Page 157 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 157
d. štrajn ■ perversion of the american dream
it seems that for a wide range of American electorate the incorporation
of the illusion of proof that the category of ultimate success exists, makes
a great deal of citizens cling to the American Dream in spite of the obvi-
ousness that it became empty of all such content as equal opportunity, the
pursuit of happiness and a substantial individual freedom.
The growth of the social inequality has gathered pace all the time
from the incorporation of the neoliberal ideology in the polity. Educa-
tion always happens to be an arena of social conflicts and/or consensus.
The terms of the accessibility of quality education on all levels and espe-
cially on the level of higher education reflect the proportions and rela-
tions in other societal fields. As much as the analysis of discourses, im-
aginary realities, misperceptions etc. in the world of simulacra, as Gilles
Deleuze described it already in 1968, is important, the problem of accessi-
bility of knowledge and, consequently, social status, boils down to simple
facts, data and numbers. Trends were quite readable already in 1994, when
Russell Jacoby published his analysis of changes in higher education. The
growing gap between generally rising tuition fees at different institutions
of higher education pointed to a “restratification” across higher education.
“The striking range of tuition – from $20,000 at the elite private schools
to several hundred dollars at community colleges – spells economic strati-
fication” (Jacoby, 1994: p. 21). After two decades Jacoby’s totals seem quite
low compared to the prices of tuitions nowadays. These facts and data rep-
resent thoroughly changed styles, aims and senses of education. “Like the
other simplicities, however, the leisure and cultural room necessary to lis-
ten is increasingly rare, if not obsolete; the space crumples under the bar-
rage of money, pressing needs, and even violence and arms. We are all too
busy, preoccupied, worried, and afraid” (ibid.: p. 196). Such observations
by a long time university teacher with a sharp sense of reality can be tak-
en as symptoms, which later on only became worse. The ruining of the old
fashioned academic tranquillity comes together with the whole package
of the neoliberal transformation, which means that “/…/ neoliberal poli-
cies have overridden the idea that knowledge is a public good to promote
the wholesale commercialisation of the production of knowledge”. Such
successes of the neoliberal permeation of education have consequences in
other respects as well, since “/…/ managerialist ideologies have impacted
the administration of education” (Peters, 2012: p. 35). Anyway, the notion
of education within the discourse of the American Dream loses exactly
what was its democratic promise of the equal chances for the willing in-
dividuals. Although the above mentioned stratification of the education-
al opportunities within the bourgeois order always took place, there were
periods, when the achievements of policies that stimulated so-called so-
155
it seems that for a wide range of American electorate the incorporation
of the illusion of proof that the category of ultimate success exists, makes
a great deal of citizens cling to the American Dream in spite of the obvi-
ousness that it became empty of all such content as equal opportunity, the
pursuit of happiness and a substantial individual freedom.
The growth of the social inequality has gathered pace all the time
from the incorporation of the neoliberal ideology in the polity. Educa-
tion always happens to be an arena of social conflicts and/or consensus.
The terms of the accessibility of quality education on all levels and espe-
cially on the level of higher education reflect the proportions and rela-
tions in other societal fields. As much as the analysis of discourses, im-
aginary realities, misperceptions etc. in the world of simulacra, as Gilles
Deleuze described it already in 1968, is important, the problem of accessi-
bility of knowledge and, consequently, social status, boils down to simple
facts, data and numbers. Trends were quite readable already in 1994, when
Russell Jacoby published his analysis of changes in higher education. The
growing gap between generally rising tuition fees at different institutions
of higher education pointed to a “restratification” across higher education.
“The striking range of tuition – from $20,000 at the elite private schools
to several hundred dollars at community colleges – spells economic strati-
fication” (Jacoby, 1994: p. 21). After two decades Jacoby’s totals seem quite
low compared to the prices of tuitions nowadays. These facts and data rep-
resent thoroughly changed styles, aims and senses of education. “Like the
other simplicities, however, the leisure and cultural room necessary to lis-
ten is increasingly rare, if not obsolete; the space crumples under the bar-
rage of money, pressing needs, and even violence and arms. We are all too
busy, preoccupied, worried, and afraid” (ibid.: p. 196). Such observations
by a long time university teacher with a sharp sense of reality can be tak-
en as symptoms, which later on only became worse. The ruining of the old
fashioned academic tranquillity comes together with the whole package
of the neoliberal transformation, which means that “/…/ neoliberal poli-
cies have overridden the idea that knowledge is a public good to promote
the wholesale commercialisation of the production of knowledge”. Such
successes of the neoliberal permeation of education have consequences in
other respects as well, since “/…/ managerialist ideologies have impacted
the administration of education” (Peters, 2012: p. 35). Anyway, the notion
of education within the discourse of the American Dream loses exactly
what was its democratic promise of the equal chances for the willing in-
dividuals. Although the above mentioned stratification of the education-
al opportunities within the bourgeois order always took place, there were
periods, when the achievements of policies that stimulated so-called so-
155
