An Argument Against Education

So I finally got around to watching the episode of The Daily Show in which Jon Stewart parodies Glenn Beck.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-march-18-2010-gary-locke

I'd heard it was really funny, and it was. For a variety of reasons. One of the reasons is that they cut to clips of Beck to give examples of his ravings. My favorite clip is the one where Beck says that "progressivism" is always proof positive of a shift toward fascism. This is funny, because just an hour earlier, I was reading about how fascism has ALWAYS been coupled with an unconditional return to a country's beloved past traditions. Progress is NEVER aligned with fascism. Never. Fascists always kill the progressivists first.

Fascism is also aligned with anti-intellectualism, among other things. Fascism is not the only ideology that is aligned with anti-intellectualism, so please don't take this as an argument that the current American Right (exemplified by certain politicians, tea baggers and Fox News) are fascists. I think a lot of them are right-wing extremists, at least in rhetoric if not in actual violent actions. And a lot of their rhetoric certainly supports violent actions that may be / should be taken by others (against liberals or progressives). But I'm not making an argument here that this is fascism. I have a different argument to make.

I've been thinking about this for a long time. I'm a liberal. A progressive. I'm not a Democrat because I have a lot of problems with the Party (too conservative/corrupt/ineffective/stuffy; not working hard enough for social justice or the welfare of our people). As a PhD candidate, I think I can squarely align myself in the "intellectual" lot as well. I'm also a pacifist. I believe in social justice, and I believe that when you believe in something you should work for it. And so I have, and will do.

What bothers me is the idea of the "liberal elite" that is so villainized by the Right in our country. This idea is used by the Right's most powerful (and wealthy) to galvanize poor and middle-class conservatives to action against any legislation that helps people. "Well, the liberal elite want to force this on you, but we're not going to take it."

It took me years to figure out what they're actually saying, and why in the world they would say that.

What they are actually saying, "The stodgy intellectuals who have more education and better grammar than you (and who look down on you because you don't speak as well as them or have letters behind your name) think they are better than you. They are not better than you, but they think they are and they look down on you. They think they know what's best for you, but they don't. But even though they're wrong, they're going to try and force blahblahblah through, and they will change your life for the worse and still look down on you."

"Liberal elite."

"The educated people who look down on you."

Well, as previously noted, I am both a liberal and educated, and that definition of the liberal elite just doesn't ring true. "Looking down on others" is not one of our espoused values. Which is not to say that no liberal intellectuals looks down on others. Some of them do. But not because they're liberal intellectuals. No, it's just because they're jerks. And lots of people are jerks, from all walks of life. That's a wholly different thing.

But of course, it resonates. Who hasn't been pissed off at someone who looked down on you? No one, that's who. There is no dearth of people out there to look down on you. Everyone has had one. Probably many. We hate people who look down on us.

But you know what we hate more?

We hate the people who oppress us by owning corporate empires that create bad jobs with crap wages and spill toxins into our communities. And we hate having to work for them. And we do. Have. To work for them. Because they have the power and they have the money and they made the jobs and we don't all get to have PhD's, liberal elite. Some of us gotta work for a living. And what other options are there?

The most ingenious thing the powerful, wealthy, corporate-empire-owning people have ever done is to blame the liberal elite for the struggles of the people who work for the corporate empire. But let me tell you something. The CEO of Exxon? DuPont? Cargill? Lockheed-Martin? Merrill Lynch? Lehman Brothers? These are not members of the liberal elite. They are the powerful, wealthy Right. If not in actual person, then they are the ones paying the actual person you are listening to on Fox News or Capitol Hill going on about the dangers of the liberal elite.

This is ingenious because we have this belief in our country that education will set you free. You don't have to work the crap job if you get an education. And if that were really true, and everyone believed it, and then everyone went out and got an education (which they could do with all the tax money that's going to pay for people to get educated) (thanks to the liberal elite who believe in education), there would be nobody left to work for the toxic, dangerous, crap-wage paying corporate empires. And so the toxic, dangerous, crap-wage paying corporate empires would begin to crumble. The powerful, wealthy Right therefore have to dissuade people from becoming educated. And they do this by villainizing the educated.

The "liberal elite" are the cause of all your troubles, they say.

They will ruin this country and destroy your values, they say.

(Education is your ticket out of your crap job, you hear).

(But if you become educated, you will become the liberal elite, you think).

And so what do you do?

Going to Tuvalu

Hey. So, this afternoon I got the incredible news that a small grant I applied for has been funded. Basically, the grant covers a project I'll carry out this summer and fall to develop my dissertation research proposal on site in Tuvalu. My brain hasn't quite recovered from the shock of the grant being approved, so, while I want to explain to everyone what this means, I don't feel quite capable of it. Lucky for all of us, I've already explained what this means, in grant application form. It's neat and concise and, thanks to the super-editing skills of my beta Jeremie (thanks, Jeremie!), it is also well-written enough that some people decided to give me money for it.

Below is a section from the grant application, explaining what I will be doing in Tuvalu and why. I don't think it's jargony or difficult to read, so it should be cool here. But if you think it's jargony or difficult to read, please comment as much and I'll post again later when my brain is working once more so that I can explain in non-academia American English.

2. Description of activity and applicant’s role in it

The purpose of this activity is to develop my dissertation research proposal in collaboration with key community stakeholders in Funafuti, Tuvalu. By developing my research proposal on site in Tuvalu, I will be able to effectively collaborate with multiple community members who are stakeholders in the topic of my research in both professional and personal capacities. Their face-to-face involvement in the choices about specific research questions, sources for data, methods of inquiry, and analysis paradigm will ensure that the research to be conducted will be both truly representative of the experiences of Tuvalu within this topic and will be meaningful to the people of Tuvalu. This trip will further deepen my own understanding of the culture and community climate of this country.

The research topic to be addressed is the psychology of climate change in Tuvalu. Tuvalu is a small, low-lying island nation near Fiji. A vast majority of this chain of atolls is less than one meter above sea level. Tuvalu and other low-lying island nations are experiencing a unique threat from global climate changes in that the projected sea level rise will consume their countries. Tuvaluans, therefore, experience the threat of climate change differently than do Americans or Europeans. For several years already, Tuvaluans have been leaving their island home for New Zealand and other countries as “environmental refugees.” Meanwhile, the Tuvalu government is considering options for the future. The threat of climate change is very salient in this country.

The Psychology of Climate Change is a growing field. In 2009, a task force from the American Psychological Association released a 200+ page report about current research and potential future directions. The task force noted that current research suffers from a developed-nations bias, in that a majority of the research has been conducted in wealthy (and continental) nations. Current research is therefore not representative of the experience of people in developing or island nations. My research in Tuvalu would seek to address this gap.

While in Tuvalu, I will meet with private individuals to whom I am connected through colleagues and classes (community members with no professional stake in climate change, only personal stakes); as well as with professional individuals and organizations such as Alofa Tuvalu (an international climate change organization); the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy, and Environment; and the Tuvalu Meteorological Society. During both formal and informal meetings, we will determine the exact research focus and methods that will best address the broad topic of “Climate Change and Tuvalu.” My hope is that this research will reflect both private and professional understanding of the threat of climate change, although such decisions will ultimately be made in collaboration with these groups and individuals.

The entire research development activity will consist of three parts. 1) Connecting to these individuals and organizations through phone calls, mail, and email from Honolulu so as to establish interest, relationships, and willingness to collaborate. 2) Traveling to Tuvalu for two weeks of hands-on collaboration in the development of the research framework. 3) Further communication through phone calls, mail, and email from Honolulu in order to finalize the research framework.

My role in this activity will be to organize and synthesize the multiple viewpoints and priorities of these diverse community stakeholders, and to ensure that the research framework is consistent with the cultural and community values, norms, and priorities in Tuvalu. Another important role in this activity will be to establish rapport so that the overall research process can be conducted as smoothly as possible with a very high level of open communication and trust. The initial ‘research framework development’ activity which will be funded by this grant will take place in the 2010 calendar year, between the months of August and December. The fieldwork of the larger research process (outside of the scope of this grant) will take place in the 2011 calendar year. Analysis and reporting will be completed in 2012.