In today’s ACM we are looking at examples of how capitalism lowers standards of education and average education level of the population, and why capitalists will work feverishly to keep the masses under-educated (hint: something they value). I’m sure you have seen the bumper stickers, often on the back of a teacher’s vehicle, with some comparisons between education and military funding. The Military Industrial Complex has a few more lobbyists and a lot more money to throw their way than teachers, and most parents don’t realize they are one of the most important lobbyists for education. But wouldn’t it be great if education had a tiny bit of that military budget thrown its way? If only we had such resources (and we do). But they will not be available as long as capitalism steers our motivations.
There are many methods in which capitalism keeps the masses from getting a proper education. Many models can show how and why this happens. I am focusing on three, because they are the ones that came to mind. There are surely many more examples, so please feel free to add them to the comments. Alternately you can argue some opposing points of view for more compelling and lively conversation. My first example of how capitalism makes you less educated (stupid is too negative?) is the media model. We are all familiar with the idea that television is largely aimed at an 8-12year old’s comprehension level. The cable companies’ drive to remove the fairness doctrine did nothing to help educate, instead helping signal a free-for-all for conspiracy theorists, hate radio, Faux Neuz and more. Commercials on television are an ever-expanding assault on intellect and sensory input nestled between laugh tracks and fake reality shows. Radio, especially AM spectrum, has been off the deep end of lake reason for some time now, and social media ads and posts have as much chance of being made by foreign adversarial individuals as being done by or coordinated by the local capitalists. Both will gain from dis-information, false equivalency, conspiracy theories and distrust of science and ‘real news’. All push more oppression through un-educating. “What you thought you knew is wrong.” That sentence sounds like 1000 different intros or tag lines to some infomercial. Speaking of which… And ‘news stories’ produced by political parties or PACs which are little more than thinly veiled infomercials for their propaganda. Truth in media? That horse left the barn ages ago, and you can damned well bet it’s not coming back peacefully! Media in fact does a double-whammy for capitalism: first, through bias and free-for-all ‘reporting’ of the news, cherry-picking stories, racist over tones (and under too?), and generally not being truthful to the public. Second, through the onslaught of advertisement to sell the proletariats, the working class the latest tech must-have, the most amazing skin cream, latest plastic doo-dad, stupidest service (just 19.95 monthly for 2 years and we will teach YOU how to master the art of walking!) Why? Money. A true capitalist is concerned most with money, with accumulated wealth. Ever-increasing profit at all costs! “We’ve got shareholders you know! We have an obligation to lie in order to increase profits!” This is just more devastation to the education of the masses, as messaging keeps aiming toward less-educated minds. The ‘lowest common denominator’ is where the most flagrant commercialism (parodied) dwells.
Our next model is the terrible, racist and completely unjust ‘school to prison’ model, or
criminalizing youth that is carried out by disciplinary policies and practices within schools that put students into contact with law enforcement,
used most often in inner-city (black) neighborhoods to keep the crime down (the capitalist private prison owners happy). We start the cycle with under-educating the working class, add big obstacles for advancement, loans, voting, etc.… We start with oppression. In addition to the already out of hand racist justice system, the environment they grow up in, the lack of a chance for a ‘good job’, the increased economic pressure all contribute to a higher crime rate. So do the ends justify the means? With a large population of already educationally oppressed people, the government is now paying private companies for the jails and prisons to house these neighbors of ours. Yup, more bucks for the ‘upper class.’ This model, a joint development by capitalists and lobbied legislators, has been honed to a fine edge for over 20 years and now operates like a well-oiled machine moneybelt. Make no mistake, the assault on education from capitalists is pervasive and multi-pronged.
The final model I would like to visit we can call the ‘DeVos model.’ Already from a family with a vulture lineage with thousands of carcasses in its past, she has been a capitalists wet dream. Her parents
“advanced their right-wing cause using backhanded tactics. For instance, the Prince’s family foundation tried to evade lobbying restrictions by reclassifying their lobbying efforts as ‘prayer warrior’ networks. In other words, the Princes claimed that they asked politicians to ‘pray’ for particular policies as opposed to actually lobbying policymakers for the policies.” (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/default/news/2017/01/23/296947/the-devos-dynasty-a-family-of-extremists/)
On top of working to lower standards, she used privatization in the form of school vouchers, charter schools and ‘school choice’, exposing more veins (of cash) for her ‘class mates’ to suck dry. By de-funding public schools even further, she helps steer parents away from the ‘low performing public schools’ into the waiting arms of… profiteers! Does anyone actually believe this leaves education better off than it was? How does adding a profit center to extract money benefit education again? Great work Betsy, education is further oppressed, and capitalists are profiting. Who could ask for anything more? (apologies to Ira Gershwin for this use). In fact DeVos not only helped her friends make a profit, but rewarded them and punished students further by cancelling any forgiveness when the school closed before the degree was achieved. The education equivalent of a lemon.
In all three models we see capitalists make money. In all of these models, the proletariat is oppressed through poor education, jail, and more. You might ask yourself why the capitalists, the upper class drivers of business and high finance, would want to dumb down the working class. Money of course! Their propaganda is much easier to digest when the mind is dulled and the lowest common denominator is the standard you are using. All of this dumbing-down has the effect of making the population more susceptible to a totalitarian shift – a coup.
In fact, totalitarianism feeds off of this phenomena with capitalism. Truth is a lie. Lies are the truth. There are no droids here! The newly departed occupier of the White House (and company – and we know who you are) used ‘Fake News!’ to further ‘un-educate,’ and science /scientists are not to be trusted. Parting shot on this: Totalitarian coups will jail teachers of higher learning, especially philosophers and scientists – essentially dumbing down society. With no learned scholars to consult how do we know what the truth is when swimming through the rough waters of media input, or with what our legislators tell us.
Would it then follow that one of the ways we can keep society safe from nationalists, racists, fear-mongers and other oppressors would be to ensure quality education for all? Free higher education? Is it any wonder the ‘party of the capitalists’ is against all of these programs? Against any legislation that might make the masses more learned? ‘No child left behind’ sure sounded like a great sound bite. Unfortunately, without funding that was ALL it was. More propaganda to pretend to the public they care about education for all. What about ‘free college for all?’ The capitalists shout back: “SOCIALISM!! (with disdain, as if the word itself is toxic) FEAR!! Oh, no, you can’t EDUCATE people!! A quality education costs MONEY!!” Yeah, not that hard for us to see offering a quality education to ALL citizens might would spell the end of their reign.
As it turns out, capitalism is the toxic ideal. It rewards the oppression of education for all. It increases the likelihood of a totalitarian takeover. You die-hard capitalists keep telling yourselves that without capitalism, we wouldn’t have the competition to drive innovation and force thoughtful and educated ideas. Just from a ‘stupider’ population that has been reshaped in the form of lemmings – and we wonder how he had such a large base! I don’t know any innovative lemmings. Don’t let them do it! Vote for EVERY tax proposal that helps local schools, support every bill that helps keep our population educated. Volunteer to mentor and pass on knowledge. Teach at every opportunity and don’t let propaganda accumulate unchallenged. I for one would appreciate it if, when I am old and feeble, the person assisting me knows which end the pills go in!
I hope you will join me in at least furthering education for all if only to keep us further away from totalitarianism’s threat. The theme was capitalism making us stupid though, and I hope I have made a case for it.