Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Cause of the Student Debt Crisis: Corporate Control of our Political and Economic Systems

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

Monday, October 14, 2013

The Cause of the Student Debt Crisis: Corporate Control of our Political and Economic Systems

Click here to access article by Joseph Schwartz from Democratic Socialists of America.

This piece is essentially a liberal take on the student debt crisis. It only probes the causes of the crisis to a level acceptable to the ruling class: a defunding of education because of neo-conservative ("neoliberal") views on good governance that started around 1982 (Reagan administration) and the mis-allocation of income from lower and middle classes to the upper income class. These are effects, not the causes. Yes, the author throws in words like "corporate control" and "neoliberal capitalism" but he doesn't explain how the effects are caused by the system. All this inevitably leads to his politically safe conclusion:

The student debt crisis will only be solved when we, the people, force the government to serve our needs.

By only targeting the government, he suggests more letters to your Congressional representatives, petitions, voting in elections, and maybe even protest marches will do the trick.

I only post such a piece because it, like tons of other articles, will only serve to lead people away from questioning the system of capitalism, and thereby perpetuating its rule over our lives. As such, it is a clever piece of gatekeeping propaganda, whether consciously done or not, that uses radical-sounding words while staying safely within discourse acceptable to the capitalist ruling class.