The author uses Gen. Petreus as an example to illustrate how ruling class directors circulate trusted figures in their financial-industrial-military capitalist complex in key areas of society, in this case academia, to insure their control over society. With such figures controlling what is taught in major institutions of higher learning, they secure control over ideology; hence what and how people think about ruling class interests, policies, and actions.
While examining Petraeus' course syllabus, he discovers that...
...two crucial studies [pro-fracking] on the syllabus reading list - and the lack of critical readings on the topic of fracking - offers a glimpse into the stamp of legitimacy industry-funded studies get when they have the logo of elite research universities on them. It's also another portrayal of the ascendancy of the corporate university.Of course, capitalist ruling classes have always exercised control over all sections of society as much as they could. The only difference nowadays is that their increasingly concentrated power provides them with the will and the means to exercise every greater direct control. This tendency is perfectly natural within a system which supports concentration of wealth and power in ever fewer hands. As a system it is now achieving its ultimate destiny. The only problem is that it is a system that is completely incompatible with an ecosystem that can sustain human and many other life forms.
