Cosmopolitanism: An Opportunity for Higher Education in a Shrinking World

Author(s): Theodore L. McEvoy

Source: The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Feb., 1968), pp. 84-91
Published by: Ohio State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1980252
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Cosmopo.litanism
An Opportunityfor Higher Education in a
Shrinking World

By THEODOREL. McEvoY

tNTIL recent years there has been little inquiry into the nature
U
of human development beyond the late adolescent years.' The
enormousemphasis on growth and development during infancy,
childhood, and early adolescence is everywhere apparent in theories
concerningphysiologicalmaturation, intelligence, skill competence, and
interpersonalrelations. The vast amount of work in these areas, both
theoreticaland experimental,stands in markedcontrast to the barrenness
of facts and ideas describingadult development. Although the develop-
ment of humanpersonalityand intellectualcharacteristicsis quite variable
with respect to rate, magnitude, and quality, it is increasinglyclear that
continued development is possible, and does sometimes occur in adult
years. It is equally clear that such developmentis not just quantitative;
it does not consist only in the acquisitionand retentionof more and more
factual information. In some persons such change is also qualitative;
it gives themsubstantivelydifferentintellectual-personalitycharacteristics.
One human growth potential is the development of an intellectual
disposition to view events, ideas, values, and persons (includingoneself)
in a cosmopolitanperspective, that is, to attain a stage of growth which
might be called cosmopolitanism.
"Cosmopolitanism,"as used here, is not meant to suggest simple
worldliness. Rather, it is a moreprofoundinnerdevelopment. Numerous
theoristshave describedsuch a conditionin highly differentiatedpersons.
Abraham Maslow, for one, in describing self-actualizedpersons, noted
that they often possess a capacity for unlimited horizons, a mystical or
oceanic attitude toward existence, and an abiding concern with the
nature of reality and meaning.2 Henry Murray, writing of his first
encounter with Carl Jung, said of Jung, "I had no scales to weigh out
Dr. Jung, the first full-blooded,spherical-and Goethian, I should say-
intelligenceI had ever met."3 Erik Erikson alludes to such a character-
'For editorial assistance and for help in formulating my ideas, I wish to express my gratitude to
David W. Palmer, associate dean of students, counseling, University of California, Los Angeles.
2Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper and Brothers, I954),
Chap.XII, pp. I99-234.
3Henry A. Murray, "What Should Psychologists Do about Psychoanalysis?" Journal of Albnormal
and Social Psychology, XXXV (April, I940), p. 153.
THEODORE L. McEvoy is associate director of the Student Counseling Center,
University of California, Los Angeles.
84

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COSMOPOLITANISM 85
istic of full maturity when in discussing his concept of ego integrity he
says "that a wise Indian, a true gentleman, and a mature peasant share
and recognize in one another the final stage of integrity."4
The seeds of cosmopolitanism are often detected in the bright, inquir-
ing, sophisticated, matured young adult. They are especially apparent
in those youths who have most successfully encountered and mastered
sustained cross-cultural experiences. One should not conclude that
every American college junior studying in a European university for
eight months achieves this level of differentiation and integration.
Rather, it appears that a cross-cultural experience, because it upsets
cultural equilibrium, or, perhaps more graphically, social parochialism,
does afford an unusually rich opportunity for movement towards such a
level of development. Such an experience produces what might be called
incipient cosmopolitanism.
Cosmopolitanism, as it in turn develops, allows the individual new
perspectives and new opportunities for growth. Perhaps in a more
critical way, it begins to free the individual from those unconscious ties
which have limited his identity, and in a sense his intellectual and per-
ceptual movement, to the prescribed traces of his native social milieu.
The new perspectives that so begin to operate may be described as three:
cultural relativity, temporal relativity, and self-objectivity. They serve
turther to differentiate this process of liberation from the parochialism
of one's origins. Cultural relativity entails the capacity for under-
standing the cultural values and mores of other peoples, and a respect for
and tolerance of their values and mores-especially those that differ
from one's own. It is, furthermore, the capacity for questioning critically
and objectively, in a constructive and instructive manner, the values and
institutions held inalienable or sacred in one's own social milieu.
Temporal relativity entails the capacity for distinguishing with some
sense of confidence the commonplace, the irrelevant, and the transitory,
from the unique, the relevant, and the enduring. Such a perspective
necessitates an historical understanding of ideas and events. William
Arrowsmith speaks incisively to this point when he notes, unhappily,
that the humanities (and, alas, I might add, the social sciences) are
presently bogged down in an almost endless proliferation of uninspired,
uncritical, and worthless ideas.5 This sorry state of affairs, he believes,
has occurred in part because the present generation of researchers is
preoccupied with the esoteric, and views the world from a constricted
perspective.
Self-objectification entails the capacity for viewing oneself from
outside of oneself, and with dispassion. From ancient times, great
thinkers have stressed the fulfilling qualities of self-knowledge. In this
vein, Socrates is credited with having said that to achieve the good life
4Erik H. Erikson, Childhoodand Society (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., I963),
p. 269.
'William Arrowsmith, "The Shame of the Graduate Schools," Harper's Magazine, CCXXXII
(March, I966), pp. 5I-59.

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86 JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION
it is necessary to know thyself. Gordon Allport, in addressing himself
to maturity, has noted the striking correlation between insight and the
sense of humor. In this context, he remarks, "The novelist Meredith
says it [a sense of humor] is the ability to laugh at the things one loves
(including, of course, oneself and all that pertains to oneself), and still
to love them. The real humorist perceives behind some solemn event-
himself, for instance-the contrast between pretension and performance
[italics added]."6 It is this kind of self-understanding that is manifested
in a cosmopolitan perspective.
Cosmopolitanism is, simply stated, a development of the human
intellect and temperament which transcends the here, the now, and
the "I."

IN HIS theory of interpersonal development, Harry Sullivan has pointed

out that the juvenile era (the beginning of which is roughly coincident
with entrance into primary school) is characterized by the overcoming of
what we would term familial parochialism, and the onset of a truly social
perspective.7 Similarly, I would add, continued psychological develop-
ment beyond late adolescence affords the opportunity of overcoming a
provincial or sub-cultural parochialism and of achieving a world per-
spective.
The gaining of a genuine cosmopolitanism is much more difficult than
the gaining of a social perspective. For most persons there is usually no
real opportunity to attain such a perspective. For many there are too
many barriers, a lot of them psychological limitations, rigidities, or
deficiencies. However, even when there are many enriching opportunities
and no real barriers or limitations to such growth, there is usually less
need or drive to achieve a new perspective. Society provides few extrinsic
rewards for achieving and maintaining a view which transcends one's
own sub-culture. Assuredly, most college graduates manage to break
out of the narrow perspective of their immediate peers, a perspective
which is a mark of the adolescent. But for many, the broader view of
man which is achieved is superficial. It is amazing how many seemingly
sophisticated adults are liberal in theory and bigoted in practice; generous
in philosophy and penurious in habit; concerned in public and forgetful
in private. The discrepancy is often less a case of willful hypocrisy than
one of unsuccessful integration of intellectual attitudes into the fiber of
being.
The achievement of a truly cosmopolitan perspective must entail such
successful integration, so that the long-term behavior of the individual is
influenced as well as his short-term attitude and professions. In a study
of Vassar alumnae-women twenty to twenty-five years out of college-
6Gordon W. Allport, Pattern and Growthin Personality (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
i965), p. 292.
7Harry S. Sullivan, The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry (New York: W. W. Norton and
Company,Inc., I953), pp. 227-44.

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COSMOPOLITANISM 87
Mervin Freedman discovered that the alumnae resembled Vassar fresh-
men more nearly on measures of tolerance, unconventionality, religious
liberalism, and the like, than they did Vassar seniors.8 It is probably
reasonable to assume that for many persons, despite development through
the college years, there will be, in subsequent years, multiple counter
forces which result in some regression to earlier attitudes.
To illustrate more fully evidence of incipient cosmopolitanism, and
to suggest the conditions for its development, one can turn to the words of
several students who have experienced such stirrings. An engineering
student returning from a summer project in India found his interests
suddenly broadened. His comments are a forceful testimony to the
enlarging effects of a successful cross-cultural experience.
Now I go to see IngmarBergmanfilms. HeretoforeI used to study
every night . . . now I am reading a lot of books, before I wouldn't
have done this . . . books on existentialism . . . I'm going to finish
my degree in engineering,I'll go on and work in the field but now I
know there are other fields I could go into and be happy. . . . After
the first week in India I was very disappointed,because I went with
the idea that everything would unfold before me and be the most
fantastic experienceof my life. I wouldn't have to do anything, I
could just sit there and absorb. I was very dissatisfiedafter the first
week, until I realizedI wasn't doing anything. When I started putting
something into it, thinking of questions that I had about India and
about things I wantedto learn, thinkingabout the questionsthe Indians
asked me and trying to put meaning into my answers, trying to analyze
what I really thought about things, then I became involved. Before
going to India I would never have considered going into politics . . . I
believed I'd end up an engineer. If I have an opportunity for a public
position now, I will be more apt to do it.
The two excerpts that follow clearly reflect penetrating personal
discoveries which are notable for their clarity in differentiation and
objectivity. Subsequent observation of both students has led me to
believe that the insights have been well integrated and are manifested
both in understanding and behavior. The first is from the diary of a
young woman. The second is from an interview with a young man. In
the latter case his response was made directly to the question, "Of the
many experiences that you had (in India) that were meaningful, which
one seemed to you most meaningful?" First, from the young woman:
Trivandrum, Kerala-I cried for my second and last time today. I
cried because I realized the failure and personal guilt that would
accompany me wherever I went in India . . . I cried because I saw
the sickness, poverty, death that constantly lives here . . . I cried
because I knew I had always had everything I had wanted . . . a bed
to sleep in every night and parents who would always love me. There
8Mervin B. Freedman, "Studies of College Alumni," in The American College, edited by Nevitt
Sanford (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., I962), pp. 847-86.

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88 JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION
is a great personal guilt accompanying those that are privileged. I
desire to wear the darkest dress, the poorest shoes . . . my home has
made me what I am and I cried because I know I can never really
understand another person.
And from the man:
When we were leaving on the way to the airport we stopped and
visited a temple on a hill. They had just finished a sacrifice and the
other cars had already gone. But by the time our car came, there were
entrails stretched across the road to the temple. A small crowd had
gathered there. Then another automobile came upon us. The driver
hesitated a bit, then all of a sudden he spun out and drove through,
breaking the entrails. The moment he broke them, I had a tremendous
reaction. Here was the twentieth century breaking through. It was
a very deep moment for me. Then another curious thing happened
to which I reacted very deeply. The others went up to the temple,
took off their shoes and entered. I'm not a Hindu, and this is one
thing I'd rather not do. I would not take off my shoes, and so I didn't
go into a single Hindu temple. I just didn't feel it was right for me to
practice a Hindu ceremony, because I take their ceremony very deeply.
I don't belong to it; I think that it is their moment of communion, their
way to do it. I have mine. I was very happy that the others went in.
I climbed up on a rock and looked at the sky. There were clouds and
a little wind was blowing. I felt happy that the Hindus were having
their communion. It was a holy spot, and I felt that it was a holy place.
Where such changes do not take place, it is interesting to reflect on
the barriers that may obtain to obstruct such change. By way of intro-
ducing, briefly, the matter of barriers to such psychological development,
let us consider a less happy case than those just cited. The following
comments are drawn from the author's report concerning an unsuccessful
participant in an overseas educational project.
Recently we had the opportunity to interview a young lady, a college
junior, who had returned prematurely from study in France. This
was a girl who, despite her excellent academic standing, appeared to
be developmentally quite unready for a cross-cultural experience.
There was considerable evidence of prominent features of egocentricity,
marked dependency needs, low frustration tolerance and other evidence
of poor adaptability. From the outset her European adjustment
was unsatisfactory. She cried hysterically her first night in Europe.
She cried often afterwards and always used crying in a manipulative
manner. She borrowed money indiscriminately and used it wastefully.
She deceived the administration. A pleasure cruise through the
Mediterranean, financed by emergency funds from home, quickly
restored her good spirits-so long as it lasted. Her efforts to return
home from Europe in the middle of the academic year were discouraged
both by the local administration and by her family at home. Still
she maneuvered it with obvious care and planning.
The reason for reporting this case is not to demonstrate her im-
maturity. Rather it is to underscore another most unfortunate fact.

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COSMOPOLITANISM 89
This girl had sought to study in France because of her fondness for
French literature and culture. Certainly her secondhand knowledge
of France had been indiscriminatelyromanticizedin fantasy, but she
did possess a genuinely positive attitude toward that culture. On her
return from Europeshe expresseddisgust with France and her peoples.
Accordingto the student the Frenchare all mean,dishonest,exploitative,
unclean, and insanely jealous of Americanswhom they "know" have
a truly superiorculture. Insteadof movementtowardcosmopolitanism
there was a demonstrable regression towards parochialism. This
incident is discouraginglysimilar to other examplesof provincial dis-
trust, stereotypic thinking, and open resentmentof "aliens."
Some of the barriers to growth and development appear to be social,
others individual. Consider, for example, one benign barrier towards
growth, a barrier supported by one's peers or one's family. Americans
who choose to travel abroad in planned tours, or who move from the
London Hilton to the Hilton Hotel in Cairo, and then to the Hilton in
Istanbul, and back to the new Paris Hilton, may learn a lot about Hilton
hotels or other Americans who travel in tours, but little else. The
American student in Madrid or Bordeaux whose world is that of a little
America might just as well stay at home. There is no intercultural
exchange.

D ESEARCH in social psychology has seriously challenged the notion

IA. that a change in thinking, that is, a change in attitude, will result
in a change in behavior. The reverse thesis appears to be much more
compatible with the facts. Social and cultural prejudices held by stu-
dents prior to cross-cultural experiences are likely to continue unless
there are effective opportunities for their alteration, and specifically for
different behavior. Allport, in reviewing relevant research, concluded
that prejudice is lessened when two groups (i) possess equal status,
(2) seek common goals, (3) are cooperatively dependent upon each other,
and (4) interact with the positive support of authorities, laws, or custom.9
The perpetuation of social behavior, especially when it is directly sup-
ported by peers, which does not allow these conditions to obtain will
interfere with the effective achievement of a substantive cosmopolitan
perspective despite any superficial change in professed beliefs.
There are other, perhaps more insidious, social barriers, but it is the
individual barriers that must be understood if one is to gain a sharp
insight into the process of psychological development, whether it be of
growth or of crystallization or of regression, that takes place in a cross-
cultural experience. The need for this kind of understanding is greater
than most educators realize. In I964-65 the University of California
at Los Angeles was represented by eleven students participating in the
University of California Education Abroad Program at a European
university. Of these eleven students, five appear to have made a useful
9Gordon W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley
PublishingCompany,Inc., I954), Chap.XVI, pp. 26I-82.

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go JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION
adaptation to the European community in which the university is located;
they were interacting with the community in a constructive manner.
Another student appears to have been nearly incorporated into the local
community; indeed she may have been unsuitably involved with it.
Two other students withdrew prematurely from the program. Two
were only superficially in contact with the host culture, and one was a
social isolate, generally inactive and withdrawn. Although a group of
eleven is too small to warrant any general conclusions, these results are
sufficient to indicate the need for further careful evaluation.
It appears from our experiences that many college-age students are
too much involved in working out solutions to common adolescent prob-
lems, notably those arising from interpersonal needs, especially with
respect to the opposite sex, and from their efforts at achieving independence
from home, to handle successfully the additional demands of a cross-
cultural experience. Certainly, if the stated or elicited causes of pre-
mature termination are indicative this is true. This observation suggests
that there may well be an optimal time in psychological growth to subject
persons to the disquieting effects of a cultural shift. Premature exposure
not only fails to lead to an effective encounter but may even result in
withdrawal, in the strengthening of preconceptions and prejudices, and
in the blunting of further development.
Another individual barrier, perhaps an unalterable one, is common
among those whose identity is no longer fluid, but static. Such persons
ordinarily have grossly inaccurate images of themselves, images and
ideas which are precariously maintained. It is even very likely that
they have little self-awareness, since they have not discovered their
own nature in struggles, ordeals, or commitments. Their "identity"
is more likely than not a tacit one, defined implicitly by their family,
social group, or culture. Information which would lead to more valid
self-understanding produces conflict, anxiety, and most frequently
unconscious avoidance. New information would upset too many cher-
ished ideas and produce too much uncertainty. It would call into question
a structure long since built for permanency. This conservative con-
striction is a universal phenomenon. Societies, institutions, and ideas
are all subject to it. Indeed history shows us that innovation is normally
resisted and indeed persecuted. The familiar, the parochial, dies slowly.
Robert Coles describes this human reaction lucidly and somewhat
poignantly in quoting a moderate southern lawyer who is speaking of
his more conservative wife in discussing integration with his enlightened
daughter: "Your mother hasn't it in her to hurt anyone, black or white . . .
she's just changing her ideas in her own way. She has to cry them out,
and repeat them a few times so that she can say goodbye to them. That's
the South, holding to its own as long as it can, because it had precious
little to hold to for a long time."1o
10Robert Coles, "Serpents and Doves: Non-violent Youth in the South," in Youth: Change and
Challenge, edited by Erik H. Erikson (New York: Basic Books, I963), p. 205.

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COSMOPOLITANISM 9I

The capacity for cosmopolitanism is a human potential that has

always been developed in a few persons of great insight who have often
provided inspiration and leadership for their fellow man. It is a capacity
which is keenly developed in the fulfilled, men who are said to possess
the quality of "mana," the presence of which makes other men know
themselves better and be at peace. Cosmopolitanism is a condition
which can be fostered in increasing numbers of men who have the oppor-
tunity and the leisure to develop such understanding, but it is a condition
which is easily impeded by common but not insurmountable barriers.
If cosmopolitanism is valued as a means to greater self-understanding and
fulfillment or as an expression of informed and enlightened humanism,
then it should be encouraged, indeed cultivated. It may well provide a
major challenge and opportunity to higher education in a shrinking world.

TO HELP improve the quality of agriculture, the thermodynamics of

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with a similar outstanding record in
research and teaching.

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