Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Students: Plan your escape from academia before you enter it

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Students: Plan your escape from academia before you enter it

Click here to access article by Denis G. Rancourt from his blog, Activist Teacher.

It appears from the content in his article that he is really telling students, "plan your escape from [the brainwashing of] academia before you enter it."

Plan to weather the storm without buying into the lies. Cynicism is only a face-saving way to buy into the lie. It won't save you. You need to actively push the limits of your resistance every step of the process in order to discover yourself and preserve yourself. This will also expose the true nature of the beast that wants to eat you.

You won't make friends with the bosses and you won't be rewarded with high grades and praise but you will learn more and be more authentic. You will prepare yourself for a real life in the real world, not a class-secluded life in a superficial world. You will be more able to love yourself and to love others. It's not called "the good fight" for nothing.

Few people, either entering students or people who have come out of the system by graduating, understand the insidious indoctrination that occurs in higher education. This is carefully hidden from all because of the current ruling class's need to disguise its rule by their constant use of democratic rhetoric to describe our system of government. Indoctrinated education is only another illustration of the principle of hierarchically designed societies: the top or ruling class will always influence subsystems to serve their interests.

For more details on this process of indoctrination, I highly recommend that you read a book entitled Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt.