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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There is a fine conversation at the end of my
comment--about education per se and the perversion of education: The Piece
of Paper that entitles people to justify theirs being the chosen
people against the laity.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But I'm just putting in my comment to answer
"</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG>why having a brahmin caste is a bad
idea?" raised at the end of the conversation.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brahmins have had a "nice" time of being
the chosen, glorious, divine people in the past. Now, unfortunately for them
they have become as profane as anybody else. Illusion of the past was wonderful
to survive by. That illusion has vanished. It is a miserable and unacceptable
situation to the orthodox brahmin. </FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>Not only that the Brahminacal culture of
feudalism is hard to discard, the psychological halo worn in the past is hard to
banish from the mind----the rascal comes again and again knocking in the
head.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>Besides, to accept the ones that were
considered previously dirty and unholy as not only your equals but as
superiors is very hard to digest.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brahminism has become synonymous with
incompetence and helplessness.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ramesh Bhat</FONT></STRONG><BR></DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>> Doug Henwood wrote:<BR>> <BR>>> Joanna, you have
a PhD, right? Do you regret having one? <BR>> <BR>> No. It impresses the
hell out of people and I loved every minute of <BR>> graduate school,
compared with what came after.<BR>> <BR>>> Do you think all those
years of education made you better-equipped to <BR>>> cope with the
world and make a living?<BR>> <BR>> Yes. But most of the reason why has to
do with what I studied and how I <BR>> studied it, which mostly got me in
trouble in academia and made it <BR>> almost impossible to find a good
teaching job. I became better equipped <BR>> to cope with the world despite
the aims of my educators.<BR>> <BR>>> Isn't education a lot more than a
"huge justification for <BR>>> inequality"? Why take such a hostile,
reductionist attitude? <BR>> <BR>> Of course it is. But I know a lot
of smart, capable, knowledgeable <BR>> people who cannot make a living wage,
not because they can't do the work <BR>> they want to do, but because they
don't have that piece of paper. I <BR>> don't mean to be reductionistic, but
I hate the way "going to college" <BR>> has become synonymous with having a
right to more than an equal share. <BR>> Haven't you noticed how many of the
working-class genius movies have to <BR>> do with how getting an education is
equated with abandoning your working <BR>> class family and friends?<BR>>
<BR>> Education is a wonderful thing, but it should not be used as a cudgel
or <BR>> a justification for social inequality. The reason why people
cannot <BR>> make enough money to live is not because they haven't got an
education, <BR>> it's because they have no power.<BR>> <BR>> If every
person in the U.S. had a college degree, many would still not <BR>> be making
a living wage.<BR>> <BR>>> Apropos Cde Cox's original point - what if
the capitalist class's <BR>>> short-term greed (i.e., being too
cheap to finance mass higher <BR>>> education) undermines their
long-term interest in having a skilled <BR>>> workforce? <BR>>
<BR>> But they're setting things up so they don't need a skilled workforce.
<BR>> They want, as much as possible to deskill work so as to have maximum
<BR>> control over workers and so workers have maximum contempt for <BR>>
themselves. They decided a long time ago that stupid wage slavers are <BR>>
politically much safer and more manipulable than truly educated people.<BR>>
<BR>> And then remember, having a degree does not mean that you're educated
or <BR>> civilized. It does mean that you're trained to accept the authority
of <BR>> those who granted the degree and that you're trained to accept what
you <BR>> were taught -- that white people are smart and freedom loving; that
the <BR>> free market is the best possible system; that this is the best
country <BR>> in the world, etc.<BR>> <BR>> ravi, help me out here,
tell everyone about why having a brahmin caste <BR>> is a bad idea.<BR>>
<BR>> Joanna<BR>> <BR>> <BR>>> Are the capitalists always right?
Aren't there supposed to be <BR>>> contradictions in the system,
even by orthodox Marxist lights? Isn't <BR>>> this an aspect of
O'Connor's second contradiction?<BR>>><BR>>> Doug<BR>>>
___________________________________<BR>>> </FONT><A
href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk"><FONT face=Arial
size=2>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2>>><BR>> <BR>> <BR>>
___________________________________<BR>> </FONT><A
href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk"><FONT face=Arial
size=2>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> -- <BR>> Internal Virus
Database is out-of-date.<BR>> Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>> Version:
7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.5/405 - Release Date: 8/1/2006<BR>>
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