[lbo-talk] Good Education was ...College Students

brad babscritique at gmail.com
Mon Feb 7 09:28:18 PST 2011


Carroll wrote: No it should not. It is too vague, and to demand it is utopian..

When formulating demands you have to be concrete. Higher pay is concrete. Abolish merit systems is concrete. A demand must not rest on a prediction of qualitative results. You simply are not thinking politically when you advocate a goal so vague.

Carrol
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You have been consistently making the argument that school can only ever result in increased obedience to the system. IMO that is a view that is not thinking politically. Clearly we cannot just throw out every social institution as a sight of political struggle because it is not a pure and simple (concrete) demand. That is being a bit too reductionist and simplistic.

Education , like most social institutions (politics, media, religion...), must be a sight of political struggle not because it is the perfect reduction of our demands down to the most concrete and fundamental kernel, but because it isn't. The struggle will never be that simple. Likewise, we should'nt boil down the lefts strategy to being one of only improving education. Any absolutist view of social institutions is too reductionist to ever produce any real results.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list