[Marxism] What if people were made stupid?

[Don Hiatt <donhiatt@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm not sure if this is news to anyone, but I just came across John
Taylor Gatto's "Underground History of American Education"
(http://www.johntaylorgatto.com) and it is incredible. I've recently
started to keep a diary and so I have attached what I wrote about the
book this morning. The comments are pretty rough as I wrote them to
myself, however I think they honestly reflect my thought process thus
far after being exposed to this book over the last day.

Kind Regards,

don


What if we lived in a society that was controlled by plutocrats which
felt that there were not enough stupid people? That there were already
enough men of letters, of doctors, of lawyers, and that all the rest
of the great mass of society should know their place, and that place
would be as wage slaves? What if in this society, under the guise of
education, children were forced into schools which basically stunted
their intellectual growth and turned them into nothing more that
customers? Or that, even after going to college, these people could
not really think for themselves? Sure, they could perform technical
work, but they would never question the underlying structure of
society -- that is, there are a few with everything, and the rest
well, they are just out of luck. What if this society at one time was
very literate and forced schooling was used to make it dumb? Wouldn't
that be weird? And yet, does it sound somehow familiar? I just started
reading a fascinating book by John Taylor Gatto called "Underground
History of American Education" (the book is online --
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com) These are some of his premises
although he doesn't use the words "plutocrats" or "wage slaves " --
those are mine -- but it is all the same.

I always wondered how in the old days people had so much time to read,
and to write. And the language they used was so eloquent. They really
seemed so much smarter than we do today, I always wondered why? The
point really comes home when I read an older book and I have to keep a
dictionary by my side as every other word is no longer in common
usage. I have always chalked this up to the fact that my love of
reading came after I got out of school and that as I really did not
pay much attention in school -- it always came easy and was boring --
that I had to re-learn things I must of missed. I thought it must be
television and advertisements that were at fault, they want us dumb as
it makes the job of selling useless crap that much easier. But now --
and I am only on the third chapter -- it appears that school was used
as a means of social control in order to, not better society, but to
turn us into fools. Sure we could read, but rarely do (reminds me of a
friend at work saying how he never likes to read, or if he does it is
only technical stuff; how sad). This is why we don't know are own
history. Now we are really a nation of sheep. But, it wasn't always
that way. America used to be a very literate society of, as John Gatto
puts it, "dirt farmers." And not only did we read, we thought for
ourselves. This is that libertarian spirit that still draws people
from around the world, even though it has been mostly killed off. And
now I am starting to see just how it happened. Not only have we been,
and are still being, exploited on so many levels, it is actually far
worse than I originally suspected. It really is 1984 and Big Brother
is each of us. How does that quotation go, "I have seen the enemy and
he is us"?

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