Click Here To Purchase Deep Thinking The Human Condition: New Ideas We Can't Do Without 

Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our guest, S.A.Odunsi, author of Deep Thinking The Human Condition: Vol 1, Chapters 1-4.

Good day S.A. and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background. When and why did you come to the USA?

S.A.

I arrived in the USA in January 1982 to study accounting.  I finished in 1985 with a B.A. in Business.  In 1990, I started a small printing business and have done that ever since.

Norm: 

Where did you get your information or ideas for Deep Thinking The Human Condition? How long did it take you to write the book?

S.A. 

In retrospect, the idea for the book has always intrigued me, even as a child.  But I didn’t have the means for expressing it until I came to the U.S. and began working as a research assistant in 1983.  The variety of subjects I worked on in that capacity exposed me to a range of information I could not otherwise obtain.  The information, combined with my lifelong curiosity, led to the ideas in the book in 1987.  It took so long to write because, as they say, life got in the way.

Norm:

What motivated you to write the book and whom do you believe will benefit from your book and why?

S.A.

The motivation was an unshakable sense of obligation, despite years of trying not to do it.  There was a time when I hoped desperately that someone else would express the same ideas.  I held on to this hope until I realized that it would never happen, that no one was thinking as I was, and that only I could do it.

This book is for everyone.  First, it is a general how-to book for thinking about contemporary events.  Second, it is a policy book for underdeveloped countries everywhere about how to achieve economic development.  Third, it is a handbook for Americans about what is taking place in their country.  Fourth, it is a guide for the academic social science establishment about what is taking place in their industry.

Norm:

What was the most difficult part of writing your book? Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

S.A.

The most difficult part was familiarizing myself with the state of knowledge in the field and then making time to write. While I enjoy reading the literature, I don’t particularly enjoy the writing part.  Also, doing both has been costly in terms of missed business opportunities.

What I learnt, or rather, what I’ve come to believe is that it is my fate to write this book and the others that will come.  I have also accepted the sacrifices that doing so will entail.

Norm:

A great deal of ink is devoted to the process of “functionality?” Could you briefly explain what you mean by the term and how can the process be taught?

S.A.

Very simply stated, functionality is what makes the developed countries developed and its absence is what makes the underdeveloped countries underdeveloped.  It is a quality that conventional education cannot teach, even at the highest levels.  Functionality is a concept that cannot be accurately described in a few words, that is why I wrote so much about it. 

The difficulty in expressing the concept as a sound byte reflects the impossibility of teaching it with conventional methods.  For too long, we have attempted to get away with the idea that the individual is unique, yet we do so little in respecting that concept when it comes to education.  Ultimately, no two individuals can express functionality identically.  Hence, no two individuals can describe it identically. 

On the one hand, it is the ultimate expression of individuality.  On the other hand, the concept captures that which all humans have in common.  It is because of this complex, dual nature that I’ve been careful to state that the academy can only hope to facilitate its learning, as opposed to directly teaching it.  In the end, the individual will have to learn functionality on his or her own terms. 

Educators can only hope to provide the means for learning functionality in the academic setting.  Fortunately, the purpose of learning functionality can be expressed in specific terms: economic development and all that it entails.  But learning functionality is not as mysterious as it may sound, because, as infants, humans learn their primary language on their own without being specifically taught.  The process of learning functionality is identical to how infants learn to use language, through exposure, repetition and practice in a diverse range of contexts.  However, facilitating its learning requires the use of new concepts that have only been briefly summarized in this first book and which are foreign to the academics of social science.

Norm:

Many retired business executives have volunteered their time and knowledge in helping various African countries. How important are these executives in teaching functionality?

S.A.

Such efforts are redundant.  As explained in chapter 3, functionality is resistant to apprenticeship and learning by experience.  The executives acquired functionality in their own unique ways that are applicable only to them.  Hence, they cannot impart it to anyone without an identical background.  Simply having a similar background is not enough.

Norm:

To what do you attribute the success of countries as South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong and why can’t the African countries emulate this success?

S.A. 

As is the case with all other developed countries, the relative success of those countries is due to the aspects of their culture that no one has been able to usefully identify.  Beyond the superficial, there is nothing for African countries or other underdeveloped countries to emulate.

Norm:

There is a common argument that many developing countries will be condemned to economic stagnation, regardless of the economic policies their governments pursue, by two factors beyond their control: their insupportable debts and their lack of home-grown entrepreneurs. Do you agree or disagree with this argument?

S.A.

I agree with the lack of homegrown entrepreneurs argument.  That is the problem that imparting functionality will address.  I disagree with the debt argument because it is advanced by those who overlook the proven failure of Western education in these countries. 

The argument embodies a tangle of conceptual distortions.  E.g., it suggests that these countries will develop if they had no debt.  However, they were underdeveloped before they took on debt.  There’s nothing wrong in taking on debt if it is used for achieving development, as opposed to using it to acquire consumer goods or building infrastructure that cannot be maintained without the help of people from the developed countries. 

These countries failed to effectively put debt to use for the purpose of development because of the absence of functionality.  If enough people in these countries become functional, their economies will grow fast enough to reduce the debt to a manageable level that will not impede growth.

Norm:

Do you believe that trade liberalizations has made few advances in reduction of poverty in Africa?

S.A.

Your emphasis on Africa is understandable, because it’s the most underdeveloped region of the world.  However, we must be aware at all times that other underdeveloped regions of the world would fare no better than Africa without their special relationships with the developed countries, particularly the West.  For instance, Latin America enjoys proximity to the United States as well as prominence in America’s strategic calculations.  These factors have provided incentives for the U.S. to ensure the economic well being of that region.  For instance, the so-called debt crises of the 1980s devastated the economy of Mexico as much as it did for the economy of Nigeria, West Africa.  However, Mexico recovered because of concerted efforts by the U.S., including NAFTA and other investment initiatives.  

Then there’s the issue of racial prejudice.  On both counts, i.e. proximity and racial similarity, Nigeria is at a disadvantage.  Then compare that with North African nations that are located just south of Europe and populated by people of Arabic descent who physically resemble Europeans.  While those countries are not developed, they still have not shared in the permanent depression of so-called sub-Saharan Africa.  In other words, trade liberation cannot achieve much without functionality, and barring that, without large numbers of expatriates backed by capital and investments from the developed countries.  The functionality of Africans will eliminate the disadvantages of distance and lack of foreign investment, especially since many African countries are rich with natural resources.

Norm:

Do you believe the Chinese are playing a constructive role in Africa in promoting economic growth but perhaps at the expense of environment and human rights?

S.A.

I believe the Chinese are promoting economic growth, but their efforts will lack permanence for the same reasons that the efforts of their European predecessors did: the absence of functionality among the people of that region.  Africa would not need the Chinese if their educated were functional.  At their stage of development or underdevelopment, environmental concerns have the least priority for Africans, and understandably so.  Regarding human rights, only real economic growth, as opposed to shallow modernization, can facilitate that.

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and Deep Thinking The Human Condition?

S.A.

At www.humanrethink.net.  Deep Thinking the Human Condition: New Ideas We Can’t Do Without is just the beginning of a series of books that will conclude with a spelled-out solution for persistent underdevelopment.  I believe that interacting with interested members of the public through the blog will motivate my efforts in writing the rest of the books and in clarifying my thoughts.

Norm:

What is next for S.A. Odunsi and is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

S.A.

When I realized a long time ago that I could not avoid writing the book, I began to compare myself with the Biblical Jonah, who sought to avoid his fate and spent time in the belly of a whale for his recalcitrance.  Having resigned myself to my own fate—due to guilt and a torturous sense of responsibility—what lies in store for me is promoting my ideas through the book and completing the rest of volume 1.  Meanwhile, I hope Deep Thinking will raise the level of dialog and of thinking about persistent underdevelopment, so that people everywhere can begin to address the problem in those terms that can solve it, instead of the common fanciful and superficial terms.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Click Here To Read Norm's Review of Deep Thinking The Human Condition: New Ideas We Can't Do Without