Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Outdated Assumptions
A colleague of mine once remarked that higher education is usually a generation behind the avant-garde, having institutionalized reforms fought for by the preceding generation. From what I see, this applies as well to the non-profit industrial complex, and to the networks of self-described progressives, radicals and revolutionaries offering perspectives grounded in the rhetoric and propaganda of the early to mid-20th Century.
Much has changed since then, including hostile takeovers of academia, media, and once noble non-profits by Wall Street, in addition to sinister advancements in social engineering through social media. The continuity of core socialist values and beliefs is vital, but they need to be adapted to the present reality to be effective, and that is precisely what's missing in so-called civil society today.
With the hyper emotionalism generated by the Big Business-World Government-NGO triad (what some might call the axis of fascism), democracy and socialism -- arguably the same thing when authentic -- face a firing squad of mindless followers of false hope offered up by the financial elite. Comprehending this new reality requires updating estimates of the situation; analyzing social settings begins with research that sheds outdated assumptions.
Much has changed since then, including hostile takeovers of academia, media, and once noble non-profits by Wall Street, in addition to sinister advancements in social engineering through social media. The continuity of core socialist values and beliefs is vital, but they need to be adapted to the present reality to be effective, and that is precisely what's missing in so-called civil society today.
With the hyper emotionalism generated by the Big Business-World Government-NGO triad (what some might call the axis of fascism), democracy and socialism -- arguably the same thing when authentic -- face a firing squad of mindless followers of false hope offered up by the financial elite. Comprehending this new reality requires updating estimates of the situation; analyzing social settings begins with research that sheds outdated assumptions.
