Education or Domination? The American Nightmare.

While reading a past entry of Denis Rancourt's titled "Education for more Anarchy," I began to think of all the situations in which the education system fails those being "educated." Before identifying the contributing factors that lead to the inevitable indoctrination of the student body in the K-16 system, more specifically the collegiate system, one must first come to terms with the ever-present issue that constantly remains overlooked when speaking on the topic of education: class.

In a true Marxist fashion, the society that we live in today can successfully be divided up into two classes that I like to term the working class and the non-working class, or as Marx would state, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
The latter, in my example, as most would assume on first read, consist of those individuals that, quite literally, do none of the work. Be it manual labor, white-collar jobs, executive positions, or even the dishwasher at Red Lobster, these individuals do literally none of the work. Surely this explanation provides fuel to the ever-present stereotypical fire of the average, run-of-the-mill homeless individual, but the reality of the situation places that very notion on its head.

Instead, in the current system we reside in, the non-working-class individuals, those that do none of the work and feed off of the system are all but unemployed. These individuals, or, more or less, this unified body of the wealthy, control and dominate the United States of America. Regardless of where one looks, be it on Wall Street or in the cheap pornographic magazines at 7-11, this collective entity of the wealthy controls each and every aspect of our everyday lives. That may be a bit hard to swallow at first, and, trust me, it does burn like Windex after a failed prom evening, but I assure you that the facts tell the tale more than quirky metaphors and drawn out analogies.

In his book, Land of Idols, Michael Parenti, much like Karl Marx, identifies what has already been established previously concerning the work distribution in a capitalistic system. Though his book is almost ten years old, the facts he presents in 1992 still shines a prominent light on the non-working class' overall domination of the working class. He states, "As of 1992, the rich in America had a net worth of $6.14 trillion. The richest one percent controlled more than 60 percent of the national wealth--and that includes only assets declared" (55). Again, the distance in years may well provide a different argument in terms of how much the top one percent actually owns. But, due to the recent bailouts of corporate bullies, the supposition leans toward an even greater gap than the United States observed in 1992.

As it seems rather odd to identify such an enormous class separation in an article aimed at exposing the domination present in the educational system, the importance in presenting the larger hierarchy that dominates and subjugates the lives of the average, working-class American provides, at the very least, a sense of relatability across the spectrum of the exploited. To focus the attention back on the present issue at hand, that of the education system, the overall differences present within the educational superstructure run parallel with that of the current social class system in the United States. For all intents and purposes, those attending college often feel relatively safe and sheltered from the capitalistic world squeezing the life out of them, but, as Dave Chapelle's show so gracefully stated, all students come to a moment when "keeping it real goes wrong."

Students in today's America attend state, private, and sometimes, though not always, elite universities in hopes of achieving a well-paying job that elevates their social status. Some people, as few as they may be, do attend college to help better the people around them, which, as beautiful as that truly is, often falls short of the mainstream reasoning for attending college. In sum, the students entering the collegiate world seek the ever-present mythological creature known as the "American Dream," which, looking at the facts, proves to be just as existent as the Lochness monster or the invisible man in the sky. Without digressing too far off the already deviated path, the American Dream captures the hearts of all those individuals that find themselves wondering how to earn more money and become dominant and powerful--a problem that translates itself back to the rudimentary reason for entering college: prestige.

In the world of academia, as well as in the "real world," a well-educated individual usually, though not always, translates to a higher salary and a certain amount of respect in a culture that values American Idol and Larry the Cable Guy. Americans are by no mean stupid, rather, I feel that Americans fail to see the larger picture that continually paints itself in front of their very eyes. This picture, as Marx predicted, labels the elite on top of us all with a whip in one hand and our dollar bills in the other--an image that most Americans accept, tolerate, and even idolize in various ways.

To help combat this idolization of the rich, many American families find themselves taking out second mortgages to help fund their child's education to, with hope, propel their offspring into same limelight as the elite--an issue both heartfelt and problematic. Though the blame cannot be placed upon these individuals for seeking a higher form of education, the idea behind sending students to school in attempts to make more money seems awfully absurd when considering the facts mentioned previously. Respect often accompanies the prestige of becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but how separated are these individuals from the true working-class individuals that build the very infrastructure most of us take for granted daily? If, by chance, the impressionable dollar amount that fills their bank account acts as a tool of separation rather than a tool of inequality, the American people will remain in the dark about the current class warfare that keeps them just above the poverty line and just below the happiness line. This class warfare, as mentioned previously by Marx and Parenti, is none other than the non-working class versus the working class, and we are not winning.

So, sure, the presence of a college education yields fantastic results when thinking in terms of educating the populace. But what of the very education that the educators are educating us with? Could it be, by chance, that the institutions that promise higher salaries, luxurious benefits, and a security in knowing that we, the American populace, will continually have a job no matter how many bailouts and recessions we go through know that they are creating workers to occupy the jobs that keep the machine of capitalism running smoothly? The amount of business students entering college has skyrocketed over the past decade, which in and of itself provides another hierarchical structure that places one human being above others in an attempt to sustain order and keep things running smoothly (see aforementioned painting regarding the whip and dollar bills--I believe it was done by Van Gogh). If these are the individuals entering college, and I need not place all the blame on the business majors of tomorrow, then what are we to do but sit and accept our timely fate as just another number that passes by multi-million dollar mansions with our faces pressed against the window of our '96 Neon hoping that one day we'll rise through the rankings enough to become one of the elite that control our country? Seeing as to though the probability of working our way into a family inheritance seems virtually impossible, we, as the American working class, can do only what the institutions we find ourselves being educated in will allow: become educated.

Understanding the impossibility of rising through the enormous working class and into the lavishes of the elite needs to be brought to people's attention. The current education system imposes capitalistic domination that further separates the working class from the non-working class. Surely there will be hundreds of thousands of people that will inevitably accept their fate as a worker and not an owner, but why do those two ideas need to be mutually exclusive? While we sit and bicker over a dying health care bill that ensures, at the very least, decent health coverage of millions of Americans, those that control the wealth in the nation--those in possession of the $6.14+ trillion dollars--sit idly and watch the working class fight in attempts to separate our status. The current state of the American Dream, at least as we know it today, leads the populace to a land of illusion where hard work, an education, and dedication to one's job still pays off in terms of pay increase and status upgrades. Instead, we as a united body, those of us reading this that are still stuck in the working class, need to realize that the American Dream is no longer a dream; much to the dismay of those in college that share high hopes of succeeding with the best, the American Dream has inevitably become the American Nightmare.

The college students of our generation need to understand the elements of exploitation that keep the working class at bay. Universities contribute to the cause but can also be used to our advantage in bringing at the very least a sound awareness across the nation. In order to act and produce results that we all can respect and benefit from, we, as working-class human beings, need to unite and revolutionize the domination taking place in universities--the factory, product, and dominatrix of the capitalist system. No longer do we need to sit and listen to lectures that supplement the capitalist ideology that reinforces the individual importance in a society of collective poverty. No longer do we need to pay for an education that literally places us back into the machine to work and provide our blood as lubrication to the cogs that grind our minds to mush. No longer do we need to separate ourselves as upper-, middle-, and lower-middle class citizens in an attempt to disengage ourselves from our true roots of working-class citizens. Instead, much to the chagrin of the elite one percent, we need to educate ourselves in a way that stands up to the social class inequalities present in the United States. We need to put aside the material possessions that separate the masses in the working class and take back the money we earned as a collective unit. That being step one, the rest of the money that we do receive from our hard work and dedication should be reinvested in the educational system to help educate each and every individual free of charge. No longer do we need student loan debts to prove our worth in the United States. It's time to take action, and we can start by dismantling the superstructure from the top down. I implore you to continue your education with the hope of one day seeing a student body that challenges each and every oppressive aspect of the Americano culture. But, if all of this seems far too Utopian for you, I leave you with a quote by the late George Carlin. When you cuddle up late tonight with your warm blanket and pointless Snuggie, close your eyes and begin to dream, because if it's the American Dream you're after, you have to be asleep to believe it. Step one: start the education revolution. Step two: smash it all. Step three: take back what we have earned. Bring them to their knees.

Parenti, Michael. Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America. New York: St. Martins Press, 1994. Print.

In no way do I discourage collegiate education. Please, by all means, attend college on the government's dollar and take it all back and then some. Make a change by thinking for yourself!