Education is a Public Good; Stupid Memes are Not

Sometimes I truly believe Michael Crichton when he penned that cyberspace will truly mean the end of our species.

If you have a Facebook account, you probably have encountered one or two, possibly a plethora, of stupid memes. This is a really stupid meme. Not only do the two images have nothing to do with each other. The intent of this meme makes no logical sense whatsoever.

The people who founded the United States and fought the Revolutionary War did so to escape the overbearing corporatism of the Old World. They did it to fight against the East India Trading Company’s abusive monopoly and the Crown which directly sponsored and protected said corporation. That was one of the reasons why in the US’ early history corporations had a limited charter which expired once a project was completed. They never intended for corporations to exist in the state they are now.

What does the above scene have to do with young people angry about a country which would much rather spend upwards of a trillion dollars on a jet that does not fly over adequately funding public education and providing higher education as a public service? The image below is a bunch of angry college students who felt cheated and extorted by the overbearing corporatism of their home country. Sound familiar? The image above calls for liberty. The image below calls for free education. Education is very much necessary for liberty to exist. You could say adults above and below are calling for the exact same thing. Some of the college students have ended up like my angry friend here feeling they have somehow been cheated and their efforts a waste. What is even more frustrating is this meme was posted by a dear friend of mine who I know is smarter than this.

I struggle to find anything redeeming or enlightening about this meme. So in response to this it, I found a better one which fits this situation quite nicely.

On Facebook, all is not lost. I did find something which indicates that there are people who post cogent thoughts, and re-shared from Charlie Sheen no less.

“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Distracted by trivia, trivializing important matters, perpetual rounds of entertainment, baby-talk, I do believe these definitions fit the form and function of memes in general. Similar to the rise of churlish bumper-stickers, the above meme certainly fits these criteria, especially the baby-talk.

My friend seems to believe college aged individuals who risk their reputation and physical health protest as a reaction against the perversions of Corporate America are somehow morally stunted and entitled, spoiled brats. He believes these people will spell doom for the rest of society. I believe a trip to Kent State is in order. It is utterly preposterous to presume college aged adults with no job prospects under the arduous weight of debt, no political power, and no monetary clout of any kind are somehow the new inimical blight which will sink the nation someday. It makes about as much sense whenever I recall people old enough to be my grandparents telling my generation that we will some day cause the “death of our dear country.”

I told him something to that effect. I even reminded him that he himself came from a privileged background, a spoiled child who took classes in Germany, lauded Europe’s superior schools, had a $120k education. He studied criminal justice and Japanese.

He now works as a manager for a some discount store.

He felt it was all a waste and seemed rather resentful about it, because in the next sentence, he had the audacity and hubris to proclaim to other people he has never met that they should not even be given a clean-break. In his own words, he proclaimed, “No job has given me favouritism because of it, a raise, a promotion, etc. $120k education a waste. Plus people don’t see that if you give everyone something for free, it’s value goes down. Jobs that once required a BA, will now require a MA or DR. People don’t think, and don’t understand economics and inflation. Our education system is terrible, that’s what needs fixing, not free college.” In just two sentences, he contradicted himself. He felt his education was a waste, despite the money which went into it, but free education was bad because it had no value? Maybe he meant businesses will not value potential employees who had free education like my friend, except his education was not free, and it would not make much sense for a business to care how much you paid for your education. That would be your concern, not theirs. He also seems to be of the same dubious mind as Reagan that the student knows best when it comes to his or her education. The value you get is the value (money) you put into it, which is not true. It is supreme folly to think the uneducated know best when it comes to their education. It is just a form of prevarication to dupe people into giving up on public education.

In response to his economic claims about education, Cuba has a 100% literacy rate, in spite of what has been about the country. Israel spends 10% of its GDP on public education. All of Israel’s nine universities, and some of its colleges, are publicly funded without leaving students to bear the full brunt of the cost, something the US advocated for itself about 40 to 50 years ago. The United Arab Emirates guarantees education at all levels. Dubai is transitioning to a knowledge-based economy, and UAE citizen’s with master’s degrees are highly sought after by private industries. “As of 2014, studying at state-funded German universities is free of charge again, after a few short years of tuition fees which proved widely unpopular and were criticized harshly.” Of course, we have known for a long time that most European countries do not punish their citizenry as harshly with neoliberal pettifoggery and “polly waddle” as the US does. It should seem rather obvious by now that the value of a good education is a universal idea and a necessary service, not an indulgence. It is either that, or all these countries I have listed are economics dummies according to my esteemed friend.

From his heartfelt story, I suddenly realized the hidden meaning behind his post. It was classical projection. He was afraid his education would be worth less if people were given the chance at a fully-funded public education up to the doctorate level. There was some sort of iniquity he felt, possibly shame, which led to his current situation, but rather than take stock in his own life and introspect, he decided to project these negative feelings on people who did not deserve them to absolve himself and keep himself righteous. It took far more bravery for those college students to endure potential public humiliation and violence protesting against what they saw as an injustice which needed to be cured than my friend sharing this ridiculous meme and reveling in his juvenile humor at their expense. It was not about justice or morality. This was about him and him alone.

It is a well known fact by now that employers do not seem to care what education a person has, if that person lacks experience. However, experience can only be made by someone who is educated. It should be perfectly clear there is a well-established pecking order or hierarchy which does not feel beholden to the populace. It instead wants to create a intimate relationship based more on bondage than anything else. Businesses love submissive, docile employees, and debt is the riding-crop the corporate world uses to beat the populace into shape. Education is the lure of better things to come. It is the promise of the American Dream which drives people into these masochistic scenarios.

I am not without sympathy. I do understand my friend’s frustration, his anger. It is, however, misplaced.

Once in gender studies class in college, we watched a documentary I believe was called Connie Field’s ‘The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter.’ I loved listening to the various interviewees and their stories. Some of the US propaganda convincing house wives to work in steel mills and factories was pretty fascinating. I found it especially interesting when the women said very bluntly that their men received a raw deal before the war started. These women were trained on the job, and it took weeks to learn, not years, not even months. The women found new found purpose and joy in their new line of work and were astonished by how easy it was to master. They recalled how frustrating it was for their men under the apprenticeship programs before the war and how they wasted their time for months on end training under a master. When the men came home from the war, a new story was quickly spun to convince women to abandon any ideas about keeping their jobs and go back to their homes. The men needed their jobs back to recoup their self-esteem. It soon became quintessentially clear what the nature of work was all about. It was a pecking order, a hierarchy designed as a form of self-flagellation and aggrandizement. This and the evangelical pursuit of the commodification and privatization of everything are the places where our anger should be directed, not its victims.

I have some idea where education as a commodity comes from. It is a very pernicious idea from the last 30 years, counting the Reagan and Thatcher eras. It should never have been taken seriously but constantly put under scrutiny. However, neoliberal polices are actively destroying education in the US.

Education is a public good or service, if you will. Its value comes from the idea that civilization can only flourish when its populace is fully educated to sustain it. It is the core of Liberty itself. What better way is there to exercise the mind and inoculate a vulnerable public against charlatans, hucksters, and ideologues? My friend thought himself a patriot, a warrior against the mendicant and the entitled, a warrior for Capitalism, which is ironic. Capitalism is all about people with privilege who feel entitled to many things. Do we not see and hear ads all the time which say, “Just Do It!” Are Americans not constantly told that they too will someday make the Big Time? My friend has no clue. He has been bamboozled.

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

The South Korean statesman and UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, had this to say in a press release at the 2014 Conference of the Asia-Pacific Association of International Educators about the value of education:

Education can morally and intellectually enrich individuals while driving economic, social and cultural development. It can also promote peace and global solidarity by providing a greater appreciation of our common humanity.

My friends, do not be bamboozled. Do not listen to the velvety words and honeyed tongues of those who wish to deprive your children of their education using tired, familiar slogans about FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY and ECONOMICS. Do not mistake someone’s mental masturbation for punny wit. You must remember that your education has value, not by virtue of paying for it. Education is an accomplishment in and of itself. It enriches us, makes us new men and women with every lesson. It is has nothing to do with economics in that it is not a commodity. I believe this attitude is something only indicative in US culture, because the value of education in and of itself is universal. Education is our immortality. We transfer our very souls and culture into the next generation with every history lesson. We transfer our genius with every math and science lesson. We train our people to think critically and evaluate every claim with the humanities. Without any of this, we might as well be dead.