December 16
GUEST: Dr. Harry Targ, Professor Emeritus at Purdue University, and a co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, talks about how Koch funded neoliberalism is becoming hegemonic in higher education.
Heartland Radical
Neoliberalism is the concept that everyone has learned to hate. Perhaps we should call it hyper capitalism, the pursuit of profit by impoverishing whole populations, both in the Third World and in the heart of the empire. Conquering education is the next goal in this march to enrich the few in the name of democracy. The current ferocious war to eliminate any notion of the public good is particularly aimed at the nation's colleges and universities.
Historically, colleges were centers of debate and learning. Students would gather around thinkers like Noam Chomsky to understand and take part in mutual quest for knowledge. The quest was a group effort, a learned pursuit to satisfy one's intellectual curiosity.
How we got to the current university systems, expensive country clubs that all but a few of our richest students will spend their lives paying off loans for, would make an interesting study. Our most prestigious institutions of higher education are bastions of privilege. At Harvard, 40% of students accepted would not have gotten in if it weren't for parental donations, talent in sports, or some other non academic skill. The Ivy League schools have always reeked of family money.
So maybe it wasn't that hard for the Kochs to warp the educational system further with their filthy billions. Once the very rich start paying for professors, buildings and academic programs all the supposed intellectual basis for gaining knowledge falls by the wayside. Higher education was ripe for further corruption before the Kochs arrived.
I noticed that Harry and I talked a good deal about the US Empire, and its endless wars. Can a nation have true intellectual freedom when it commits a growing list of war crimes abroad? Quite possibly, the military empire we are all part of spells the end of a university system based on the search for knowledge and truth.
