319 - Ecocidal, Homicidal, Mass-Instructed Me! (Ecology, Hierarchy, Education and Social Control)

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Episode #319 - Ecocidal, Homicidal, Mass-Instructed Me! (Ecology, Hierarchy, Education and Social Control)

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⌚ Sun 13 August 2006  ☻Billy Bragg, Murray Bookchin, John Taylor Gatto (Reading)

Download Hour1 Download Hour2In our first hour, a vintage recording of Murray Bookchin on 'Ecology & Ideology' about how each cultures of the natural order largely reflect their own prejudices. We start out second hour with an analysis of how flawed teaching of The Lord of The Flies encourages children to believe that violent competition is the natural order of things. We conclude with 45 minutes of readings from chapter 2 of The Underground History of American Education.

Last month we heard a series, The Century of Self, about how the consumer culture was created in the 20^th century as a strategy to control the supposedly irrational masses, who were to be psychologically manipulated to accentuate trivial selfishness in the guise of self-actualization, and offered consumer choicer in lieu of real freedom. The subjugation of societies by rulers is, of course, far older than the 20^th century, as are the rationalizations they create to legitimize their rule. They have crushed the intelligence, creativity and dignity of those they rule through various coercive means, then presented their stunted societies as the natural order of things. As our readings from The Underground History of American Education show, we have an education system created to adjust people to that order by breaking their minds and spirits until they fit the mold. Human social arrangements have also provided misguided templates for human interaction with the natural world, with now evident consequences. In his groundbreaking 1965 essay "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought," Murray Bookchin wrote: "An anarchist society, far from being a remote ideal, has become a precondition for the practice of ecological principles." He predicted; "If we do not do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable."
Music: ?
This weeks show starts with Billy Bragg explaining about our theme song, The Unwelcome Guest.
Some of this episode's content is repeated in episode 512.
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