Man growing his creativity
By: Ali Ismail
0778-842 5262 (United Kingdom)
IN PURSUIT OF CREATIVITY
People want to make money out of creativity systems
Taking the grand sweep of human history not many people would doubt that just about all the progress has been attributable to a tiny minority of individuals who have made discoveries and innovations for the rest of us.
That seems to be part of the mammoth troubles we face, particularly those of us who live beyond the confines of our warm South Asian homelands and are striving to make homes in the West.
Although political correctness makes such thoughts dangerous to vocalise nowadays, time was when the view that Europeans should not hobnob with persons with even “a touch of the tar brush” was dominant.
At the risk of alienating some of our readers, by way of example here is an extract of the writings of an American, Earnest Sevier Cox, from the early 20th century on the effects of non-white racial integration in the USA:
“Imagine the mulattoes and the nearer whites of the United States to be greatly augmented in numbers. Suppose they constitute two-thirds of the population. They possess the ballot.... Caucasian ideals would assert a dwindling influence in politics, economics, and social aims.
“No white could hold high office without mongrel support, and the prospective officeholder could not obtain such support without special concessions to the mixbreed element.
“Mulatto senators! Revolutions! Creativity, ingenuity gone, the arts and sciences would decay, sky scrapers would crumble, plantations would be weed-grown.... The halls of the national capitol, once familiar to the noblest of the Saxons, would echo to the tread of mulattoes, and a mixbreed would sit as President.”
A bit later one finds another American senator, a Theodor Bilbo writing specifically of the Negro:
“You may breed a superior type of Negro by selective mating, just as you may breed a superior type of Caucasian by the same process; but no amount of imitation will instil a creative instinct or capacity into the Negro, nor will education or sympathetic aid of any kind.”
“You may breed a superior type of Negro by selective mating, just as you may breed a superior type of Caucasian by the same process; but no amount of imitation will instil a creative instinct or capacity into the Negro, nor will education or sympathetic aid of any kind.”
Finally, we have Hitler’s autobiography in which he states why persons such as the Jews and ourselves should be barred by law from influencing the minds of Europeans. One example of his views:
“As already emphasized, this applies not only to the individual man but also to the race. Creatively active peoples always have a fundamental creative gift, even if it should not be recognizable to the eyes of superficial observers. Here, too, outward recognition is possible only in consequence of accomplished deeds, since the rest of the world is not capable of recognizing genius in itself, but sees only its visible manifestations in the form of inventions, discoveries, buildings, pictures, etc.; here again it often takes a long time before the world can fight its way through to this knowledge.”
So what is creativity? Here is my conclusion after studying the available literature.
Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness.
An alternative, more everyday conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new. Although intuitively a simple phenomenon, it is in fact quite complex. It has been studied from the perspectives of behavioural psychology, social psychology, psychometrics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, history, economics, design research, business and management, among others.
Learned studies have covered everyday creativity, exceptional creativity and even artificial creativity. Unlike many phenomena in science, there is no single, authoritative perspective or definition of creativity. Unlike many phenomena in psychology, there is no standardized measurement technique.
Creativity has been attributed variously to divine intervention, cognitive processes, the social environment, personality traits, and chance. It has been associated with genius, mental illness and humour.
Some say it is a trait we are born with; others say it can be taught with the application of simple techniques. Although popularly associated with art and literature, it is also an essential part of innovation and invention and is important in professions such as business , economics, architectuure, industrial design, science and engineering.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the ambiguity and multi-dimensional nature of creativity, entire industries have been spawned from the pursuit of creative ideas and the development of creativity techniques.
This mysterious phenomenon, though undeniably important and constantly visible, seems to lie tantalizingly beyond the grasp of scientific investigation.
"Creativity, it has been said, consists largely of re-arranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know." - George Keller.
When one looks over the justifications for a racially based civilisation which, in terms of the West, amounts to a civilisation without our good selves to grace it, one finds that the two biggest planks are that we are allegedly deficient in idealism and in creativity. Clearly, it is with the latter of these planks that this article deals with.
The science of the study and understanding of the brain is far from highly advanced at this time. However, a great deal of progress has been made over the last century (ahem, mostly by
European researchers) and it does seem that its physical seat lies in the prefrontal part of that organ.
It is of significance that that cranial region seems to be responsible for idealistic behaviour as well.
At any rate, from ancient times the man with a near vertical forehead has been considered to be the “intellectual” type while the sloping forehead is traditionally associated with the more basic and primitive kind of man.
Though little is known as yet some researchers think that the prefrontal brain is an agent which, among other things, compares, contrasts and evaluates that which has been absorbed by the rest of the brain. In other words, it is both the conscience and the link maker of the psyche.
Whatever creativity is, it is not far from being the result of making associations and linkages. Think of the story (probably apocriphal) of Newton discovering gravitation after watching an apple fall. Thousands had seen apples falling before but it took a Newton to make the connection with the force of gravity.
Another aspect of the matter is what is now called brain dominance theory. Boiled down, this states that the left side of the brain is our rational and logical side of our minds and the right side is the intuitive and holistic side.
Males are thought to excel most in left brainedness and females with right brainedness by many researchers. Although most inventions have been made by men, nevertheless, many of them think that the springs of creativity lie mostly in the right side of the brain.
Clearly, the man or woman who possesses the gift of creativity in addition to his other attributes has an edge over his rivals in a competitive world.
It is also a money hungry world and where there is a perceived need there is a market for persons who claim to meet that need.
I have been almost overwhelmed by Internet sites offering methods (for payment of course) of increasing creativity. One thinks of the quack doctors of bygone times and the present day New Age bogus cures for nonexistent spiritual travails.
Almost at random, by way of example, I have come across a company called Hemi-Sync which sells a CD entitled: Revelations For Heightened Creativity. The advertising blurb states: “Open channels to heighten your creativity with impassioned music and Hemi-Sync. The talented musicians of the Seattle-based Oracle Gatherings Tribe are known for their ability to craft an expansive range of atmospheric textures - from contemplative music for inner reflection to pulsating dance-floor rhythms. Revelations is a compilation of electronic music that washes over you like a gentle breeze bringing deep relaxation, inspiration and creative insights. Composed and performed by Oracle Gatherings Tribe musicians: Kevin Hills, Osiris Indriya, Michael Manahan, Michael Maricle, Jake Perrine, and Travai Wells. Length: 62 minutes.” And all for $15.62!
Then how about a company called MindSpa that claims to sell a system which increases your creativity, and much beside. They gush:
“MindSpa utilizes specifically tuned frequencies of light and gentle sound to shift your mind into one of two major states: either a deeply relaxed, or highly stimulated state depending upon desired outcome.
“At the heart of MindSpa’s system are precise frequencies of visual input provided through CrystalWhite broad spectrum visual stimulation glasses. White light is the optimal color for providing maximum benefit and MindSpa uses the purest, highest quality white led lights available.”
Don’t rush off to the shops debit card in hand yet, though. Dr Elizabeth Mapstone, a psychologist specialising in creativity, says:
“Necessity is the mother of invention. We all have the need to do something differently but most of us are too scared to have a go. You need to have a need to create.”
Concerning the purported technologies which are presented as enhancing creativity, Dr Mapstone says: “I have no knowledge of any proof that this kind of thing works.”
Finally, since we are in the UK, here is a final piece of wisdom from the native poet Milton with his poem On his Blindness:
“His state Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."
If we have only simple gifts, let us be satisfied.
“His state Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."
If we have only simple gifts, let us be satisfied.
THE END
This article was published in the 26 October 2006 issue of the Bangla Mirror, the first English language weekly for the United Kingdom's Bangladeshis - read all over the world from the Arctic to the sub-Antarctic.
posted by Ali @ 9:13 AM
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