writing
on order and disorder, and then liking confrontation
to social change, the author states,
“The uncertain adventure of humanity is
simply the continuation of the uncertain adventure
of the cosmos, created from an accident
that defies our imagination, and pursing
its course of creations and destructions…
…The Earth itself, which probably originated
in a pile of cosmic refuse spit out from a solar
explosion, is self-organized in a dialogue between
order ↔ disorder ↔ organization…
…A new consciousness is emerging. Confronted
by uncertainties on all sides, man
is swept up in a new adventure. We have to
learn how to confront uncertainty because we
live in a changing epoch where our values
are ambivalent and everything is interconnected.”
39 [Italics in original]
Paradoxically, while the Earth and Mankind is
the product of a colossal accident (according to
Morin), educational activities – an undeniably
planned action – seeks to purposefully introduce
a new utopian society through the chaos/order/results
principle.
Clearly, traditional values and realities cannot
be tolerated in the pursuit of this future world, for
they form a grounded opposition based on history
(observed central government rule in Nazi Germany
and the Soviet Union), and the logic of the
real human condition (a recognition of greed, lust,
and power). Note, this grounded opposition is not
a pre-planned action (Thesis/Antithesis) meant to
introduce uncertainties (chaos) that would thereafter
lead to the desired transformation of civilization
(the Final Synthesis). “Reality” that stands
on history and traditional values, therefore, must
be downplayed as “illusion.” Pliable thinking is
required for building the utopian future.
“Reality is not easily legible. Ideas and
theories are not a reflection of reality they are
translations, and sometimes mistranslations.
Our reality is nothing more than our idea of
reality.
…the worst illusions are found within intolerant,
dogmatic, doctrinaire certainties…”40
6. Understanding Each Other:
Global tolerance is a benchmark for UNESCO,
and so Morin touches on this social code of conduct,
driving home the point of reforming thought
processes towards planetary harmony.
“We should connect ethics of inter-personal
understanding with the greater need for globalized
understanding in planetary era ethics.
The only globalization that would really serve
mankind is globalized understanding, globalized
spiritual and intellectual human solidarity.”
41
“Our planet needs mutual understanding in
all directions. Given the importance of education
for understanding, on all educational
levels and for all ages, the development of
understanding demands a planetary reform of
mentalities: this is the task for education of
the future.”42
7. Ethics for the Human Genre:
In this final lesson, Morin’s charge to UNESCO
is that “we take responsibility for the anthropo-
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -9- www.forcingchange.org
logical mission of the millennium…”43
So how does he suggest this guiding of humanity
as a prime mission? Direct social development
by educating for an ethics of planetary unification,
including “planetary unity in diversity.”44
All of this is embodied in the Living Earth/Gaia/
noosphere belief of human/cosmic evolution, with
a political Final Goal.
“Humanity is no longer simply a biological
notion but it should be fully recognized in its
inseparable inclusion in the biosphere. Humanity
is no longer a notion without roots, it
is rooted in a ‘Homeland,’ the Earth, and the
Earth is an endangered Homeland.”45 [Italics
in original]
“…we can define our finalities: the pursuit
of…humanization via accession to earth citizenship…
for an organized planetary community.
Is this not the true mission of the United Nations
Organization?” [Italics in original]
UNESCO On The Ground
As yeast infects dough, so too UNESCO’s philosophy
of world humanism has worked its way
through our educational systems. Philosophically,
Huxley’s organization hasn’t changed, nor has its
grand vision of transformation been altered in the
least.
Reflecting on education as a tool for transformation,
a joint UNESCO/Government of Greece report
from 1997, titled Education for a Sustainable
Future, paints a picture Huxley would approve of.
“…the potential for education is enormous.
Not only can it inform people, it can change
them. It is not only a means for personal
enlightenment, but also for cultural renewal.
Education not only provides the scientific and
technical skills required, it also provides the
motivation, justification, and social support
for pursing and applying them. Education
increases the capacities of people to transform
their visions of society into operational
realities. It is for this reason that education is
the primary agent of transformation towards
sustainable development…”46
This 1997 report also connected the dots between
the many international agreements and
summits that took place during the 1990s, with a
particular bent towards the goal of “sustainable
development” – a catch-phrase that encompasses
socialistic management practices regarding land
use, population and development, the utilization
of natural resources, and other environmentally
sensitive areas. In essence, “sustainable development”
is an administrative/political process that
focuses on impacting two cultural structures:
economics and social activity – with government
policy intentionally leveraged to enforce change
in these two sectors.
Discussing the role of political arrangements
and education, this UNESCO document bridged
the global with the local.
“At the heart of this new international consensus
is a new vision of education, public
awareness and training as the essential underpinning
for sustainable development…Within
the action plans, education is no longer seen
as an end it itself, but as a means to:
• bring about the changes in values, behavior
and lifestyle that are needed to achieve
sustainable development, and ultimately
democracy, human security and peace;
• disseminate knowledge, know-how and
skills that are needed to bring about sustainable
production and consumption patterns…
• ensure an informed populace that is
prepared to support changes towards sustainability
emerging from other sectors.
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -10- www.forcingchange.org
These action plans are to be implemented
not only for international institutions such as
the United Nations system, but also and most
importantly by national and local entities.”47
This is where the rubber meets the road: bringing
the global agenda down to all levels of society.
Hence, UNESCO’s educational programs are not
merely academic exercises; they are intentionally
designed to influence global, regional, national,
and local educational systems – they are intentionally
designed to impact your culture. Here are
some examples,
Global Influence: Through Ministerial level
roundtables and conferences where national
representatives seek common ground and agree
to implement UNESCO action plans. The next
significant Ministerial level roundtable will take
place at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, October
19-20, 2007.
Regional Influence: Each year UNESCO operates
regional meetings and consultations in every zone
on the planet, supporting a broad range of educational,
cultural, and scientific programs.
This year, starting with a UNESCO/US White
House conference, the organization has embarked
on a series of six regional meetings on literacy and
teacher education. Eradicating literacy is a noble
endeavour, however, even literacy is treated as a
steppingstone to internationalist goals. In 2000,
Gene B. Sperling, US Assistant to the President
for Economic Policy, brought these two concepts
together while attending a UNESCO Forum on
Education for All, “It is hard to imagine a more
effective investment in the success of open markets
and global integration than an expansion of
literacy.”48
National Influence: In the United States, almost
800 schools use International Baccalaureate Organization
programs. The IBO was jointly established
in 1968 by UNESCO, the Ford Foundation,
and the Twentieth Century Fund. Today, and over
the years, the IBO and UNESCO partner in developing
school materials that promotes planetary
ethics and world unity.49
Another national example is the 2005 Luneburg,
Germany meeting titled “Higher Education for
Sustainable Development: New Challenges from a
Global Perspective,” which looked for ways to reorient
education toward sustainable development
goals throughout Germany’s universities.50
Local Level: Typically, national and international
UNESCO strategies filter through to the local
level. After all, the local is where higher decisions
are ultimately aimed.
Some interesting Canadian examples exist for
2005 that are worth mentioning, as they reflect the
wide scope of UNESCO’s involvement in Canadian
culture. The following items were taken from
the 2005 Annual Report of the Secretary-General,
Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
• “Combating Urban Racism,” Ottawa, ON, Jan.
24 [focusing on policies to fight discrimination,
xenophobia, and racism].
• “Growing Up in Cities,” Gatineau, QC Feb.
21/Vancouver, BC, Sept. 13-14 [connecting youth,
non-profit groups, and civic governments as part
of UNESCO’s Growing Up in Cities Network].
• “Taking Stock and Moving Forward,” a meeting
of the Saskatoon Teacher’s Association, Saskatoon,
SK, Feb. 14 [focused on worldviews as an
education theme, with the community as a unifying
force].
• “Forum for Responsible Citizenship,” Quebec,
May 19-20 [engaging a sustainable development
theme for schools].
• “Workshop on the Earth Charter Festival,”
Montreal, QC, Oct. 30 [a workshop to focus on
global interdependence as envisioned by the Earth
Charter, a soft-law document that establishes an
ethics for world integration].
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -11- www.forcingchange.org
One final example that transcends local to global
is the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network.
This program seeks to promote ideals of
global unity and world peace through a network of
over 7000 schools around the world. According to
the Canadian Commission for UNESCO,
“Associated Schools promote UNESCO’s
ideals by conducting pilot projects, and by
developing innovative educational approaches
and materials to address local, regional and
global issues.”51
Even though there may be some general good
that comes through such a program, such as tsunami
relief for South East Asia as a result of school’s
participating in the UNESCO Network, the grander
vision of evolutionary world governance is still
at the core of UNESCO’s activities.
So how do you deal with UNESCO at the local
level?
UNESCO and You
Each person is in a unique place and position,
and will respond in ways beyond what the author
of this report has thought of.
Some general rules apply, however, in making a
measured response to UNESCO influence at your
level, and to any other critical situations as they
arise,
1. Know your facts. Study the history, philosophy,
personalities, and current activities in order to
have an integrated knowledge of the situation.
2. Document your positions. If possible, have
the actual materials on hand. And strive to ensure
that the documentation is true to the context of the
criticism.
3. Be tactful in your response. There is a time and
a place where emotional responses, forcefulness,
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -12- www.forcingchange.org
and confrontational elements come into play, but
tactfulness and discrimination should always be
the hallmark.
4. Offer sound, logical reasons for your criticisms.
Couch your positions/reasons in factual
evidence and rational lines of progression.
Here are some suggestions and possible points
of contact.
Parents: If your child or youth is in a public/private
school, keep close tabs on the curriculum and
material used in shaping your child. Ask questions
such as; is the school using UNESCO materials?
(If so, ask to review them). What worldviews does
the school present in their curriculum? (Many
school staff might not understand this question, so
you may need to employ other questions/terminology
in order to ascertain what is being taught).
More often than not, a hands-on review of the curriculum/
teaching materials is necessary in order to
determine what is being presented. Provide constructive
and reasoned responses where needed.
As a parent you are responsible for your children,
and if you see educational directions that
are questionable, it’s your responsibility to act
(remember the above rules!). Therefore, due
diligence in the school system is essential – and
where possible, be helpful in other ways, thereby
building relationships and credibility.
Home schooling families, obviously, don’t face
the same issues as public/private school families.
Regardless, it’s important to engage your community
and peers as opportunities presents.
School Staff/Teachers: Be alert to materials and
teaching techniques that promote world citizenship
and global ethics building. If such curriculum
is required in the classroom, utilize it as a launching
pad to critical thinking. Examine the claims
carefully, and encourage the use of historical
outside materials in defining and defending positions.
Encourage students/staff to think rationally
and logically.
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -13- www.forcingchange.org
School Board Members: Be extra diligent to the
influences of UNESCO worldviews as they filter
down from official education departments. Communicate
with staff and parents regarding your
use/disuse of certain materials, and provide critical
feedback to higher officials. Remember, you
are not just the conduit for top-down decision
makers, but a buffer between the community and
the educational bureaucracy.
Politicians/Policy Makers/Bureaucrats: The pressure
is enormous to conform and follow the politically
accepted line. Develop a logical outlook,
deeply examining what is being asked of you.
Voice your concerns, and let the community know
where you stand. Be firm in defending liberty,
truth, and rationality. Refrain from the political
herd mentality when a higher office orders
UNESCO/global governance agendas to be implemented,
and offer sound reasons/alternatives in
countering/handling the internationalist approach.
Regardless of who you are or your position in
life, become involved in youth. Instil values of
truth, reality, and an appreciation for fact. Offer
counterpoints to the continual bombardment
of ambiguous global values and ideals. Lead by
integrity, honesty, and sound thinking. Recognize
the real human condition, and offer tangible hope,
not utopian humanistic dreams that have historically
produced nothing but nightmares.
It has been said that the youth of today are the
leaders of tomorrow, and that’s true. But the leaders
of today are the ones who chart the course. Be
a leader.
Endnotes:
1 Desmond E. Berghofer, The Visioneers: A Courage Story about
Belief in the Future (Creative Learning International, 1992),
p.289.
2 UNESCO/Government of Greece, Education for a Sustainable
Future: A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action, conference
report, December 1997, p.36.
3 Federico Mayor, Preface, Seven Complex Lessons in Education
for the Future, a document formulated for UNESCO by Edgar
Morin, 1999.
4 Ibid.
5 Julian Huxley, UNESCO: Its Purpose and its Philosophy (Public
Affairs Press, 1947), p.8.
6 Ibid. p.8.
7 Ibid. p.9.
8 Ibid. p.12.
9 Ibid. p.13.
10 Ibid. p.13.
11 Ibid. pp.29-30.
12 Ibid. p.10.
13 Ibid. p.10.
14 Ibid. p.10.
15 Ibid. p.60.
16 Ibid. p.61.
17 UNESCO/Edgar Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education
for the Future, 1999, see back cover.
18 Ibid. p.1.
19 Ibid. p.5.
20 Ibid. p.9.
21 Ibid. p.11.
22 Ibid. p.11.
23 Ibid. p.12.
24 Ibid. pp.10-12.
25 Ibid. p.12.
26 Ibid. p.14.
27 Ibid. p.13.
28 UNESCO, Planetary Sustainability in the Age of the Information
and Knowledge Society for a Sustainable World and Future:
Working Toward 2015 (UNESCO, 2003), p.69.
29 Ibid. p.141.
30 Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future,
p.22.
31 See, J.H. Tiner, Louis Pasteur: Founder of Modern Medicine
(Mott Media, 1990)
32 Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future,
p.22.
33 Ibid. pp.26-27.
34 Ibid. pp.28-29.
35 Ibid. p.32.
36 Ibid. p.36.
37 Ibid. p.39.
38 Calverton School, www.calvertonschool.org.
39 Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future,
pp.43-44.
40 Ibid. p.44.
41 Ibid. p.54.
42 Ibid. p.55.
43 Ibid. p.57.
44 Ibid. p.57.
45 Ibid. p.61.
46 UNESCO/Government of Greece, Education for a Sustainable
Future: A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action, conference
report, December 1997, p.36.
47 Ibid. p.37.
FC
Forcing Change, Iss.9, Vol.1 -14- www.forcingchange.org
48 Remarks of the Honorable Gene B. Sperling, Assistant to
the President for Economic Policy, United States of America,
International Consultative Forum on Education for All, April 28,
2000, www.unesco.org/education/efa/wef_2000/speeches/sperling.
shtml.
49 For more on the IBO and its UNESCO connection, see the
article “Social Engineering for Global Change” at www.forcingchange.
org/store/1874178/page/1130090.
50 For a short-listing of this event, and many others, see the 2005
Annual Report of the Secretary-General of the Canadian Commission
for UNESCO. For the German example, see pages 10-11.
51 2005 Annual Report of the Secretary-General of the Canadian
Commission for UNESCO, p.31.
Nope, That’s Not Money
Editor’s Note: This short article, which provides
important economic food-for-thought, is used by
permission of the author. For contact information,
and to learn more about Mr. Rubino’s work, see
the details at the end of this article.
By John A. Rubino, August 20, 2007
Prudent Bear’s Doug Noland has for years been
pointing out that one of the drivers of the credit
bubble has been the ever-broadening definition of
money. As the global economy expanded without
a hic-up, more and more instruments came to be
used as a store of value or medium of exchange
or even a standard against which to value other
things – in other words, as money. Thus mortgagebacked
bonds and even more exotic things came
to be seen as nearly risk-free and infinitely liquid.
In Noland’s terms, credit gained “moneyness,”
which sent the effective global money supply
through the roof. This in turn allowed the U.S.
and its trading partners to keep adding jobs and
appearing to grow, despite debt levels that were
rising into the stratosphere. For a while there, borrowing
actually made the world richer, because
both the cash received and the debt created functioned
as money.
With a few months of hindsight, it’s now clear
that debt-as-money was not one of humanity’s
better ideas. When the U.S. housing market – the
source of all that mortgage-backed pseudo money
– began to tank, hedge funds found out that an asset-
backed bond wasn’t exactly the same thing as
a stack of hundred dollar bills. The global economy
then started taking inventory of what it was
using as money. And it began crossing things off
the list. Subprime ABS? Nope, that’s not money.
BBB corporate bonds? Nope. High-grade corporates?
Alas, no. Credit default swaps? Are you
kidding me?
No longer able to function as money, these
instruments are being “repriced” (a slick little
euphemism for “dumped for whatever anyone
will pay”), which is causing a cascade failure of
the many business models that depend on infinite
liquidity. The effective global money supply is
contracting at a double-digit rate, reversing out
much of the past decade’s growth.
But here’s where it gets really interesting. The
reaction of the world’s central banks to the freezing-
up of the leveraged speculating community
has, predictably, been to create massive amounts
of new fiat currency and hand it to the banking
system. They’re not dropping twenties out
of helicopters yet, but functionally it’s the same
thing. By swapping dollars, euros and yen for
no-longer-money bonds that are plunging in price,
creating some paper profits where there once were
catastrophic losses, the Bankers hope to revive the
animal spirits of the leveraged speculators. Specifically,
they hope to stop the financial community
from going further down the moneyness checklist
and eliminating any more instruments.
But you don’t forget a brush with death that
easily. The process of debt reclassification has a
momentum that a few hundred billion new dollars
won’t stop. And once corporate bonds and
agency bonds and emerging market bonds have
been crossed off the list, the system will start
eyeing the dollar. Is it really a store of value after
falling by half against oil and gold in the past five
years? Didn’t the Fed just create a tidal wave of
new dollars and promise to create infinitely more
if needed? Isn’t the U.S. economy hobbled by the
implosion of housing and mortgage finance and
hedge funds and (soon) derivatives? Don’t Americans
owe more per capita than any people in human
history? And a realization will begin to dawn:
Maybe the paper currency of an over-indebted
country isn’t money either… FC
John Robino is co-author of The Coming Collapse
of the Dollar and How to Profit from It (Currency
Doubleday, 2004, ISBN 0-385-51223-6). This
handy volume gives a terrific overview of debtmoney
concerns, and makes a strong case for asset
ownership wealth/value. You can order this book
through Mr. Robino’s website, www.dollarcollapse.
com.
Forcing Change is a monthly online
publication dedicated to documenting and
analyzing the socio-religious transformations
now sweeping our world. Owned
by Globalization International, Forcing
Change is a membership subscription service,
with an annual fee of $120.00 US.
Membership in Forcing Change allows
access to the full range of FC publications,
including e-reports, audio and media
presentations, Forcing Change back
issues, downloadable expert documents,
and more. FC receives neither government
funding nor the financial backing
of any other institutions; rather, Forcing
Change operates solely on subscription/
membership support. To learn more about
Forcing Change, including membership
benefits, go to www.forcingchange.org.
Globalization International/Forcing
Change, P.O. Box 31, Plumas, Manitoba,
R0J-1P0, Canada.
For publications: Permission to re-publish
articles found in Forcing Change is
granted, providing that FC credit is acknowledged
(preferably with the Forcing
Change URL attached), and that Globalization
International/Forcing Change is
notified of the public article use.
For private individuals: Permission is
granted for individuals to make copies at
will of FC articles and distribute said materials
to family, friends, colleagues, and
community leaders.