I think the ruling class has not ended its counter-reform (Thatcher-Reagan) movement, but continued to develop more attacks, maybe. The attack on public education in the US , especially teachers , is going on now , too. The reform movement of the 1960's was centered especially in colleges and schools. Teachers from higher to lower education are a cadre of radicalizers. So, the ruling class is targetting them all to prevent the next radical reform movement.
CB On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 8:45 AM, Jim Farmelant <farmela...@juno.com> wrote: > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/17/death-universities-ma > laise-tuition-fees > > The Guardian > 17 December 2010 > > *The death of universities > > Academia has become a servant of the status quo. Its malaise runs so much > deeper than tuition fees* > > Terry Eagleton > > Are the humanities about to disappear from our universities? The question > is > absurd. It would be like asking whether alcohol is about to disappear > from > pubs, or egoism from Hollywood. Just as there cannot be a pub without > alcohol, so there cannot be a university without the humanities. If > history, > philosophy and so on vanish from academic life, what they leave in their > wake may be a technical training facility or corporate research > institute. > But it will not be a university in the classical sense of the term, and > it > would be deceptive to call it one. > > Neither, however, can there be a university in the full sense of the word > when the humanities exist in isolation from other disciplines. The > quickest > way of devaluing these subjects – short of disposing of them altogether – > is > to reduce them to an agreeable bonus. Real men study law and engineering, > while ideas and values are for sissies. The humanities should constitute > the > core of any university worth the name. The study of history and > philosophy, > accompanied by some acquaintance with art and literature, should be for > lawyers and engineers as well as for those who study in arts faculties. > If > the humanities are not under such dire threat in the United States, it > is, > among other things, because they are seen as being an integral part of > higher education as such. > > When they first emerged in their present shape around the turn of the > 18th > century, the so-called humane disciplines had a crucial social role. It > was > to foster and protect the kind of values for which a philistine social > order > had precious little time. The modern humanities and industrial capitalism > were more or less twinned at birth. To preserve a set of values and ideas > under siege, you needed among other things institutions known as > universities set somewhat apart from everyday social life. This > remoteness > meant that humane study could be lamentably ineffectual. But it also > allowed > the humanities to launch a critique of conventional wisdom. > > From time to time, as in the late 1960s and in these last few weeks in > Britain, that critique would take to the streets, confronting how we > actually live with how we might live. > > What we have witnessed in our own time is the death of universities as > centres of critique. Since Margaret Thatcher, the role of academia has > been > to service the status quo, not challenge it in the name of justice, > tradition, imagination, human welfare, the free play of the mind or > alternative visions of the future. We will not change this simply by > increasing state funding of the humanities as opposed to slashing it to > nothing. We will change it by insisting that a critical reflection on > human > values and principles should be central to everything that goes on in > universities, not just to the study of Rembrandt or Rimbaud. > > In the end, the humanities can only be defended by stressing how > indispensable they are; and this means insisting on their vital role in > the > whole business of academic learning, rather than protesting that, like > some > poor relation, they don't cost much to be housed. > > How can this be achieved in practice? Financially speaking, it can't be. > Governments are intent on shrinking the humanities, not expanding them. > > Might not too much investment in teaching Shelley mean falling behind our > economic competitors? But there is no university without humane inquiry, > which means that universities and advanced capitalism are fundamentally > incompatible. And the political implications of that run far deeper than > the > question of student fees. > > > > Jim Farmelant > http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant > www.foxymath.com > Learn or Review Basic Math > ____________________________________________________________ > How to Stay Asleep > Cambridge Researchers have developed an all natural sleep aid just for you. > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d0e0cbc3b5537ba231st03vuc > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
