The heartbeat of a nation can pump two types of public emotions: love and fear. Emotions of love carry the tenets of compassion, humanity, unity, equality, justice and peace.
By
By Yudi Latif
·5 minutes read
KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO
A mural about respecting differences on a wall in Serpong, South Tangerang, Friday (6/3/2020).
The heartbeat of a nation can pump two types of public emotions: love and fear. Emotions of love carry the tenets of compassion, humanity, unity, equality, justice and peace. Emotions of fear the tenets of hatred, enmity, division, domination, inequality and chaos. When the power of love fades from the soul of a nation, fear will rampantly haunt all aspects of life. The ideals of glory and happiness in living together fall into the valley of savagery and sorrow.
How can one live in peace if faith is without morals, science does not carry direction, politics does not carry order and the economy is without prosperity.
How can one live a noble life if having a religion cannot be decent, being knowledgeable cannot be wise, having power cannot be humane, having wealth cannot be charitable? How can someone live in contentment if a religious person cannot be a role model, a ruler does not become a guard, a scholar does not become wise, a wealthy person does not contribute to affluence. How can one live in peace if faith is without morals, science does not carry direction, politics does not carry order and the economy is without prosperity.
It has been said by the nation\'s founders that across the golden bridge of independence, there will be a forked road. The first path equals happiness; the second way is lamentation and misery. Happiness and misery are choices of public emotional values that we grow in our joint lives.
In order to nurture the values of love, a nation needs civilizing and meaningful education. Education is said to be meaningful insofar as it can be a vehicle for the growth of a good life. Something is said to be good if it fits its purpose. A good clock shows punctuality. A good dog looks after its master. A good human being is a human being who is able to develop the integrity of his or her human nature.
It should be realized that humans are not entirely made up of noble love values. Humans also share genetic droplets with ancient primates. The chromosome arrangement with chimpanzees does not differ much. In humans there are instinctive tendencies like in chimpanzees: being selfish, grouping on primordial similarities with domination relations, loving hierarchy with male supremacy and exercising control over space.
Luckily, with slightly different chromosomes, humans are the only primates who can develop beliefs, values and sharp intellect. With that, humans shape and are shaped by religion, spirituality, ethics, aesthetics and wisdom. With that, humans can follow a higher path, thereby overcoming the instincts of the chimpanzees.
In the chimpanzee community, life only follows natural selection with the natural freedom of self-interest and class. The fittest remain. Whoever has the strongest primordial ties wins. In the human community, life can transcend the narrow complex of superiority thanks to the guidance of beliefs, values and wisdom.
Kompas/Bahana Patria Gupta
Residents demonstrate in front of the Grahadi Building, Surabaya, East Java, Tuesday (11/24/2020).
With confidence, humans can develop a world view that glorifies universal brotherhood. With values, humans are led to love the weak, to love others as they love themselves. With the knowledge of wisdom, humans can overcome the burden of suffering that suppresses freedom. Under civilized civil freedom, self and group interests are subject to the common will and the common good.
Religions exist to glorify humans, elevate them from the humility of chimpanzees. True religions calls for the adherents to become part of a network of beliefs and virtues in order to increase the opportunity to subdue animal instincts. Houses of worship are established as ethical houses, a place for the embodiment of the religion of humanity, which glorifies the brotherhood of fellow beings, cultivates a peaceful consensus, defends the persecuted, empowers the marginalized. The religious web is a mosaic of the rainbow of love that allows all colors to unite, have a sense of connectedness, share the sustenance.
Complete happiness is embraced when being able to share food and serve the interests of many people. In other words, the highest happiness of humans lies in their ability to be greater than themselves by pursuing a noble meaning in life.
With the guidance of values, faith, and wisdom, the glory and happiness of human life far exceeds the degree of attainment of chimpanzees. For chimpanzees, happiness can be achieved by fulfilling the will to have fun and the will to rule. As a result, as long as they can eat and conquer others, the chimpanzees’ dream of happiness has been achieved. For humans, it is not enough to eat alone and dominate others. Complete happiness is embraced when being able to share food and serve the interests of many people. In other words, the highest happiness of humans lies in their ability to be greater than themselves by pursuing a noble meaning in life.
In short, meaningful education is education that can develop comprehensive humanity. The noted figure of Indonesian education, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, correctly stated that education is the process of learning to become a whole human being by learning from life throughout the life.
With this understanding, the core of education is none other than budi pekerti (character) education. Budi means "thoughts, feelings, and will" (the mental aspect); pekerti means "energy" or "power" (the physical aspect). Character education is a cultural education that seeks to unite the thoughts, feelings and determination of the human will, which encourages the power of energy that can give birth to good, correct and beautiful creation and actions.
Cultural education is actualized through thought, affective and creative development and sports, which synergistically and simultaneously create the profile of Pancasila students with five noble personality axes: being deeply religious with the spirit of noble morals, loving the country with the spirit of universal brotherhood, being independent with a spirit of mutual cooperation, having creative-critical reasoning with the spirit of deliberative wisdom, being competent with the spirit of service and justice. That is the essence of humanization education.
/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F03%2F20200306kum2_1583476811.jpg){kind=logo}
/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F10%2F57674064_1539192099.jpg){kind=logo}
