Academic Humility

Our fears are reflected in our writing. When we are afraid and we put up a defense to protect ourselves, we do things like overly hedge ourselves, pre-empting others' possible attacks or attack others to distract them from our weaknesses. It shows up in my writing, very visibly. Have you read someone's work and you did not like it, and did not know why? Perhaps, like me, they were defensive, and not truly open and inquiring, nor accepting and respecting of the intelligences of others. Even in my normal conversations, my parents have pointed out this defensive style of arguing that I have as well.

I've started reading a book by Andrew Bernstein (2010) called The Myth of Stress and at the chapter on conflict resolution, I received a powerful lesson on academic humility (or for real life, just humility). Academia is basically an arena and contest of ideas by different scholars. So foundational to academia, then, is how scholars behave towards one another, not only face-to-face but in how we write about their work. Do we put them down and not see the relevance of others' work to our own? Have we forgotten that the reason we have written something in that field was inspired by works of these pioneer scholars? What audacity to attack without respect what our predecessors have said and found!

The following are quotations from Bernstein (2010)'s book that spoke to my scholarly heart, though he had not intended it to.

This is the root of all strife and conflict in academia. A lesson that if we all muster, will lead to much more peace, and more respect for individuals and academic freedom:

Even if you think you're right, you can learn to respect the intelligence behind their position.

For this one, it helps us understand why scholars hold on so tightly to their beliefs, and why they reject ours. They are living in a context and system that reinforces what they believe, just like we are living in a different context and system that reinforces our own.

In reality, they should not see it my way at this time because people they trust are reinforcing their views.

In reality, they should not see it my way at this time because instead of listening to their side and having a calm exchange of perspectives, I've polarized our relationship by attacking or withdrawing, and this makes their seeing things my way at this time almost impossible, even if I am right.

Yes, the issue is not whether you are right or wrong. We cannot all be right, and all the time be right, sometimes we will be wrong. We can position our arguments firmly and strongly, without doing it in a manner that pushes others away. Think about it. Do you know how to lose?

Even if you are right, this kind of behavior pushes people away from seeing your point of view and tends to make them adhere to their own perspectives even more strongly.

Conflict takes place when one party thinks the other party's opinion isn't just different - it's wrong.

Knowing how to lose doesn't mean that you want to lose going forward. It means that when you do lose, you can recover quickly. Everyone loses sometime, but those who don't know how to lose will continue to dig themselves in deeper and drag others down with them. Those who do know how to lose, on the other hand, are able to quickly see their mistake and take full responsibility for this, making things easier for themselves and others.

Learning how to lose takes some practice, but it leads to great gains in the bigger picture.

I truly believe if I carry this attitude into my writing, my writing will be more respected by experts of the field (my reviewers) and be of much more use to readers. It's not about who's right and who's wrong. I'm just highlighting a case in Singapore when things are different from how others have said things had worked out in Hong Kong or the USA. I don't have to say they are wrong and I am right. We can both be right or wrong in the bigger scheme of things. My idea and findings supplement what others have found. Yes, it doesn't negate their work, it supplements their work and give the existing literature a more rounded feel, when previously it was more squarish.

Bernstein, A. (2010). The Myth of Stress: Where Stress Really Comes From and How to Live a Happier and Healthier Life. Atria Books. (I read the kindle version.)

Information Overload and Management

I have so much books and printed journal articles. Recently, I have been on a personal campaign to tidy up my room, using Marie Kondo (2014)'s "The life-changing magic of tidying up".

I saw this, and I thought it made sense to us, academics or scholars. I've seen the principle in other books as well, but since I have it ready here:

"Recently, I have noticed that having fewer books actually increases the impact of the information I read. I recognize necessary information much more easily. Many of my clients, particularly those who have disposed of a substantial number of books and papers, have also mentioned this. For books, timing is everything. The moment you first encounter a particular book is the right time to read it. To avoid missing that moment, I recommend that you keep your collection small."

Some scholars similarly recommend immediately reading something that catches your eye, instead of storing it to be read in a future date, which usually does not happen. :)

Kondo, M. (2014). The life-changing magic of tidying up: The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press

Languages and access to literature

I had a nightmare last night. My nightmares are always reflective of my anxieties during the daytime. So what happened was that I was asked to purchase a book from this publisher or company, whatever you call it, http://waxmann.com/. And it was mainly in German and for many of these companies, they do not deduct your credit card money immediately, but it seems like someone will work on it some time later after you purchased something. So, I was worried I was scammed, and this is not a real company.

I woke up in the middle of the night to access the website again. And to my relief, it looked credible. It's just that it favours publications in German, so perhaps they were reaching out to a German audience and we English-speakers, hear very little about these publishers. And just to try my luck, I search on their website "patriotism", hoping to find some useful resources.

And I found one article that was related to my topic! It's called "Russian Concepts of Patriotism and their Reflection in the Education System Today" by James Muckle: http://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2012/3312/pdf/TC_1_2003_muckl_D_A.pdf

Wow, you know, I have been searching for articles and books for so long, and these wonderful pieces of work always seem to escape me, and I still stumble upon them. They're not on the search engines or google scholar. It's wonderful that this Englishman, an expert on Russia, has written on Russia. It's wonderful to me, because it's much easier to read such pieces compared to translations of works from other languages. Translations always seem rather convoluted in their language and it's effortful for me to read them. But with this writer, I feel that I can touch the soul of the Russians. It's different from reading something written from the Russian perspective. For this article, I could sense the writer's fascination and love for Russia.

Okay, why this post? We have often hear of the need to pick up another language to access resources on our research interests only available in those languages. I agree. I feel that, particularly my topic on patriotism, many of the works out there I have no access to, particularly the works I need to give me a holistic picture of patriotism in the world. I mainly read things from the American or English-speaking people's perspective and it's very different from the other ways of experiencing patriotism from the non-American and non-English speaking people's perspective.

But language has never been a strength for me. Maybe I'm not tenacious enough. I've struggled with basic Japanese and French. I think I have had some success with sign language though. ;) If I were to really pick up another language... Which language should I pick up?