Teacher: "The child lacks discipline and motivation."
Mental health worker: "The child has attention deficit disorder."
Child: "The things you're trying to teach me have nothing to do with what I'm really interested in."
The fact is that the pre-arranged curriculum that is enforced both on students and teachers betrays a total disregard for the interests and natural curiosities of the children in the school. Finally, going to school is not something from which a child can escape, nor can s/he decide what kind of school s/he wants to attend. Our normal schools actually look very much like what Goffman would describe as "total institutions." To the extent that this is true, they are prison-like.
The kind of discipline
exercised in the branches of our military forces
obviously fits our description of what happens in total institutions.
The same could be said for traditional religious orders. I suspect
that if one examined very carefully the workplaces in which most
people spend the major portion of their waking lives, one would find
a similar story. The fact is that our society is organized in terms
of large bureaucracies in which decision-making and control is
entirely top-down, and which use a technology of power that is very
similar to that which is used in prisons, mental hospitals, the
military, schools and religious orders.
Of course in the case of work there is no overt prohibition against "escaping." However, for most people, escaping from their job will either put them in a situation of dire financial crisis, or force them into another work site which will be much the same as the one they left. To summarize, while we believe ourselves to be living in a "free society," in fact most of us spend our lives in bureaucracies and within other social organizations in which we have nothing at all to say about their purposes, the way in which resources are distributed, or of the norms that guide the interaction of members. This is not a free life.
With the advent of the women's liberation movement, families have made some progress. The desires and thoughts of both parents must be taken into consideration with regard to decision-making. Yet it never occurs to most parents that for the children, the family is still a total institution. It is simply headed by two authorities, rather than one. An example of this is the total disregard of the child's wishes when parents separate. Typically, there is an extended debate and struggle between the adults regarding with whom the child will live. A child's wishes are generally ignored. The obvious solution to this is simple. Unless there is an overwhelming reason to disregard the child's preference, the child should be able to decide for him or herself with whom he wants to live. A similar disregard for the children's wishes is in evidence around decisions about moving, or school attendance. In fact if a child lives in a traditional authoritarian family, and goes to the typical public school, his or her aspirations are almost totally irrelevant to what happens in his or her life. Increasingly, children are observed and micromanaged from the moment they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night.
It is not just that our government has been co-opted by a tiny group of the very rich -- though I do not minimize the importance of this fact. The larger problem is that a prison mentality and prison-like structures dominate every sphere of our society -- our families, our schools, our churches, our businesses, our mental health and social service systems, and of course our huge military organizations our banks and the multinational corporations.
When we realize that the society in which we live is very much like a prison it is easy to surrender to the temptation of despair. What action is possible in the face of an imprisonment that is so profound and extensive -- so deeply ingrained into the fabric of our lives? The situation in which we find ourselves is undoubtedly fraught with danger. The wealthy elite at the top have established a social/economic/political system that works exclusively for their own interests and does not need to take into consideration the needs of the imprisoned majority. In doing so it has created a system that is radically unsustainable. The need to produce quick profits for the already wealthy trumps all other considerations. Even the need to maintain an intact ecological balance is ignored. Ultimately, the viability of the human species is in doubt. And even if those in power succeed in maintaining a system that does not totally melt down, increasingly we will find ourselves living in a 1984 type of dysphoria -- a human ant-heap in which we are no longer free human beings. Many of us feel powerless to do anything relevant to prevent the realization of these bleak prospects for the future.
If the current direction of
history continues unabated, then perhaps there is no hope. Yet
history is not a simple mechanical thing that we can predict with
certainty. It takes unexpected turns, and moves off in directions
that no one would have predicted. We don't know what the possible
effects of our efforts might be. We do know that, whatever mechanisms
it uses, evolution is real. More complex organisms, capable of richer
and more satisfying experiences, have in fact emerged from simple
organisms. Although the process is not straightforward and
uninterrupted, the evolution of culture is also a reality.
When one country defeats another in a war, it no longer rushes in to murder all of the adult males, and take the females and children into slavery. Slavery as it existed a mere 150 years ago in the United States has become unthinkable. Gays have rights. Women have rights. People of color have rights. Although we do little about it, an ecological consciousness is emerging in humanity. However insensitive, repressive and even brutal our treatment of children who have broken social norms still is, we at least do not hang them in public squares. That too has become unthinkable.
All of this is not to suggest that we've solved all our problems. Our technological evolution has far outstripped our spiritual and cultural evolution. We are like a tribe of chimpanzees who have been able to arm themselves with revolvers. Yet because history is unpredictable, and evolution is real, there is reason to hope and to make efforts. The outcome of the human experiment hangs in the balance. Our refusal to give in to despair could be pivotal with regard to the eventual success of this enigmatical and destructive, yet exquisitely beautiful species that is us.
It is not
as though democratic alternatives to the prison-like social forms
that now dominate our lives have not been developed. I would mention
a few just to illustrate this point. One example is found in programs
and ideas that radically increase the participation of
developmentally delayed individuals in the decisions that determine
the course of their lives. The philosophy behind such programs is
well expressed in a groundbreaking article entitled The
Dignity of Risk. The application of this point of view
requires the full participation of both staff and residents in
decison making as explicated in this article on participatory
administration.
It is also now understood that programs and
policies for people with physical disabilities must include everybody
in the planning and decision-making processes. See for example,
Nothing
About Us Without Us.
Very successful non-authoritarian residential alternatives to mental
hospitals for people with problems in living have been implemented in
the past. Also, people with psychiatric labels have organized
themselves in a progressive, democratic and laudable advocacy group.
For information on this organization and on alternatives to
traditional psychiatry, check the Mind
Freeom site.
Worker-owned businesses have a history that demonstrates their viability. For example, see this article. Progressive schools that take into account the children's interests and curiosities, and that include them in the decision-making processes, have been tried with success. For a very brief introduction to the philosophy behind this approach to schooling, see this article. Progressive homeschooling -- especially when this is done by a group of families to avoid social isolation -- as been shown to be a more enlightened and happier alternative to public school for many children. It is true that these efforts are small in comparison to the massive bureaucracies of the mainstream, yet they do provide us with models to build upon. A small wealthy elite, in collusion with people who feel more secure in an authoritarian environment, presently seems to have a stranglehold on human development. For the moment it appears that progressive and democratic experiments in most spheres of life must grow in the cracks and crannies of the larger society. Yet in spite of the obstacles they face, many thrive.
People have a variety of reasons for supporting prison-like arrangements in our social institutions. With some, it is simply a matter that such arrangements are familiar, and therefore they feel secure with them. Some are motivated by authoritarian religious commitments, and want to impose what they believe to be a divinely ordained order of things on the rest of us and, of course, this requires a variety of arrangements for the incarceration of dissenters. Others equate democracy with chaos and disorder. The most powerful group that is interested in maintaining a prison based society is the wealthy elite -- the small minority of people who run the banks and the multi-national corporations. Whatever the motivation that leads people to support a prison-like organization of society, the prison mentality leads to the erection of walls between people -- walls that are unhealthy for humanity and ultimately for the earth itself. These walls are typically gated communities on the one hand and imprisoned populations on the other. It is no longer just that we have a few prisons scattered around the landscape. Prison systems increasingly define the landscape.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
