I believe that the secret of capitalism's success under the rule of the Empire's decision-makers and political operatives has been the shaping of information to disable the ability of citizens to think critically and to fill their brains with Empire propaganda. Giroux uses a concept, "permanent education", first proposed by Raymond Williams in 1967, to expand on this broader meaning of education. I doubt that Williams imagined the extent to which this insidious weapon would be applied. It is now a ubiquitous project in the US and exists from the cradle to the grave for its citizens. That is precisely why the most crucial revolutionary projects are for activists to establish their own media and their own schools.
Williams explains what he means by this concept:
What it valuably stresses is the educational force of our whole social and cultural experience. It is therefore concerned, not only with continuing education, of a formal or informal kind, but with what the whole environment, its institutions and relationships, actively and profoundly teaches....Giroux is no radical, but he certainly has a profound understanding of this subject.
