Learning+Journal+Semester+1+2013+-+Unit+5811


 * WEEK 2**

March 7, 2013

What an explosive introduction to this new year and new unit! Matt Ridley - our key resource for the week - entered my consciousness and aroused my curiosity, as I listened, intent on his words. The idea of optimism sits right square and centre in my own values, so I was most keen to absorb. But my enthusiasm turned into confusion, then rejection and anger. I actually had to stop the recording a few times and replay it. Then I'd stop it again and argue with my computer screen! Notebook out, furious scribblings "What about the rise of income disparity? Any idiot knows there's a growing chasm between rich and poor!"

I began to wonder what on earth our tutors were thinking in giving us this insulting diatribe as a valid educational mechanism. Perhaps it was a typo? Maybe they didn't watch him for very long and were similarly transfixed by the apparently benign nature of his assertions? Then the penny dropped.

He was meant to challenge me. Ridley is a representation of the Ostrich Principle. (With your head buried, everything looks as it always has!) On further investigation I found his connections to some fairly dubious environmental organisations in the UK - climate deniers who parade as informed heads of society. Among his associates, South Australia's Ian Plimer.

OK. I get it. Of course we are meant to experience values that challenge us, that force us to refer to our knowledge and research alternate views. This is learning. This is all part of the rich tapestry of IHS's Global Values and Lifestyles in the 21st Century. But what an intro to the year. Next time, remind me to fasten my seatbelt.