"Beyond a Domesticating Education: a Dialogue", Noam Chomsky - A response

“Beyond a Domesticating Education: a Dialogue” – Noam Chomsky


At first glance, it appears that Chomsky is nothing more than an embittered cynic, who is intent on creating issues that exist so far beyond the classroom walls that they do not need to be thought about. After careful consideration, however, one can read a great deal of truth into his dialogue, and it is interesting how he is able to expand so well on a seemingly isolated, quasi-irrelevant happenstance (the child who thought that the Pledge of Allegiance was hypocritical) and show how it connects to far greater issues globally.
I never used to be cynical, but the events that have occurred on the global stage in the fallout of Sept. 11th have altered this substantially. The Corpocracy that rules the Western “democracies” has been waging a vague shadow war against an enemy, which by definition, does not really physically exist – “Terror” is a mental construct, meaning that this ill-defined war can last in perpetuity, all the while suckling at the tit of power. After all, Halliburton, and Blackwell are corporate names that are synonymous with the war in Iraq. Think about this – there are more mercenaries employed by Blackwell on the ground in Iraq than there are American troops – it is a corporate war. Casualty lists for the Iraqi’s do not exist. The numbers are simply not recorded by the occupying power, as they are so appallingly high.
Clearly something is amiss with this whole situation. And yet, we (and I mean people who are citizens of the Western “democratic” powers) do not respond. Why is this? If asked individually, people seem to care, but as a society, we do not respond – individuals do not shake the boat or upset our comfortable status quo. We who live in such extreme comfort and ease do not wish to sacrifice these comforts – because in order for us to ask questions, and disrupt the seat of corporate power that rules the West, we will need to do without these same comforts. We turn a blind eye to the evils committed by our allies and our own governments, evils that when committed by men like Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden, are universally condemned. 9/11 killed 3,000 odd people. The death toll in Iraq is conservatively placed in the 100,000’s. Tell those families that they are better off now that “democracy” has been brought to the Middle East.
How does all of this tie into education, however? It is quite simple. We live in an age, and a part of the world that exists in extreme privilege, driven by consumerist fervour. This massive surplus of consumer wealth is our modern day “bread and circuses”. Just as Roman Emperors entertained the masses with food and violent spectacles, so do our Corpocratic regimes distract us with bigger and better TVs, stereo equipment, SUVs, etc. And we, as a society, learn not to question the actions of the corporate elites, because to do so will mean less of these items that make our lives so privileged. It is engrained into our very educational systems that we should not rock the boat with dangerous questions, but should be rewarded for following the rest of the flock. Teachers all too often teach their classes how to think, or what to think, not to think. If we were taught simply to think, from an early age, some of these globe spanning debacles could be avoided, altered or stopped. We simply do not think about them, because we have been trained not to; we have been trained to accept them.