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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 4/28/12

Class War and the College Crisis: The "Crisis of Democracy" and the Attack on Education

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We are pursuing targets which are out of proportion, unduly isolated and pursued blindly, and that are, therefore, in the process of creating" a wholly unmanageable and ominous overload" We are beginning to realize in the prosperous democracies that we are living above our means. But we are equally and more grievously living above and beyond our intelligence, above the understanding of what we are doing.[9]

King explained that, "Political scientists have traditionally been concerned to improve the performance of government." An obvious mistake, concluded King, who suggested that, "Perhaps over the next few years they should be concerned more with how the number of tasks that government has come to be expected to perform can be reduced." The "remedy" for all this "overload" of democratic societies was to, first, bring "an end to the politics of "promising'," and second, "attempt to reduce the expectations of voters and consumers" on the political process.[10]

The "threat" of educated youth was especially pronounced. In 1978, the Management Development Institute (a major business school in India) released a report in which it stated:

perhaps the most pernicious trend over the next decade is the growing gap between an increasingly well educated labor force and the number of job openings which can utilize its skills and qualifications" The potential for frustration, alienation and disruption resulting from the disparity between educational attainment and the appropriate job content cannot be overemphasized.[11]

In these commentaries, we are dealing with two diametrically opposed definitions of democracy: popular and elitist. Popular democracy is government of, by, and for the people; elitist democracy is government of, by, and for the rich (but with the outward aesthetic of democracies), channeling popular participation into voting instead of decision-making or active participation. Popular democracy implies the people participating directly in the decisions and functions and maintenance of the "nation' (though not necessarily the State); whereas elitist democracy implies passive participation of the population so much as to allow them to feel as if they play an important role in the direction of society, while the elites control all the important levers and institutions of power which direct and benefit from the actions of the state. These differing definitions are important because when reading reports written and issued by elite interests (such as the Trilateral Commission report), it changes the substance and meaning of the report itself. For example, take the case of Samuel Huntington lamenting at the threat posed to democracy by popular participation: from the logic of popular democracy, this is an absurd statement that doesn't make sense; from the logic of elitist democracy, the statement is accurate and profoundly important. Elites understand this differentiation, so too must the public.

The Powell Memo: Protecting the Plutocracy

While elites were lamenting over the surge in democracy, particularly in the 1960s, they were not simply complaining about an "excess of democracy" but were actively planning on reducing it. Four years prior to the Trilateral Commission report, in 1971, the infamous and secret "Powell Memo' was issued, written by a corporate lawyer and tobacco company board member, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (whom President Nixon nominated to the Supreme Court two months later), which was addressed to the Chairman of the Education Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing American business interests.

Powell stipulated that "the American economic system is under broad attack," and that, "the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued" gaining momentum and converts." While the "sources' of the "attack' were identified as broad, they included the usual crowd of critics, Communists, the New Left, and "other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic." Adding to this was that these "extremists" were increasingly "more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history." The real "threat," however, was the "voices joining the chorus of criticism [which] come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians." While acknowledging that in these very sectors, those who speak out against the "system' are still a minority, Powell noted, "these are often the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking."[12]

Powell discussed the "paradox" of how the business leaders appear to be participating -- or simply tolerating -- the attacks on the "free enterprise system," whether by providing a voice through the media which they own, or through universities, despite the fact that "[t]he boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system." Powell lamented the conclusions of reports indicating that colleges were graduating students who "despise the American political and economic system," and thus, who would be inclined to move into power and create change, or outright challenge the system head on. This marked an "intellectual warfare" being waged against the system, according to Powell, who then quoted economist Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago (and the "father' of neoliberalism), who stated:

It [is] crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack -- not by Communists or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote.[13]

Powell even specifically identified Ralph Nader as a "threat" to American business. Powell further deplored the changes and "attack" being made through the courts and legal system, which began targeting corporate tax breaks and loop holes, with the media supporting such initiatives since they help "the poor." Powell of course referred to the notion of helping "the poor" at the expense of the rich, and the framing of the debate as such, as "political demagoguery or economic illiteracy," and that the identification of class politics -- the rich versus the poor -- "is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics." The response from the business world to this "broad attack," Powell sadly reported, was "appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the problem." Powell did, however, explain in sympathy to the "ineptitude' of the corporate and financial elites that, "it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system."[14]

While the "tradition role" of business leaders has been to make profits, "create jobs," to "improve the standard of living," and of course, "generally to be good citizens," they have unfortunately shown "little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate." Thus, stated Powell, businessmen must first "recognize that the ultimate issue may be survival -- survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our people." As such, "top [corporate] management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself," instead of just focused on profits. Corporations, Powell acknowledged, were long involved in "public relations" and "governmental affairs" (read: propaganda and public policy), however, the "counter-attack' must be more wide-ranging:

But independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.[15]

While the "assault' against the system developed over several decades, Powell elaborated, "there is reason to believe that the campus [university/education] is the single most dynamic source," as "social science faculties usually include members who are unsympathetic to the enterprise system." These academics, explained Powell, "need not be in the majority," as they "are often personally attractive and magnetic; they are stimulating teachers, and their controversy attracts student following; they are prolific writers and lecturers; they author many of the textbooks, and they exert enormous influence -- far out of proportion to their numbers -- on their colleagues and in the academic world." Such a situation is, naturally, horrific and deplorable! Imagine that, having magnetic, stimulating and prolific teachers, what horror and despair for the world that would surely bring!

In purporting that political scientists, economists, sociologists and many historians "tend to be liberally oriented," Powell suggested that "the need for liberal thought is essential to a balanced viewpoint," but that the "balance' does not exist, with "few [faculty] members being conservatives or [of] moderate persuasion" and being less articulate and aggressive than their crusading colleagues." Terrified of the prospects of these potentially revolutionary youths entering into positions of power, Powell stated that when they do, "for the most part they quickly discover the fallacies of what they have been taught," which is, in other words, to say that they quickly become socialized to the structures, hierarchies and institutions of power which demand conformity and subservience to elite interests. However, there were still many who could emerge in "positions of influence where they mold public opinion and often shape governmental action." Thus, recommended Powell, the Chamber of Commerce should make the "priority task of business" and its related organizations "to address the campus origin of this hostility." As academic freedom was held as sacrosanct in American society, "It would be fatal to attack this as a principle," which of course implies that it is to be attacked indirectly. Instead, it would be more effective to use the rhetoric of "academic freedom" itself against the principle of academic freedom, using terms like "openness," "fairness," and "balance" as points of critique which would yield "a great opportunity for constructive action."[16]

Thus, an organization such as the Chamber of Commerce should, recommended Powell, "consider establishing a staff of highly qualified scholars in the social sciences who do believe in the system" [including] several of national reputation whose authorship would be widely respected -- even when disagreed with." The Chamber should also create "a staff of speakers of the highest competency" which "might include the scholars," and establish a "Speaker's Bureau' which would "include the ablest and most effective advocates form the top echelons of American business." This staff of scholars, which Powell emphasized, should be referred to as "independent scholars," should then engage in a continuing program of evaluating "social science textbooks, especially in economics, political science and sociology." The objective of this would "be oriented toward restoring the balance essential to genuine academic freedom," meaning, of course, implanting ideological indoctrination and propaganda from the business world, which Powell described as the "assurance of fair and factual treatment of our system of government and our enterprise system, its accomplishments, its basic relationship to individual rights and freedoms, and comparisons with the systems of socialism, fascism and communism." Powell lamented that the "civil rights movement insist[ed] on re-writing many of the textbooks in our universities and schools," and "labor unions likewise insist[ed] that textbooks be fair to the viewpoints of organized labor." Thus, Powell contended, in the business world attempting to re-write textbooks and education, this process "should be regarded as an aid to genuine academic freedom and not as an intrusion upon it."[17]

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Andrew Gavin Marshall Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I am a 24-year old independent researcher and writer, having written dozens of articles on a wide variety of social, economic, political, and historical issues, always from a radical and critical perspective. I am Project Manager of The People's (more...)
 
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