[NewMusic] Ribot rant and subsidized spaces in Europe

[Matthew Goodheart]

Hard to disagree with much anyone has said here. This is just a bit of 
a side-track about education.

On Apr 6, 2007, at 11:47 AM, Chris Broderick wrote:

> Our schools are more and
> more concerned with churning out workers than they are
> in churning out educated, well-rounded people.

I  think the emphasis these days might be more on creating consumers 
rather than workers in the traditional industrial sense: while much of 
the educational organization originally comes from an industrial model, 
the US industrial base has been diminishing for decades. Concurrent 
with this has been a decrease in funding for public schools, which the 
private sector has seized upon as an opportunity.  So over the last 
couple decades there has been an increased corporate influence in our 
schools, in a very concerted and conscious effort to create "brand 
loyalty" among the youth; that is, a heavy indoctrination into a 
corporate mind-set. (This incident from almost  decade ago still sums 
it all up nicely: 
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/03-98/03-26-98/a10wn040.htm  
).  In essence, the very terms a student has to think about his/herself 
and their relationship to each other, the culture, the nation, liberty, 
etc. is through some kind of "brand."  In terms of future employment of 
many of these students, the job-base is either professional 
(white-collar corporate job, for example) or for the vast majority, the 
low-paying service sector. But this is, I think, more of a by-product 
than the goal; the goal is to create a functional consumer: the effect 
on any later employment is to ensure the minimum payments on one's Visa 
bill.

I'll also point out that this is often over the objections to actual 
educators, librarians, etc. They'd love to churn out educated, 
well-rounded people. But it's an increasingly uphill battle, and hey, 
money talks. Then I remember "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," and I have hope!

Ah well. Socialist Pinkos of the world unite! We have nothing to lose 
but our credit ratings!