Meta Transitions, Teaching and Duty

 Disclosure

I am a public employee and a teacher, who lives in the State of Wisconsin. On the state and local level, the transition discussed below may have gotten to the point that it has a negative impact on my livelihood.

Disclaimer

Nothing herein is the opinion, position or idea of; my colleagues, current employer, past employers, clients, friends, family, acquaintances, past pets,  or any other anyone else other than me.

I was born when the transitional dynamics of my country from a republic to a plutocracy were already in an advanced stage. Even so, the proposed budget by Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin provides significant insight into what that transition is like. Not only does the proposed budget provide insight into the anti-republican mind, but it raises questions about the future in very deep ways, particularly for an educator.

I am going to skip the reiteration of the whole plutocracy vs republic thing, as you can find a post or two about it on this blog, not to mention growing analysis on this topic available via Google. In this writing, I will assume the reader knows what the terms i use mean.

The revision of the Wisconsin Idea University of Wisconsin Mission statement, (as recently opined on in a New York Times editorial http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/opinion/gov-scott-walkers-drafting-error.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0 ) is a perfect illustration of this change underway in our social/mental landscape. Further, this is supported by a number and range of cuts in funding and reorganization measures, included in the budget, to the university system, other parts of education spending, public lands related spending, etc.

A decent description of the attempted wording change re the “Wisconsin Idea" can be found here:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/05/drafting-error-or-gubernatorial-assault-expansive-view-higher-ed-wisconsin

And now to my point.

Public education, is mostly an American creation.  It is rooted in the acts of our Congress after the Revolution and in some of the colonies prior to that, and is a creature of The Enlightenment. In accord with the principles of our revolution, bound to the Enlightenment, including the principles at the time of Liberalism (individual rights, representative government, Adam Smith's recently published ideas that eventually came to be called "capitalism", etc etc). Our new republic  required a common level of basic education through university, to create a citizen as required by a republic (see Aristotle, Montesquieu etc). As Aristotle quipped, "All men are born idiots. Education makes them citizens."

Yet the purpose of education can in our transitioning society can be different than that intended by our  Founders. In a plutocracy, the republican model of "citizen" is frankly not relevant. training a workforce is the main goal of education in a plutocracy. In a plutocracy, there is still a place for what the Founders called, a "liberal" education. However in a plutocracy is type of education is more appropriate for the rulers: as an educational option for their children, likely from an expensive private college or university. When your view/philosophy is neo-liberalism, like that of Governor Walker and his fellow travelers, public education is not necessary. It is just another untapped market to be privatized.

Tainter Simplification and the Course of Events

As noted previously in this blog, I posit that the trend of politics in the United States, since around 1980,  reflects the progression of our Tainter Simplification, a  simplification that has accelerated markedly since the beginning of this century. This makes sense, given mainly two things: The Golden Rule and biogeophysical stress factors.

The "Golden Rule" I refer to is the one I learned in my first year of law school, (it was explicitly mentioned by faculty) that states those with the gold makes the rules. Given the rise to dominance of neo-liberalism as the majority ideology in my country, the trend to plutocracy is I believe, irreversible. I also think that the biogeophysical changes that are underway may be prompting a limbic reaction, even within the brain of the most ardent foe of "environmental interests". If I am correct, this should increase the intensity of the standard behavior of maximizing the advantage for one's progeny. These two factors dovetail very well with first plutocratic rule and perhaps a yet later simplification to neo-feudalism.

Some readers, who actually know me, may view what follows as "selling out". OK. But I feel compelled to point out a few things.

First, republics have the shortest life span of any governance form. The Roman Republic still holds the record of nearly 200 years before beginning its transition to an oligarchic form. That we went almost 100 years from the beginning of our Revolution before the start of our transition isn’t bad. That is a good run for a republic, historically.

Second, the horses got out of the barn already. Neo-liberalism is the dominant political ideology here, and is consistently reflected in both major parties and our other public institutions. Example: Those of you on the older side of life involved in post secondary education, remember in the 1980's when you were schooled in the idea of redefinition of the "student" to being a "customer"? That is basic neo-liberal mindshare evidence. Apart from the anti-immigration folk, how most folks self identify as "tax payers" rather than "citizens? Ditto.

Personally. last year I surrendered my bar license. Granted, I had not practiced law since 1994. But the changes in my state government, and a number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, capped by the Citizens United case, and a couple of follow up interpretations, were my moral last straw. The weight of oath when I entered the bar, forced my hand to surrender my license.

 Yet I an not a violent person. While I prefer republic to plutocracy I do not intend to rage against the "dying of the light". The large majority of the folks in my life do not want the individual burden and self-control necessary to support a republic. I do not view the neo-liberal and producerist political sector as "immoral". I view what is occurring as just another inevitable historic transition from republic to a defacto oligarchic form.

So here is an older republican (small r intentional :) ) living in a proto-plutocracy during a period of rapidly increasing biogeophysical stress. Being a republican, I hold to the duty of increasing the public good. But as a teacher, what is the need of those I am to teach?
Perhaps for the family/individual level of "the good", I should rethink my gut level negative reaction to Scott Walker's edit of Wisconsin Idea. I would not train "workers" for the good of their plutocrats, though it would help them also. I perhaps should  teach what is and will be needed by what I still think of as "citizens", to be productive  "taxpayers/consumers/workers". What needs will  learners have in the  harsh future  most people will have under plutocratic rule?
To quote Saint Ronald Reagan, "facts are such stupid things". As governor Walker pointed out with his editing pen, the search for the truth is so retro, so not now. Who has time for that anyway?

Practice note: You might say there was outcry at the "attack" on the Wisconsin Idea. True. When transitioning from a republic, it is important to preserve as Augustus Caesar called them, the proper forms. What he mean is that people are attached to the words and symbols of their republic even after it is lost. The Romans kept theirs for the whole imperial period. All acts were still done, for the "Senator and People of Rome". To edit the venerated Wisconsin Idea , showed Governor Walker’s poor sense of craft, at least apart from appealing to the farthest "right" elements nationally of his party's base.

Picture Note

The eye image is from the cover art of the original cover for the book Jennifer Government, by Max Barry, (2003).