Monday, May 21, 2012
Tom Abel — Goodbye Faculty: What’s the point of a university anyway?
This is one of the most important posts you will read this year.
I have been writing about the underlying strategy for implementation of a global institutional fascism that combines economic neoliberalism, political neoconservatism, and neocolonialism into the next iteration of neo-imperialism, or "super-imperialism (Michael Hudson) through technological innovation.
This process began with the "endless war" post WWII that underlies "military Keynesianism" as the driving economic force of the US economy. It combined with central bank independence and the institution of a command economy under monetarism. Then it blossomed into financialization and rent extraction through Reaganomics and Rubinomics. Labor had already been "disciplined" by legislation and regulation, as well as the use of a buffer stock of unemployed as a tool to control inflation under monetarism.
This process accelerated exponentially post 9/11, when the Bush II administration made its move to solidify global hegemony not only through foreign policy but by instituting de facto dictatorship in the US. This policy has been extended and significantly by the Obama administration.
One of the last gears in the machine is education. This article is about the use of technology not only to privatize education as a profit center for rent extraction but also to use it as a global propaganda tool to inculcate the perception that the modern equivalent of slavery is actually "freedom." Gaining control of the educational system and credentialing system is key to establishing control and maintaining it permanently.
Is this a consciously coordinated conspiracy. I would like to think not. The problem with conspiracy theories often lies in the complexity of coordination that would be required. I think that this is an institutional process run amok, although, to be sure, there are aspects of it that have been orchestrated consciously and intentionally.
Historically, elite control was maintained culturally through dominant institutions rather than by overt force, although force was always available and was called to the fore as needed. Previously, normative religion played a key role in this, in league with the state.
Now the institution of religion has been replaced by interconnected institutions controlled by a elite class, generally speaking the ownership and top managerial class, with the military and security forces in the background. Just as religion enabled some to ascend the ladder of advancement without birth or previous wealth gave the impression of the possibility of upward mobility based on merit, so too does the present system.That's the con.
Read it at A Prosperous Way Down
Goodbye Faculty: What’s the point of a University anyway?
by Tom Abel
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3 comments:
This is an important topic. I've spent some time looking at the state of online education recently. In the last couple years, dozens of well-funded education-focused startups have emerged, so change is coming quickly in some form or another.
However, it's my impression that the education market has long been controlled by the "few". One site says "over 80% of the textbook market is controlled by the top 4 publishers" and that they have nearly 65% gross margins on what is essentially a commodity product. Growth in online course material options seems likely to threaten this dominance, but I suppose it all hinges on the question of how students get credentialed and who controls assignment of the materials they must use to earn those credentials.
But education is more than just course materials -- so the questions and concerns around the future of universities, the roles of teachers, etc are all very important.
hbl:" I suppose it all hinges on the question of how students get credentialed and who controls assignment of the materials they must use to earn those credentials."
Right. Credentialing is a form of licensure that limits access and those setting the standards and administering them are the gatekeepers.
There is going to be at least one parallel system of education and probably more, but the only one that will count toward entry into the system is the one that the gatekeepers endorse.
Tom -- What you wrote in your introduction reflects my view completely. I, also, am not a conspiracy buff. But, I think the apparent coordination in the processes you describe comes from the PR-driven acceptance of the neoliberal, neoconservative, neocolonialist paradigm. So many have drunk the Kool-Aid that they don't need explicit coordination.
The politicians and technocrats that are the water-carriers for the oligarchs are able to figure out on their own the actions that are needed. Local or state laws and ordinances that allow doctors to lie to patients, allow for the takeover of local, elected councils by technocrats (Benton Harbor), and give employers control over the personal lives of their employees (Missouri legislation re: denying contraception to employees) are not necessarily directly controlled by the oligarchs. They have defined the paradigm well enough that direct control is not necessary.
And the MOOC's are just the latest innovation that can be turned to the purposes of the PTB as Tom Abel shows. Locally, we even have preachers writing letters to the editor stating unequivocally that the State has no responsibility to provide a public education. (The Alabama Constitution actually says the same thing.) And our legislature seems to be doing all they can to defund the education budget.
This is a major inflection point, I think. Much as some of the writers referenced here have indicated. It is my hope and prayer that the Occupy movement, or its descendants and offshoots, can help bring about a society that puts the common good and public purpose ahead of selfishness.e
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