Page 85 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 85
p. mclaren ■ from a city on the hill to the dungheap of history
Here Eisenhower calls for an “alert and knowledgeable citizenry”,
which sounds like it is right out of the critical pedagogy playbook. Al-
though it merits mentioning that Eisenhower is warning us against a dan-
gerous military industrial complex that he himself was largely responsible
for creating. To his credit, however, Eisenhower understood that only cit-
izens who are critically literate and politically astute could hold at bay the
rapidly rising military industrial complex. History has proven his warn-
ing to have been futile. Students in public schools don’t study this passage
and few have ever even heard about this speech, which would sound out of
place if uttered by a Republican president today, especially by Trump. For-
tunately it’s available on the internet.
This sounds like a deeply divided society.
Mitja, the country is split basically between globalization movements
(consisting of the transnational capitalist class, elites, the middle-class and
some fractions of the petit bourgeoisie) and the anti-globalist movement
that appeals to those who have been brutalized by austerity capitalism,
and people with autocratic instincts, like Trump, who are pursuing an iso-
lationist politics. Trump claims to be anti-globalist and certainly in many
respects he is. But his policies are reactionary anti-globalist.
What remains part of the left parties, such as the Democratic Par-
ty, are solidly neo-liberal and globalist. Which makes it vulnerable to an-
ti-globalist, populist-nationalists like Trump and his minions. As much
as the Republicans feel that Trump is out of control with his tweets, he
nevertheless is achieving with his tweets what the Republicans Party itself
confesses to having been unable to achieve—a direct and visceral line on
communication to its constituent base.
How can the Democratic Party pretend that it takes the side of the
victims of globalized capital when it promotes it? Bernie Sanders is one
of the few members of the government who identifies as socialist but he
has no viable plan for the country beyond redistributing capital to labor,
to make capitalism less brutal, since he must work with other politicians
who believe capitalism is untranscendable and untransformable. Which,
while still pitiful, is a much preferred option to those offered by Trump.
But to suggest to the average American factory worker, the middle class
insurance clerk, or the board of directors of hedge fund that the real bat-
tle must be waged against the festering system that has grown out of the
globalization of capitalism (such as overproduction, deindustrialization,
and the expansion of multinational corporations), is to spit into the wind
and to get drenched in the process. The left here in the United States is
83
Here Eisenhower calls for an “alert and knowledgeable citizenry”,
which sounds like it is right out of the critical pedagogy playbook. Al-
though it merits mentioning that Eisenhower is warning us against a dan-
gerous military industrial complex that he himself was largely responsible
for creating. To his credit, however, Eisenhower understood that only cit-
izens who are critically literate and politically astute could hold at bay the
rapidly rising military industrial complex. History has proven his warn-
ing to have been futile. Students in public schools don’t study this passage
and few have ever even heard about this speech, which would sound out of
place if uttered by a Republican president today, especially by Trump. For-
tunately it’s available on the internet.
This sounds like a deeply divided society.
Mitja, the country is split basically between globalization movements
(consisting of the transnational capitalist class, elites, the middle-class and
some fractions of the petit bourgeoisie) and the anti-globalist movement
that appeals to those who have been brutalized by austerity capitalism,
and people with autocratic instincts, like Trump, who are pursuing an iso-
lationist politics. Trump claims to be anti-globalist and certainly in many
respects he is. But his policies are reactionary anti-globalist.
What remains part of the left parties, such as the Democratic Par-
ty, are solidly neo-liberal and globalist. Which makes it vulnerable to an-
ti-globalist, populist-nationalists like Trump and his minions. As much
as the Republicans feel that Trump is out of control with his tweets, he
nevertheless is achieving with his tweets what the Republicans Party itself
confesses to having been unable to achieve—a direct and visceral line on
communication to its constituent base.
How can the Democratic Party pretend that it takes the side of the
victims of globalized capital when it promotes it? Bernie Sanders is one
of the few members of the government who identifies as socialist but he
has no viable plan for the country beyond redistributing capital to labor,
to make capitalism less brutal, since he must work with other politicians
who believe capitalism is untranscendable and untransformable. Which,
while still pitiful, is a much preferred option to those offered by Trump.
But to suggest to the average American factory worker, the middle class
insurance clerk, or the board of directors of hedge fund that the real bat-
tle must be waged against the festering system that has grown out of the
globalization of capitalism (such as overproduction, deindustrialization,
and the expansion of multinational corporations), is to spit into the wind
and to get drenched in the process. The left here in the United States is
83
