A Deeper & Decolonized Education
What is Paidea, Parhessia, & Critical Consciousness?
Dr. Kabban: We're going to dig into some of that Paideia today, some of that wisdom that you have for us. One of the main things that you taught me when I studied with you at Harvard was the importance of our values being applied consistently across all human rights movements. So, in that spirit, my sisters and I designed this teaching for educators who have the moral courage to teach that the lives of our precious Palestinian brothers and sisters matter in this world. Having you as my teacher, Dr. West has profoundly impacted my consciousness and the importance of staying close to those who suffer the most in our world. You talk often about how the traditions of Jerusalem and Athens have influenced you, specifically referencing Parhessia and Paideia. Can you start off by telling us what these two Greek traditions are and why they're so important to the lives of our students and classrooms and to our democratic experiment happening within the context of this American empire?
Dr. West: Wonderful question, my brother. Well, one is I believe that we're living in a moment of spiritual decay and moral decrepitude. By spiritual decay, I mean a callousness toward the suffering of others and an indifference for the plight, especially of the highly vulnerable, those who are pushed to the margins, and those whose suffering is rendered invisible. Now, moral decrepitude has to do with a relative lack of integrity, honesty, decency and generosity. Paideia, in Greek, means deep education. Very different than cheap schooling. Now, schooling is a wonderful thing, access to skills and what have you, but no, we’re talking about something much more profound than that, and what the Greeks had in mind was a deep education that generates an attention to those things that matter, life: death, joy, sorrow, justice, injustice. It meant a cultivation of a critical sensibility, a critical consciousness, the way in which my dear brother Edward Said talked about, or where in which Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel would talk about it. A noble discontent, a critical discontent, and then at the same time, an attempt to ensure with our attention and with our wrestling with critical sensibility, we learn how to act courageously to take a risk.
So to take, for example, this very briefly, Socrates in Plato’s Apology. Line 38a “An unexamined life was not worth living.” Line 24a, “The cause of my unpopularity, Parhessia.” Fearless speech, unintimidated speech, courageous speech, so the fusion between Paidea, deep education, attention, critical sensibility, acting courageously based on integrity, honesty, consistency, and then recognizing like Socrates. It could be like Jesus. It could be like Muhammad. It could be like Fanny Lou Hamer. It could be like Max Roach. I mean, all of the truth tellers get in trouble. They cut against the grain. They are in the world, but not of the unfair world. They're trying to be a light in the midst of so much grimness and so much dimness.
And an important thing. And just one last point here, though, brother, is that, you know, we got to have some fun doing it though man. You want to do it with style. You want to do it with a smile. There's great joy in serving others. Our precious Jewish brothers and sisters, in their scripture, the spreading of Hesed. That steadfast love, that loving kindness to the orphan and widow, you ought to find joy in spreading that Hesed. It's not something that you walk around slumped over with. Because the suffering is so overwhelming, If you don't find joy in struggling against it, you won't be a long-distance runner. You're going to be overwhelmed by the suffering. And of course, when it comes to any oppressed people, let alone my precious Palestinian brothers and sisters, whose suffering is so often rendered invisible that you got to find a joy in being in solidarity with a truth telling and a justice seeking and a love bearing, because we're in love with oppressed people, no matter who they are. But in this case, we're talking about our precious Palestinians tonight.
