[lbo-talk] The Neoliberalization Of Higher Education: What’s Race Got To Do With It?

[Wojtek S]

[WS:]  I agree with Doug.  The root of the problem is the fiscal crisis,
which itself is rooted in the idiotic ballot system that California has.  In
other words, the problem is democracy i.e. mob rule which makes any
progressive policy impossible.  Blaming the usual bogey men (racism,
capitalism etc.) obscures the basic fact that it is the way political
decisions are made - by pandering to the lowest common denominator - that
is the root cause of most what is wrong with this country.

Fixing this problem requires not more "popular appeal" - which why the
problem is there in the first place - but moving away from it, i.e. by some
progressive authority i.e. a "vanguard party" legislating it from above.

Wojtek

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


>
> On Nov 19, 2009, at 10:51 AM, Eric Beck wrote:
>
>  The Neoliberalization Of Higher Education: What’s Race Got To Do With It?
>>
>
> Well I don't know. What does it have to do with it?
>
> California is totally broke, in a class by itself among all U.S. states,
> really, so there is a serious fiscal problem which this unnamed writer
> doesn't want to admit to. Why is it at all surprising that the bourgeois
> solution to it would be to cut aid to those most needing it? This piece
> asserts, but doesn't even try to prove, that race is a driving factor in
> this approach. Yes, there's no doubt that people of color are
> disproportionately hurt by austerity, but where's the evidence that
> ethnicity is what it's about? There are plenty of poor white people who are
> going to be hit by this too. What political purpose is served by
> foregrounding the racial angle? Why not pitch it in some more universal way
> that might win broader support?
>
> Doug
>
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