I'm going to break down soon and read Oil! Surely it can't be as stomach turning as The Jungle.
Hedges paints a picture of the power of money in education. If money talks it is saying very loudly that nearly everyone can be bought. It seems to be just as true in the halls of ivy league colleges as it is in the marble halls of Washington. In the case of the professors the author refers to on p. 103 (another page that needs to be quoted in its entirety) silence is golden, in the literal sense: "...professors, fearful of being branded 'political' and not wanting to upset the legions of wealthy donors and administrative overlords who rule these institutions, did not dare draw the obvious parallels between events in the Conrad novel (The Heart of Darkness) and the failures and discontents of the Iraq occupation and American empire. They did not use Conrad's novel as it was meant to be used, to examine our own imperial darkness. Even in the anemic and marginalized world of the humanities, what is taught exists in a moral void."
"The bankruptcy of our economic and political systems can be traced directly to the assault against the humanities...These elites are not capable of asking the broad, universal questions, the staples of an education in the humanities, which challenge the deepest assumptions of a culture and examine the harsh realities of political and economic power. They have forgotten, because they have not been taught, that human nature is a mixture of good and evil. They do not have the capacity for critical reflection. They do not understand that for every answer there arises another question--the very basis behind the Socratic academy's search for wisdom"
As parents we begin to civilize our little darlings (who arrive helpless but soon become barbaric) right away. Our goals early on are simple but important; don't bite, the world doesn't revolve around you, you shouldn't intentionally hurt people's feelings, you must share, you can't take what belongs to someone else. The process continues and we hope that in high school and college they will think about the broader versions of those early lessons. We hope they will think about whether their behavior will "bite" someone else, that they can actually be made personally happier by helping others, and that sometimes even our unwitting actions and thoughtlessness can border on cruelty. We hope they will also learn over time that the exploration of self and the search for truth are of the utmost importance. We hope they will have teachers and other adults who will mentor and inspire them to seek to be the best versions of themselves. We hope they'll learn that money won't make you happy and so much of what is meaningful and worthwhile and beautiful about life, are things you can't purchase. Hedges dashes some of those hopes (for parents who hope Junior is going to learn those things at one of the elite universities, anyway):
"College presidents, many of whom earn salaries that rival those of corporate executives, must often devote their energies to fund-raising rather than to education. They shower honorary degrees and trusteeships on hedge-fund managers and Wall Street titans whose lives are often examples of moral squalor and unchecked greed.
The slavish honoring of the rich by elite schools, despite the lofty rhetoric about public service, is clear to the students. The object is to make money." (p. 104)
So at a time in life when many parents (but clearly not all, since for some these lessons ARE what they deem a valuable education) would hope that their young person is asking big questions, seeking his place in the world, and how they might make it a better place, they are in Hedges words, "socialized to obey. " (I thought that phrase chilling.)
"The point is to get ahead, and getting ahead means deference to authority. Challenging authority is never a career advancer." (p. 105)
Which brings us back around to those humanities classes that aren't being taken, or are, but are taught so poorly that there is little chance that any established establishment ideas are going to be even internally challenged. Think what dangerous lessons might be learned! They could learn that we are following a path frighteningly similar to one others have trod to destruction, or that many of the people in history worth studying and emulating had convictions they held fast to, sought truth above all else, or (gasp!) questioned authority to the point of revolution.
The humanities are, well...humanizing.
This time of year it is interesting to see the expense people go to to celebrate the birth of one who represented the exact opposite of the selfishness and greed we are discussing here. So this Christmas let us be reminded that while we are bringing to light people who are such clear examples of what NOT to be, that we are presented with the image of perfect undying love and grace. That is something to strive for, no matter how far short we fall.
Merry Christmas!
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