506 - Wage Slavery and Moral Dumbing Down (Extrinsic Manipulation versus Internal Motivation)

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Episode #506 - Wage Slavery & Moral Dumbing Down (Extrinsic Manipulation versus Internal Motivation)

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"I sold my soul for a tenth of what the damn things are going for nowadays"

⌚ Sat 3 July 2010  ☻Alfie Kohn, The Onion (Reading), Adam Curtis, Daniel Pink, Noam Chomsky, Barry Schwartz, Lyn Gerry

Download Hour1 Download Hour2John Taylor Gatto has documented how business interests instituted forced schooling to 'dumb down' active citizens into consumers passive enough to work for the man and accept what they were given by corporations. This show looks at the moral component of dumbing down, the undermining of people's innate altruism and moral sense, making them easily manipulable by money.

The first hour starts with a presentation by Alfie Kohn on teaching children to care. He explains how the strict father approach of praising or rewarding kids for being kind to others and punishing them for being selfish undermines children's ability to become nurturers of others, by encouraging them to think only of themselves. It ends with a humorous piece from The Onion about the hypnotic power money has over people. The second hour starts with a song "Don't Let Money Change You" and some remarks of Noam Chomsky from episode 29 on "the new spirit of the age" (i.e. selfish love of money) from the 1850's. Next is Daniel Pink's review of research into the relationship between motivation and performance, and a section of episode 371's adaptation of "The Trap" on New Labour's introduction of target culture into UK. It replays "12 Shovels", from episode 183, Lyn Gerry's parallel of capitalism to the sadistic behavior of Nazi Concentration camp guards, before concluding with a presentation by Barry Schwartz on Moral Values.
Music: Economics 101 (Don't Let Money Change You) by Clayton Blizzard
This episode rebroadcasts content from 29, 183 & 371.
Some of this episode's content is repeated in episode 634.
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Source archive: Teaching Children To Care (56 min) Alfie Kohn Don't let money change you (7 min) The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (11 min) Daniel Pink Moral Values (21 min) Barry Schwartz

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