American Higher Education: A Symptom of the Disease

I'm breaking my self imposed silence for a quick post. I was going to just post this on facebook (inc) but wanted to write a little bit more and thought I would share it here.



http://current.com/shows/viewpoint/videos/extra-charles-ferguson-on-how-harvard-and-other-universities-collude-with-the-financial-industry/


On Eliot Spitzer's Current TV show, Charles Ferguson lays out a terrifically important point, saying how American Universities, which (Santorum's right) should be a bedrock of Progressivism, have been hijacked by the radical pro-1% 'center.' Professors have been cut off at the knees by the internal attack of cultural relativism and the external control of Administrators who can't see beyond the University's bottom line. It is morally reprehensible, not to mention unpatriotic, to view the education of the next generation as a business venture. It is just as morally reprehensible to view the army, the postal service, public transit, public scientific spending, or medical care as a business venture. By that I do not mean that they should operate without fiscal constraint. Most people would not consider their family a business venture, but that doesn't mean that they go and buy a house every week. The bottom line for a business (and this is the point that, if he's going to veer to the left, Obama will,and has started to, campaign on) is: did you make a profit. Yes, for some businesses the welfare of their workers is very important but that's an added bonus, its not what being a 'successful' business is about. Businesses that
use union busting policies in America and child or slave labour abroad aren't doing bad things because they're all run by evil people... they're doing bad things because it improves their bottom line. We have, as a society, decided that its best for businesses like these to exist. We can have the discussion about the merits of that later, but even given that its good for these semi-amoral businesses to exist... that's a far cry from saying they're the model for every form of collective organization.  The co-opting of the Presidency of Harvard is, in the end, a relatively minor problem when looking back at the past 30 years, but that does not mean it is meaningless. It is vitally important that we realize decisions like Citizen's United or the policies that Romney exercised at Bain (and countless other executives do every day) are symptoms of an endemic disease of radical pro-1% policies and must be treated like that rather than as the disease itself.


And the charge of 'its always been this way' simply isn't true. This is how it was under the rule of Kings and Despots, when you only had to learn as much as your pre-allotted job would require, where some murder with impunity while others are murdered for stealing a slice of bread, where you worked without the promise of adequate (or any) compensation. That is not the way Democracies are supposed to work. The path of Democracy has not been how to change that system into something slightly more agreeable but to how to move away from that kind of system all together. It has been a bumpy, slow, and still unfinished journey to get there, but that has been the direction this country and the majority if not all Democracies have taken. Not to say that the other opinion has not been voiced. The cry to return to something 'easier' and more 'orderly' where people take their lot in life rather than aspiring for something more has remained part of the conversation. But, apart from a few outliers, a few proto-nationalists, the 1880s in America, its been an option which has, been fought against by the people who we now recognize on being on the 'right' side of history. (For all you cultural relativists out there, FDR and De Gaul = Right Hitler and Franco = Wrong) That is until the past 30 years. From Thatcher and Reagan to W. to Merkel to Norquist this has been the unabashed policy of the Right in Democracies worldwide. And, under the guise centrism and the bribes of big business, its been a policy that has, on the whole, spread as easily through many supposedly leftist parties as it has permeated the rest of society. The Occupy / 99% movement is a beginning to one of the most important tasks that facing the world: pointing out that the current state of affairs is not just abominable. It is an aberration. The first step to purging it from our polity is to point it out. Everywhere we see it. So, great thanks to Charles Ferguson for pointing this out. I haven't had a chance to watch Inside Job yet, but I certainly mean to, especially now.

Beyond that. I think you should all check out Spitzer's show (and not just because I have a thing for forgiving sex scandals). You can get clips on Itunes for free if you can't watch on Current TV. The style of the show is a bit Law and Order for me, but Spitzer's a smart guy, he can get fantastic guests, and I'm fairly certain he thinks that this might just be the best way to kickstart his re-entry into Public Service. And, with an increasingly internet-driven electorate and (especially in New York) a core of Progressive news/podcast nuts (myself among them), he might just be right.