Alvin Toffler an American sociologist and futurist in one of his book Future Shock talks about the overwhelming wave of information which he labelled it as an “information overload.” Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change which will overwhelm people and will cause “shattering stress and disorientation.”
The truth of what Toffler was saying is really taking place today when the life system we are living now is highly open and interconnected where loads of information that continuously invaded us is really beyond control. As some would say, we are living in the world of consumption not reflection, immediacy not distance. Everything must be fast and brief.
Despite its advantage in some aspects of life, this ecosystem unfortunately would slowly hider the process of real human civilization building. This is because among the important pre-requisites for nation and civilization building is the conducive environment for human thinking and the cultivation of good ideas.
In order to achieve this, human reason must be in the state of calm and tranquillity to digest every information that comes into it. It also needs sufficient and extended time in order to reflect, contemplate and cultivate ideas, particularly the great ones.
Unfortunately, with the current environment of rapid and overloaded information and sometimes contradictory to each other, society would end up becoming more confused and disoriented, far from contributing to the cultivation of deep thought and ideas.
The general public in particular will be left with no proper filtering mechanism to digest the information and would end up becoming illogical in thinking, emotional in behaviour and extreme in action. Psychologically, it will also increase stress level among individuals in a societies which again add to the anti-conducive ecosystem for proper thinking. ‘Information overload’ mentioned by Toffler, has caused the society to become ‘information overdosed’.
Bare information is not yet knowledge. They are merely objects of knowledge which must be processed in order to become knowledge. According to Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas in his book The Concept of Education in Islam, knowledge will only take place when there is arrival of meaning at the human reason or human soul based on true information. This will only happen when human reason properly examine the information that they receive. The Qur’an emphasises this attitude through the verse 6 of Surah al-Hujurat, “O you who believe! if a wicked person comes to you with any news ascertain the truth lest you harm people unwittingly and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done.”
It is only with proper knowledge that true wisdom, which characterizes great civilization, will take place. Despite having wide spectrum of definition in different traditions, the basic meaning of wisdom remain the same; it is related to a deeper and wider spectrum of rational thinking that will lead to good and true action. It is opposed the haphazard, extreme and inconsistent thinking.
Wisdom is also basic to human nature. As the definition of the sages goes, man is a rational animal, for he is endowed by God reason that through proper usage can bring forth wise ideas and proper action. Ultimately wisdom is aimed at producing ethical mankind.
In Arabic, wisdom is denoted by the term hikmah, derived from the basic word hakama which denotes the meaning of ‘to restraint (mana’a) the mind from ignorance, foolishness and injustice.’ It also means to perfect (atqana) and to judge (qada) something based on proper knowledge.
Hikmah is also highly appreciated in the Qur’an. According to Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (d. 767 C.E.), an 8th-century commentator of the Quran, the Qur’an uses the word hikmah to imply four basic meanings; knowledge, prophethood, the Qur’an and good counsels.
These four meanings are still related to the original meaning of proper reason. The first is obvious since knowledge is fruit of reason. Second, the prophets are the men endowed with higher level of reason since they were sent to different people with great task of providing solutions to the problems of their people. As for the third meaning, the Qur’an is also a book that is revealed to mankind with reason. A lot of verses in the Qur’an remind mankind to use their reason properly in contemplating the message of the Divine. The last meaning which is good counsels are naturally the product of good thinking and reasoning.
With the above background, it is pertinent therefore to bring back the current society to the basic virtue of wisdom. The education system should not only emphasizes on the collection of data and the usage of ICT and internet, but more importantly to the proper way how to reflect, contemplate, argue and filter these loads of information and lead them into proper logical conclusion and knowledge.
The introduction of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in our national educational system would be one of the good start. The next level is to make sure that this higher order thinking is really standing high in bringing our students to become a wiser generation.