The following article, written by Chris Swanson, president and tutor at Gutenberg College, offers a compelling perspective on the value of classical, Christian education. Swanson argues that a return to time-tested educational principles can help us reclaim our humanity and resist being treated as mere “lab rats” in an increasingly manipulative society.
This thought-provoking piece challenges us to consider the true purpose of education and its role in shaping us as beings created in God’s image.
The Tension in Humanity
The Apostle Paul talks in his epistles about us having two natures, one of the spirit and one of the flesh. The spirit orients us toward the things of God, and the flesh orients us toward sin.
Plato, in The Republic, divides the human into three parts: reason, spirit, and appetite. In Plato’s division, the appetites and the spirit need guidance from the rational part of man.
Today, psychologists distinguish between our reasoning faculties and our lizard brain. The lizard brain controls those behaviors and inclinations that are most like an animal—those focused on instinctual needs like food, safety, dominance, and sex.
While the fundamental goals of humanity are vastly different in all three systems, they all share a similar insight—namely, that we are creatures who live in tension. To live well requires that we recognize and attempt to control our lower nature.
The Social Experiment
It turns out that the world knows this, too. And it is busy exploiting that knowledge. It recognizes that we are easily controlled by our lower natures and, not surprisingly, it has discovered ways of manipulating those animalistic appetites. Essentially the world sees us as lab rats, animals who live by Paul’s flesh, Plato’s appetites, and psychology’s lizard brain.
Consider some very obvious examples.
Manipulating our Feelings
Big tech businesses, such as YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, and video-game companies are trading on our attention. They are selling our eyeballs to the highest bidder. They treat us like lab rats, doing experiments on us so that they can direct us in their “maze” and maximize our time on their site.
The algorithms appeal to our lower natures in ways of which we are not even aware. They serve up content that appeals to feelings of laughter, self-esteem, self-righteousness, excitement, fear, anxiety, and many others. They are the most sophisticated behavior modification programs that have ever been created by man.
What these algorithms do not do, however, is direct our minds toward loving God and our neighbor.
Advertisers create ads to generate positive feelings in consumers. Those positive feelings will then create a positive association with a product, which in turn will generate a sale. How do they create positive feelings? They use lots of sophisticated psychological and social research on our emotions and desires. Their research subjects are us, the lab rats.
Many political parties and pundits often appeal to feelings of outrage, fear, righteous indignation, and belonging, among others. Their goal is to draw listeners and viewers into a state of agitation, ideological conformity, and action. They use huge data sets to determine how to influence groups and individuals. Since our votes are the source of their power, they study us so that they might control us.
Certain universities also often appeal to our lower natures as well. They create an image of fun, camaraderie, success, and wealth. They promise to make their students the best lab rats they can be. The public supports these goals because universities produce excellent cogs for a gigantic economic engine, and everyone wants bigger and better hamster wheels.
Large universities spend millions of dollars on marketing science to project reputations of quality and future material satisfaction. They spend billions of dollars on athletic facilities and programs. They use sophisticated, decades-long, “data driven” methods to influence the perception of students and parents because they want to have the best rats possible.
What Does It Mean to Be Human?
Even ethicists, whose field is supposed to explore what it means to be a human, treat us as animals.
As an example, Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist who has written a number of very insightful books about our behavior and ethical choices and whose analysis is quite keen, believes our rationality is used not to guide but to justify our lizard-brain-driven behaviors. In his view, our animal instincts guide our morality, not the other way around.
If it is true that we have been poked, prodded, and studied like Pavlov’s dog for well over a century, how shall we respond? Are our choices programed for us by technocrats and mega companies? Are we forever condemned to an animal destiny enslaved to flesh and instinct?
Or do we, as Christians, still have a choice between being a lab rat or a human being?
Created in His Image
Before we address this question, we must first ask what it means to be a human being.
Karl Barth, a renowned twentieth-century theologian put it this way: “Man is the being to whom God is gracious in Jesus Christ” [Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth, Westminster John Knox Press, London 1961, p. 165].
This somewhat cryptic comment holds the key to understanding our humanity. God designed human beings to be creatures filled with His spirit, beings created for eternal glory and righteousness—not creatures enslaved to the flesh but rather creatures who strive to rise above the fleshly appetites. The core of what it means to be a human being is inextricably tied to God’s intentions. This view of humanity defies the world’s views of man that define us as rational, creative, excellent, powerful, material, or a random result of natural selection.
Barth’s radical view puts our everyday lives in context.
Daily life inevitably revolves around the struggles and joys of earthly existence. That is our lot—to live “in the world.” But to live “of the world” is to prioritize our lower natures.
Consider the distinction. Status and power? Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.” Financial security? Do not be anxious about tomorrow. Success and winning? Paul tells us to run the race for the imperishable wreath, not the perishable. Fear? Fear not those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. Group identity? We are one in Christ.
With this understanding of what a human being is, the answer to the question, “Are we destined to be lab rats?” is obvious. God has rescued us and atoned for our sins on the cross. He will make us fully human in the life to come. We are more that rats.
This is the good news of the Gospel. Let us rejoice.
Escaping the Maze
Nevertheless, those seeking to influence us are still experimenting and finding better and more effective ways to extol and control our animal nature. The problem is particularly difficult for students who are immersed in mazes and lack the experience age brings. They recognize, often better than their parents, the mazes constructed for them. They reject some parts of the maze but embrace others. The rat masters are hard to resist.
One of the best antidotes is education—but only education of a particular sort. High school and college education that treats students like lab rats exacerbates the problem. However, an education that encourages dialog, truth-seeking, freedom to ask questions, and the skills of reading and thinking gives students the opportunity and ability to pursue the human over the animal and the spirit over the flesh.
This is the sort of education that a classical, Christian program offers.
It is the foundation for a lifelong pursuit of becoming human.
It is an antidote to a world that treats us like lab rats.
Are you inspired by the vision of education presented in this article? To learn more about how you can continue your journey in classical, Christian education and critical thinking, visit Gutenberg College’s website.
Discover their unique offerings that align with the principles of dialog, truth-seeking, and the pursuit of becoming fully human in a world that often treats us like lab rats.
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