Page 70 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 70
šolsko polje, letnik xxviii, številka 3–4
bies would die in infancy, and $1.3 trillion dollars in healthcare spending
would be saved. Although, to be fair, Kahzan reported that 33 percent of
Canadians waited six days or more to see a specialist, compared with 19
percent of Americans. The Trumpcare plan has yet to be implemented at
the time of this writing, but it looks to be a disaster for approximately 99
percent of the population.
Do you think the understanding of the American Dream primarily
in terms of material success has been instrumental in the rise of neo-
liberalism? What is the role of the American Dream in neoliberalism’s
agenda?
The American Dream, to the extent that it was realized in the 1950s and
1960s, was at the expense of the victims of the American Empire. Amer-
icans are shielded from this knowledge in the schools. There was a long
build-up to the American Dream as a mythology—it’s dark side grew out
of and is sustained up to the present by the crimes of empire. The U.S.
history of imperialism would take volumes of books to catalogue, and we
could begin long before the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (who pro-
claimed himself as the personal instrument of God, just like George W.
Bush would do decades later) William McKinley, and Theodore Roo-
sevelt, the U.S. entry into WWI, the rule of the robber barons and the
15,000 mile railway empire of Jay Gould who boasted with conserva-
tive mendacity that he could hire one half of the working-class to kill
the other half. Enormous tracks of land were stolen from nations, who
became client states of the U.S. Unions and radical organizations were
attacked during the Palmer Raids, including my former union, the In-
dustrial Workers of the World, countries such as the Philippines were in-
vaded and Colonel Jacob Smith ordered all Filipinos over the age of 10 to
be killed. The doctrine of Anglo-Saxon superiority not only helped ac-
count for imperialist conquests but created Jim Crow segregations laws
inside the U.S. And after WWII, the U.S. has intervened and bombed
China 1945-46, Korea 1950-53, China 1950-53, Guatemala 1954, Indone-
sia 1958, Cuba 1959-60, Guatemala 1960, Belgian Congo 1964, Guatema-
la 1964, Dominican Republic 1965-66, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Vietnam
1961-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Guatemala 1967-69, Lebanon 1982-84, Gre-
nada 1983-84, Libya 1986, El Salvador 1981-92, Nicaragua 1981-90, Iran
1987-88, Libya 1989, Panama 1989-90, Iraq 1991, Kuwait 1991, Somalia
1992-94, Bosnia 1995, Iran 1998, Sudan 1998, Afghanistan 1998, Yugo-
slavia – Serbia 1999, Afghanistan 2001 and Libya, 2011, and this is by no
means the entire list.
68
bies would die in infancy, and $1.3 trillion dollars in healthcare spending
would be saved. Although, to be fair, Kahzan reported that 33 percent of
Canadians waited six days or more to see a specialist, compared with 19
percent of Americans. The Trumpcare plan has yet to be implemented at
the time of this writing, but it looks to be a disaster for approximately 99
percent of the population.
Do you think the understanding of the American Dream primarily
in terms of material success has been instrumental in the rise of neo-
liberalism? What is the role of the American Dream in neoliberalism’s
agenda?
The American Dream, to the extent that it was realized in the 1950s and
1960s, was at the expense of the victims of the American Empire. Amer-
icans are shielded from this knowledge in the schools. There was a long
build-up to the American Dream as a mythology—it’s dark side grew out
of and is sustained up to the present by the crimes of empire. The U.S.
history of imperialism would take volumes of books to catalogue, and we
could begin long before the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (who pro-
claimed himself as the personal instrument of God, just like George W.
Bush would do decades later) William McKinley, and Theodore Roo-
sevelt, the U.S. entry into WWI, the rule of the robber barons and the
15,000 mile railway empire of Jay Gould who boasted with conserva-
tive mendacity that he could hire one half of the working-class to kill
the other half. Enormous tracks of land were stolen from nations, who
became client states of the U.S. Unions and radical organizations were
attacked during the Palmer Raids, including my former union, the In-
dustrial Workers of the World, countries such as the Philippines were in-
vaded and Colonel Jacob Smith ordered all Filipinos over the age of 10 to
be killed. The doctrine of Anglo-Saxon superiority not only helped ac-
count for imperialist conquests but created Jim Crow segregations laws
inside the U.S. And after WWII, the U.S. has intervened and bombed
China 1945-46, Korea 1950-53, China 1950-53, Guatemala 1954, Indone-
sia 1958, Cuba 1959-60, Guatemala 1960, Belgian Congo 1964, Guatema-
la 1964, Dominican Republic 1965-66, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Vietnam
1961-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Guatemala 1967-69, Lebanon 1982-84, Gre-
nada 1983-84, Libya 1986, El Salvador 1981-92, Nicaragua 1981-90, Iran
1987-88, Libya 1989, Panama 1989-90, Iraq 1991, Kuwait 1991, Somalia
1992-94, Bosnia 1995, Iran 1998, Sudan 1998, Afghanistan 1998, Yugo-
slavia – Serbia 1999, Afghanistan 2001 and Libya, 2011, and this is by no
means the entire list.
68
