There is nothing wrong with expecting our tax dollars to make or save money for us. In fact, if our tax dollars DO NOT make or save money for us, that spending needs to end. Let's look at two examples.
Libraries => rather than me rattle off statistics that vary over time, Google "contributions of libraries". The short version is that libraries are an IMMENSELY profitable use of our tax dollars. And guess what, libraries have found themselves obsolete and needing to catch up dozens of times, yes, dozens. If they are behind, let's try listening to the professionals who know the most, librarians, guaranteed they could earn us more than selling off these assets. Nope, what they are worth, nobody could afford.
War => I'm trying to think of ANY return for my taxes. Surely this must be high return, it gets almost 90% of my taxes. Instead, they pay some kids ONE PERCENT of what they take, then hand the other 99% to CEOs according to their ability to buy our government. As for what they provide, it's entirely negative. This war in Ukraine that we are fighting by proxy - its main accomplishment is massive rivers of profits flowing into the pockets of US, Russian, and European oligarchs. The media leads with tragic stories about civilians and heroic stories of Ukrainian fighters, but these people are fighting for their survival, not to entertain us. While we all were distracted, full revenue was restored to all the Russian Kleptocrats, and not for political reasons, because of how our global economy works. Wars make the most criminal of criminal operations look amateur when viewed in terms of ROI.
Thanks for letting us know. I’ll call other people and let them know.We must fight back! Your observations invariably indicate how much we have been conned since Reagan!
Thom's articles about privatizing public institutions will always remain "particularly relevant" because the "cancer" keeps spreading every day, getting worse and worse, slowly eating away at the host from the inside out. It's not quite at the stage of maggots dropping out of empty eyes sockets, but getting close.
For "economic royals" pulling the strings of their puppet politicians, it's always, always, always about the (love of) money. And the biggest treasure anywhere in the world to be plundered so easily is the booty of U.S. taxes withheld from your paycheck, Joe and Jane Lunchbucket. Pirates in the private sector secretly fill their oversized treasure chests with your gold and jewels while Big Bad Guvmunt gets the blame for "stealing" it first. To quell dissent, high-paid media stooges conveniently translate the bottom line of politics thus: evil socialism, hate Democrats, vote Republican. If you play the game right, it's a pretty sweet deal all around. Well, not for everyone. There are the losers who aren't so lucky. Poor bastards.
But there's always the hoping and the dreaming. And, as you would expect, that too is monetized "bigly." The idolized class of billionaires living the exotic high life in the stratosphere proudly advertise their unattainable, phantasmal lifestyle as something exquisitely delicious and envious, that anyone with enough ruthless drive and lack of morals (and perhaps a fabulous inheritance to begin with) can at least strive for every waking hour, if never attain, under good ol' American predatory capitalism, in the finest tradition of medieval kings and queens . "I wish I was you." The lure of wealth and fame is a strong one that few people can resist. Rubes and easy marks from sea to shining sea!
Then there's the constant fear, the threat to take it all away. Fear is the first key to turn because it leads directly to hate and all the rest of it. The American dream is perverted to mean you can only dream about wealth while you're in debt up to your ass for just about everything, scrounging around in the back alleys of a rich man's paradise, working till you die. In all cases, though, no matter who, when, where, what doing, and why, it's always the same conclusion: evil socialism, hate Democrats, vote Republican. Funny how the same old hackneyed bumper-sticker slogan works every time with lied-to, low-information, so-called "conservatives."
Pretty simple formula, really, for conquering the most powerful nation and (quasi) democracy in history. Of course, it does require fanning the flames of hate to the nth degree with bald-faced lies repeated endlessly and loudly, with lots of splashy visuals to attract lots of trusting eyeballs -- mass-delusional brainwash on a biblical scale.
Fear, hate, and violence -- it works. History and the nonstop daily news cycle prove it over and over. Unfortunately, you can't stop it once the Gates of Hell are flung wide open. Selfish, wicked, and stupid is not hateful rhetoric; it's objective observation boiled down to just three words, among so many other choices that accurately describe the hateful, despicable behavior adopted by the Republican Party, reflecting Trump's pettiness and lunacy, going for the gusto, full-on fascism, and proud of it. Untethered fanatics escaped from the criminally insane wing of the funny farm might be another way to describe the zombie herd descending upon us, which wouldn't be too exaggerated.
They just don't like the word fascist, which is another very accurate descriptor. Liars don't like to be called liars. Go figure. The main difference in rhetoric is context; the same words sound hollow when there's no truth behind them. And that's the key thing to keep in mind between the, yes, horrible and ugly accusations lobbed by Democrats against their, yes, horrible and ugly opponents in these dark times when truth is optional and hopeless confusion is gleefully sowed by pathetic, juvenile, whiny Republicans. One argument describes reality; the other distorts it.
If Ron DeSantis is the right's paragon of virtue first in line behind Trump, put a fork in the Republican Party. It's done. If this power-at-all-cost faction of selfish, wicked, stupid haters ever realizes its ultimate goal of a homogeneous theocratic plutocracy, put a fork in the Constitution and representative democracy.
In the upcoming election cycles, hopefully the majority will see the truth as relevant and avert disaster. During an interview John Updike once said, "There's kind of a spiritual health in trying to express reality."
I got a piece of mail today that had a survey and was touting the promise to vote for 10,000 Christian candidates . I ripped it into little pieces and returned it to their return envelope. Put postage on and sent it back. (Rather immature of me I’d say .). But how do these people justify acting like and stating this is to ‘keep America ours’? Their ignorance is about par for the course but this is America precisely because we don’t state affiliation w Religious sects. It’s infuriating . A secular Government is how America came to be. We operated well with no Faith attached to our government. Republicans have screwed up
the very purpose that America was founded. Starting w Reagan’s boldness of mealy mouthed words including and abetting the very wealthy and condemning the rest of us.
Glad this was a repeat, although it stuck with me the first time. I live in a red county with a terrific county-wide library system paid for by my tax dollars. It's a great heads-up to keep track of what the county commissioners might have in mind concerning changes to our system. Watchdog---that's the word.
So many people cherish their books, and so do I, but mine are in my local library. That card has always been the most valuable thing I own.
Thom, hope you are recovering well. I really thought this point just drives this important issue home: “But privatization is one of the biggest cons ever perpetrated on the American people, run not by “the best minds” but by the greediest.” Such an important point to continue to make publicly to expose what I feel is the theft of taxpayers money. It’s very sad to see that first the GOP will water down services such as Medicaid for example and their point is to put the squeeze on the system which ultimately turns people against the system because they don’t feel it’s working for them. Then, the Republicans come in with their talking points such as the “Democrats are trying to make people poor dependent & keep you poor.” Which is the exact opposite of the truth. But it looks like the truth to the people receiving the services because they realize they’re getting screwed. And they don’t know enough about the big picture so they will go often with the republican talking point I’ve seen this time and time again and sprinkle the racism in there and “Bam” it’s effective! I saw this during Obama years especially when food stamps were cut. Republicans getting him to sign a bill that included cut in food stamps which caused people to stand in the line at the food bank to supplement, encouraged people to vote against their best interest. Republicans knew Obama had to sign that bill so they jammed in their food stamp cuts. Thank you for thought leadership Thom! This gives us great talking points.
I want to thank Jefferson for ending Thom’s program with We the People today. That and democracy rules the day. Thanks Jefferson, I know Thom would agree.
Thom, You have probably seen the Salon story published 3/16/22, by Kathryn Joyce: “Salon investigates: The war on public schools is being fought from Hillsdale College”. This is the subtitle: “In a 3-part investigation, Salon shows how this tiny Christian college is leading the right-wing fight on education”. As you have noted I believe, it all started as a backlash to Brown v. Board and the removal of formal prayers and the Pledge from public school classrooms and events. The southern rebels are still rebelling.
This is enraging, of course. The unholy alliance of white nationalists or white supremacists, religious fanatics, anti-government crackpots such as Libertarians, and greedy big money interests are a profound and imminent danger to our institutions and to democracy. The bad news is that they will not be stopped easily without a major fight, and they will not be stopped via any familiar process, such as by voters rising up in protest or legislators enacting laws to protect schools and education.
There is another incredibly important twist to this story which is somehow opaque for most of the public, including most educators and academicians, and which you seem to have missed or dismissed as not relevant or worthy of attention yet. There are believers and insiders and researchers and observers who have traditionally strongly supported the concept of public schooling and the specific schools that exist, or the idea of mass education on a national scale, who nevertheless have alerted us to monumental problems and issues surrounding traditional schools. Many of them have been extremely critical and some of them have become involved in a variety of alternatives, reform initiatives, and refinements in methodology and educational theory.
These critics are not lightweights. They are not malcontents, extremists, purists, or ivory tower dreamers demanding the impossible. There is in fact a huge body of literature which chronicles a phenomenal litany of criticism, complaints, and typically negative analyses. It is common to find words such as “stifling”, “soul-destroying”, “regimented”, “failing”, and “pressure-cooker environment” describing some of the ostensibly premiere schools. I have at my fingertips a list of books, articles, and studies which document facts and statistics as well as unending personal accounts which even the most staunch defenders of the schools and our “system” cannot rationalize away. Hundreds more are collecting dust in archives. Regardless, after the warning flares are launched and the debates have raged here and there for weeks, it all gets diffused and defused somehow, and business as usual resumes as if nothing had happened.
Dr. Peter Gray is a prominent psychologist and author who had (and may still have) a Psychology Today blog. Over a decade ago he wrote that “School is Prison and is Harming Our Kids”, (as I recollect) in the title of another Salon article. He backs up his bold statement with eloquent and incisive arguments. The real-world consequence is a big fat zero. Sure, a couple of new organizations have sprung up touting “Self-Directed Learning” and such. But the critical mass and the tipping point bringing meaningful change are not even remotely on the horizon.
While I have read dozens of those books and articles, I had only read brief excerpts, quotes, or summaries of the writing of Paulo Friere. However, a recent article restating the philosophy and the essential thoughts and ideas of his life’s work appeared in my inbox a day or so ago, which I have only partially read so far. The title is “Paolo Friere’s Pedagogy of Liberation” by Regina Cortina and Marcella Winter.
The authors of the article have categorized Friere’s work as “decolonial theory”, as I have interpreted it so far. The striking thing that has jumped out from this reading is that the colonial influences and inheritors have transplanted their mindset and methods directly into our institutions and particularly into our schools. The very things that he has identified as the reasons for the continuation of oppression, which must be seen for what they are and overcome, are the things which contribute to the social, economic, and political conditions that you highlight every day. Only a similar “decolonialization” effort here, starting with schooling will ultimately effect the kind and level of difference we seek. I have said it here before. Education is political. Education is subversive. There is no substitute, and indoctrination posing as education is definitely not a substitute.
The authors also quote extensively from Dussel, a contemporary of Friere. Dussel says, “... educational practices must be linked to an ethics of liberation…”. Further on, he says, “To recognize pupils both as the historical continuity of their community and the risk of that tradition’s alteration is to put the system of domination in question so that a nonhierarchical system can be organized.” He refers to a “fetishized system based on oppression…”. Classes in civics and history taught with a complete insistence on neutrality and devoid of politics as our paradigm demands because of the power of the governmental bully pulpit and the status of teachers as representatives of the state will never get us to the place where students feel in their bones the injustices of racist cops and courts, or an economy built for the rich and the exploitation of workers.
They say, “Friere’s pedagogy goes beyond focusing on cognitive and social development. The emphasis is on the growth of an ethical-critical consciousness in the learner that emerges through a pedagogy that respects the other.” And, “…education is not possible without the self-education of the learner in the process of his or her own liberation.” Dump the Pablum. Give them the meat and show a little respect for a change, in other words.
Why stop now? Teachers must “learn with them how to be critical of the dominant and dehumanizing perspectives.” How do we get to “a critical approach to reality that favors education as a practice of freedom” in a paradigm wherein laws compel attendance, teachers are truant officers and head counters, discipline is and must always be control and behavioral modification, curriculum is official doctrine canned and preserved, evaluation is constant, arbitrary, and competitive, and knowledge is the answer to a multiple-choice question? We have an authoritarian bureaucracy because that is what the powers that be knew would be necessary to perpetuate their power and keep the people in their proper place. Should we keep it that way hoping that tradition and mythology will stop the privatizers?
I am just beginning. This cannot remain one man’s crusade. Where are the people who see what is being done to captive audiences in conditioning and desensitizing environments?
There is a lot of whining going on in some political circles, and maybe legitimately so, but in America's 200 year plus history not much has ever been accomplished by people who whine and blame other people. That takes doers.
The Boomer generation has taken care of itself in very large measures, though many of them are now having to work beyond 65 because they spent everything on all their toys and 'rights.' Quietly this generation has allowed the corporate system to break our country into pieces. The left-overs is leaving less and less to the next generations, the first one in America's history to earn less than the one preceding it.
This mess is NOT going to resolve itself well, and in a timely manner unless everyone starts speaking politely with one another. It will take some horse-trading to find a middle ground that is based on common sense and pragmatism. Some of all of us will need to reconsider some of our political pet passions and consider focusing on more long-term goals that can be embraced by everyone.
Until that happens, the corporate group will continue to conquer and divide. It's been a winning strategy for 50 years.
Term limits have been made unavailable, legally, by clever money, but nothing prevents us from systematically NEVER TO VOTE FOR AN INCUMBENT POLITICIAN. However, if your neighbors don't vote you should, perhaps consider visiting with them and try to listen to them sand their reasons. You can't win without your neighbors joining you. Blessings and Grace.
Mr. Hartman citations:
It doesn’t even make sense. If a government agency can do something for, say, $100 million, how could a private corporation do it for less when they have to skim 30% or $30 million off the top for their own profits, shareholder dividends, and absurd CEO and senior executive pay?
The Reason Foundation, an outgrowth of the Koch brothers’ efforts, points out proudly how huge this process has become, even arguing for privatizing Fire Departments across the nation. (Franklin also started Philadelphia’s first fire department.)
And now they’re after our libraries. As Caleb Nichols notes:
“Flexing into a new type of market, the sky is apparently the limit for LS&S, which according to its own website has shockingly morphed into ‘the 3rd largest library system in the United States.’”
The result of privatizing libraries will, no doubt, be the same as privatizing hundreds of other government functions since Reagan. Again, Nichols nails it about this corporation which, itself, is owned by a private equity company:
“When companies like LS&S privatize public goods, old contracts — and unions — are thrown out.
I wish we could convince the rank-and-file Republican populace, those who believe in Q-Anon, that Donald Trump is a patriotic savior instead of a half-witted con man, and other such lunatic theories, what the REAL conspiracy is. They aren't wrong about conspiracies; the problem is, it's a part of that REAL conspiracy to blind them with fake ones, while getting them to further the goals of the REAL one. I'm not a man of violence, but there are times, if I'm totally honest, when I wish some of the Second Amendment fanatics with their massive arsenals could understand where the genuine targets are. Remember the end of Fight Club, when they torched the credit card companies? Sometimes it seems like guns, bombs and guillotines are the only solution. I hate that I feel that way, and I don't advocate for it, but I DO hope that an awful lot of people currently in power in government, business and industry experience very long prison sentences.
One more example of corruption in this country propagated by greedy Republicans and one of their grandmasters , Reagan.
Prvtization is a cancer we must cut out.
There is nothing wrong with expecting our tax dollars to make or save money for us. In fact, if our tax dollars DO NOT make or save money for us, that spending needs to end. Let's look at two examples.
Libraries => rather than me rattle off statistics that vary over time, Google "contributions of libraries". The short version is that libraries are an IMMENSELY profitable use of our tax dollars. And guess what, libraries have found themselves obsolete and needing to catch up dozens of times, yes, dozens. If they are behind, let's try listening to the professionals who know the most, librarians, guaranteed they could earn us more than selling off these assets. Nope, what they are worth, nobody could afford.
War => I'm trying to think of ANY return for my taxes. Surely this must be high return, it gets almost 90% of my taxes. Instead, they pay some kids ONE PERCENT of what they take, then hand the other 99% to CEOs according to their ability to buy our government. As for what they provide, it's entirely negative. This war in Ukraine that we are fighting by proxy - its main accomplishment is massive rivers of profits flowing into the pockets of US, Russian, and European oligarchs. The media leads with tragic stories about civilians and heroic stories of Ukrainian fighters, but these people are fighting for their survival, not to entertain us. While we all were distracted, full revenue was restored to all the Russian Kleptocrats, and not for political reasons, because of how our global economy works. Wars make the most criminal of criminal operations look amateur when viewed in terms of ROI.
Thanks for letting us know. I’ll call other people and let them know.We must fight back! Your observations invariably indicate how much we have been conned since Reagan!
Thom's articles about privatizing public institutions will always remain "particularly relevant" because the "cancer" keeps spreading every day, getting worse and worse, slowly eating away at the host from the inside out. It's not quite at the stage of maggots dropping out of empty eyes sockets, but getting close.
For "economic royals" pulling the strings of their puppet politicians, it's always, always, always about the (love of) money. And the biggest treasure anywhere in the world to be plundered so easily is the booty of U.S. taxes withheld from your paycheck, Joe and Jane Lunchbucket. Pirates in the private sector secretly fill their oversized treasure chests with your gold and jewels while Big Bad Guvmunt gets the blame for "stealing" it first. To quell dissent, high-paid media stooges conveniently translate the bottom line of politics thus: evil socialism, hate Democrats, vote Republican. If you play the game right, it's a pretty sweet deal all around. Well, not for everyone. There are the losers who aren't so lucky. Poor bastards.
But there's always the hoping and the dreaming. And, as you would expect, that too is monetized "bigly." The idolized class of billionaires living the exotic high life in the stratosphere proudly advertise their unattainable, phantasmal lifestyle as something exquisitely delicious and envious, that anyone with enough ruthless drive and lack of morals (and perhaps a fabulous inheritance to begin with) can at least strive for every waking hour, if never attain, under good ol' American predatory capitalism, in the finest tradition of medieval kings and queens . "I wish I was you." The lure of wealth and fame is a strong one that few people can resist. Rubes and easy marks from sea to shining sea!
Then there's the constant fear, the threat to take it all away. Fear is the first key to turn because it leads directly to hate and all the rest of it. The American dream is perverted to mean you can only dream about wealth while you're in debt up to your ass for just about everything, scrounging around in the back alleys of a rich man's paradise, working till you die. In all cases, though, no matter who, when, where, what doing, and why, it's always the same conclusion: evil socialism, hate Democrats, vote Republican. Funny how the same old hackneyed bumper-sticker slogan works every time with lied-to, low-information, so-called "conservatives."
Pretty simple formula, really, for conquering the most powerful nation and (quasi) democracy in history. Of course, it does require fanning the flames of hate to the nth degree with bald-faced lies repeated endlessly and loudly, with lots of splashy visuals to attract lots of trusting eyeballs -- mass-delusional brainwash on a biblical scale.
Fear, hate, and violence -- it works. History and the nonstop daily news cycle prove it over and over. Unfortunately, you can't stop it once the Gates of Hell are flung wide open. Selfish, wicked, and stupid is not hateful rhetoric; it's objective observation boiled down to just three words, among so many other choices that accurately describe the hateful, despicable behavior adopted by the Republican Party, reflecting Trump's pettiness and lunacy, going for the gusto, full-on fascism, and proud of it. Untethered fanatics escaped from the criminally insane wing of the funny farm might be another way to describe the zombie herd descending upon us, which wouldn't be too exaggerated.
They just don't like the word fascist, which is another very accurate descriptor. Liars don't like to be called liars. Go figure. The main difference in rhetoric is context; the same words sound hollow when there's no truth behind them. And that's the key thing to keep in mind between the, yes, horrible and ugly accusations lobbed by Democrats against their, yes, horrible and ugly opponents in these dark times when truth is optional and hopeless confusion is gleefully sowed by pathetic, juvenile, whiny Republicans. One argument describes reality; the other distorts it.
If Ron DeSantis is the right's paragon of virtue first in line behind Trump, put a fork in the Republican Party. It's done. If this power-at-all-cost faction of selfish, wicked, stupid haters ever realizes its ultimate goal of a homogeneous theocratic plutocracy, put a fork in the Constitution and representative democracy.
In the upcoming election cycles, hopefully the majority will see the truth as relevant and avert disaster. During an interview John Updike once said, "There's kind of a spiritual health in trying to express reality."
I got a piece of mail today that had a survey and was touting the promise to vote for 10,000 Christian candidates . I ripped it into little pieces and returned it to their return envelope. Put postage on and sent it back. (Rather immature of me I’d say .). But how do these people justify acting like and stating this is to ‘keep America ours’? Their ignorance is about par for the course but this is America precisely because we don’t state affiliation w Religious sects. It’s infuriating . A secular Government is how America came to be. We operated well with no Faith attached to our government. Republicans have screwed up
the very purpose that America was founded. Starting w Reagan’s boldness of mealy mouthed words including and abetting the very wealthy and condemning the rest of us.
Glad this was a repeat, although it stuck with me the first time. I live in a red county with a terrific county-wide library system paid for by my tax dollars. It's a great heads-up to keep track of what the county commissioners might have in mind concerning changes to our system. Watchdog---that's the word.
So many people cherish their books, and so do I, but mine are in my local library. That card has always been the most valuable thing I own.
Thom, it really is all about money. This really is not a laughing matter. This really needs to end. When will the greed stop! Never for the greedy.
Thom, hope you are recovering well. I really thought this point just drives this important issue home: “But privatization is one of the biggest cons ever perpetrated on the American people, run not by “the best minds” but by the greediest.” Such an important point to continue to make publicly to expose what I feel is the theft of taxpayers money. It’s very sad to see that first the GOP will water down services such as Medicaid for example and their point is to put the squeeze on the system which ultimately turns people against the system because they don’t feel it’s working for them. Then, the Republicans come in with their talking points such as the “Democrats are trying to make people poor dependent & keep you poor.” Which is the exact opposite of the truth. But it looks like the truth to the people receiving the services because they realize they’re getting screwed. And they don’t know enough about the big picture so they will go often with the republican talking point I’ve seen this time and time again and sprinkle the racism in there and “Bam” it’s effective! I saw this during Obama years especially when food stamps were cut. Republicans getting him to sign a bill that included cut in food stamps which caused people to stand in the line at the food bank to supplement, encouraged people to vote against their best interest. Republicans knew Obama had to sign that bill so they jammed in their food stamp cuts. Thank you for thought leadership Thom! This gives us great talking points.
I want to thank Jefferson for ending Thom’s program with We the People today. That and democracy rules the day. Thanks Jefferson, I know Thom would agree.
“An Unusual $1.6 Billion Donation Bolsters Conservatives.”
#RedditPolitics #citizensunited #LeonardLeo #FederalistSociety
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=131486
Thom, You have probably seen the Salon story published 3/16/22, by Kathryn Joyce: “Salon investigates: The war on public schools is being fought from Hillsdale College”. This is the subtitle: “In a 3-part investigation, Salon shows how this tiny Christian college is leading the right-wing fight on education”. As you have noted I believe, it all started as a backlash to Brown v. Board and the removal of formal prayers and the Pledge from public school classrooms and events. The southern rebels are still rebelling.
This is enraging, of course. The unholy alliance of white nationalists or white supremacists, religious fanatics, anti-government crackpots such as Libertarians, and greedy big money interests are a profound and imminent danger to our institutions and to democracy. The bad news is that they will not be stopped easily without a major fight, and they will not be stopped via any familiar process, such as by voters rising up in protest or legislators enacting laws to protect schools and education.
There is another incredibly important twist to this story which is somehow opaque for most of the public, including most educators and academicians, and which you seem to have missed or dismissed as not relevant or worthy of attention yet. There are believers and insiders and researchers and observers who have traditionally strongly supported the concept of public schooling and the specific schools that exist, or the idea of mass education on a national scale, who nevertheless have alerted us to monumental problems and issues surrounding traditional schools. Many of them have been extremely critical and some of them have become involved in a variety of alternatives, reform initiatives, and refinements in methodology and educational theory.
These critics are not lightweights. They are not malcontents, extremists, purists, or ivory tower dreamers demanding the impossible. There is in fact a huge body of literature which chronicles a phenomenal litany of criticism, complaints, and typically negative analyses. It is common to find words such as “stifling”, “soul-destroying”, “regimented”, “failing”, and “pressure-cooker environment” describing some of the ostensibly premiere schools. I have at my fingertips a list of books, articles, and studies which document facts and statistics as well as unending personal accounts which even the most staunch defenders of the schools and our “system” cannot rationalize away. Hundreds more are collecting dust in archives. Regardless, after the warning flares are launched and the debates have raged here and there for weeks, it all gets diffused and defused somehow, and business as usual resumes as if nothing had happened.
Dr. Peter Gray is a prominent psychologist and author who had (and may still have) a Psychology Today blog. Over a decade ago he wrote that “School is Prison and is Harming Our Kids”, (as I recollect) in the title of another Salon article. He backs up his bold statement with eloquent and incisive arguments. The real-world consequence is a big fat zero. Sure, a couple of new organizations have sprung up touting “Self-Directed Learning” and such. But the critical mass and the tipping point bringing meaningful change are not even remotely on the horizon.
While I have read dozens of those books and articles, I had only read brief excerpts, quotes, or summaries of the writing of Paulo Friere. However, a recent article restating the philosophy and the essential thoughts and ideas of his life’s work appeared in my inbox a day or so ago, which I have only partially read so far. The title is “Paolo Friere’s Pedagogy of Liberation” by Regina Cortina and Marcella Winter.
The authors of the article have categorized Friere’s work as “decolonial theory”, as I have interpreted it so far. The striking thing that has jumped out from this reading is that the colonial influences and inheritors have transplanted their mindset and methods directly into our institutions and particularly into our schools. The very things that he has identified as the reasons for the continuation of oppression, which must be seen for what they are and overcome, are the things which contribute to the social, economic, and political conditions that you highlight every day. Only a similar “decolonialization” effort here, starting with schooling will ultimately effect the kind and level of difference we seek. I have said it here before. Education is political. Education is subversive. There is no substitute, and indoctrination posing as education is definitely not a substitute.
The authors also quote extensively from Dussel, a contemporary of Friere. Dussel says, “... educational practices must be linked to an ethics of liberation…”. Further on, he says, “To recognize pupils both as the historical continuity of their community and the risk of that tradition’s alteration is to put the system of domination in question so that a nonhierarchical system can be organized.” He refers to a “fetishized system based on oppression…”. Classes in civics and history taught with a complete insistence on neutrality and devoid of politics as our paradigm demands because of the power of the governmental bully pulpit and the status of teachers as representatives of the state will never get us to the place where students feel in their bones the injustices of racist cops and courts, or an economy built for the rich and the exploitation of workers.
They say, “Friere’s pedagogy goes beyond focusing on cognitive and social development. The emphasis is on the growth of an ethical-critical consciousness in the learner that emerges through a pedagogy that respects the other.” And, “…education is not possible without the self-education of the learner in the process of his or her own liberation.” Dump the Pablum. Give them the meat and show a little respect for a change, in other words.
Why stop now? Teachers must “learn with them how to be critical of the dominant and dehumanizing perspectives.” How do we get to “a critical approach to reality that favors education as a practice of freedom” in a paradigm wherein laws compel attendance, teachers are truant officers and head counters, discipline is and must always be control and behavioral modification, curriculum is official doctrine canned and preserved, evaluation is constant, arbitrary, and competitive, and knowledge is the answer to a multiple-choice question? We have an authoritarian bureaucracy because that is what the powers that be knew would be necessary to perpetuate their power and keep the people in their proper place. Should we keep it that way hoping that tradition and mythology will stop the privatizers?
I am just beginning. This cannot remain one man’s crusade. Where are the people who see what is being done to captive audiences in conditioning and desensitizing environments?
There is a lot of whining going on in some political circles, and maybe legitimately so, but in America's 200 year plus history not much has ever been accomplished by people who whine and blame other people. That takes doers.
The Boomer generation has taken care of itself in very large measures, though many of them are now having to work beyond 65 because they spent everything on all their toys and 'rights.' Quietly this generation has allowed the corporate system to break our country into pieces. The left-overs is leaving less and less to the next generations, the first one in America's history to earn less than the one preceding it.
This mess is NOT going to resolve itself well, and in a timely manner unless everyone starts speaking politely with one another. It will take some horse-trading to find a middle ground that is based on common sense and pragmatism. Some of all of us will need to reconsider some of our political pet passions and consider focusing on more long-term goals that can be embraced by everyone.
Until that happens, the corporate group will continue to conquer and divide. It's been a winning strategy for 50 years.
Term limits have been made unavailable, legally, by clever money, but nothing prevents us from systematically NEVER TO VOTE FOR AN INCUMBENT POLITICIAN. However, if your neighbors don't vote you should, perhaps consider visiting with them and try to listen to them sand their reasons. You can't win without your neighbors joining you. Blessings and Grace.
Mr. Hartman citations:
It doesn’t even make sense. If a government agency can do something for, say, $100 million, how could a private corporation do it for less when they have to skim 30% or $30 million off the top for their own profits, shareholder dividends, and absurd CEO and senior executive pay?
The Reason Foundation, an outgrowth of the Koch brothers’ efforts, points out proudly how huge this process has become, even arguing for privatizing Fire Departments across the nation. (Franklin also started Philadelphia’s first fire department.)
And now they’re after our libraries. As Caleb Nichols notes:
“Flexing into a new type of market, the sky is apparently the limit for LS&S, which according to its own website has shockingly morphed into ‘the 3rd largest library system in the United States.’”
The result of privatizing libraries will, no doubt, be the same as privatizing hundreds of other government functions since Reagan. Again, Nichols nails it about this corporation which, itself, is owned by a private equity company:
“When companies like LS&S privatize public goods, old contracts — and unions — are thrown out.
I wish we could convince the rank-and-file Republican populace, those who believe in Q-Anon, that Donald Trump is a patriotic savior instead of a half-witted con man, and other such lunatic theories, what the REAL conspiracy is. They aren't wrong about conspiracies; the problem is, it's a part of that REAL conspiracy to blind them with fake ones, while getting them to further the goals of the REAL one. I'm not a man of violence, but there are times, if I'm totally honest, when I wish some of the Second Amendment fanatics with their massive arsenals could understand where the genuine targets are. Remember the end of Fight Club, when they torched the credit card companies? Sometimes it seems like guns, bombs and guillotines are the only solution. I hate that I feel that way, and I don't advocate for it, but I DO hope that an awful lot of people currently in power in government, business and industry experience very long prison sentences.