Cartoon 789: Assault

The standard rebuttal to an augment is often the accusation of spurious data. However seemingly innocuous a group of data points might appear, sometimes pulling back reveals an undeniable pattern. The obscurity was caused by having your nose pressed against the tree and failing to see the stand of trees in the forest all around you. Thus it is with education in the industrialized West.

Macro historical changes seldom occur as a tornado that suddenly grabs you up. More often they are a gentle breeze that brushes the cheek. But it is a persistent force that over time moves mountains. Around the world younger people are finding themselves barred from education. In most cases it is through economics. But it is economic conditions with a purpose. The net result is making education the exclusive purvey of the privileged. It guarantees a self perpetuating aristocracy. Many second and third world cultures are organized along these lines. Now it is becoming the rigor de jour of the industrialized West. In a generation the West will mirror these second and third world cultural disparities.

The bigger question is why is education under assault? I suspect the underlying reason is that the industrialized West as a culture is in atrophy. Those with power and prestige are trying to conserve their heritage. They see education and the possibility of social mobility as a dire threat. They also know that social revolution always starts with the intelligentsia, usually students. Remove the students and supposedly remove the threats.

The measure of success is wealth. The wealthy know something is wrong, but do not realize it is the economic system of Capitalism itself. Capitalism has come under their exclusive control. They have skewed its mechanisms. In America through political and judical backed oligaries and monopolies that are bosterd by patent roadblocks to distructive creativity and marginalizing competition. They have disenfranchised the masses. Good marketing has so far kept the masses minds numb to reality. At some point it will become undeniably apparent what is happening, as it has to potential students. There will be a revolt.

There was a book written almost two decades ago. It was by the then Dean of the Sloan school of business at MIT. The title of the book was “The Future of Capitalism” by Lester Carl Thurow. At that time he said Capitalism was no longer effective as an economic system. He said the problem was nothing better has yet appeared. The operative word to focus on in my opinion is “yet” and that the boiling point is being reached where people cease waiting.