Today 02:52 AM
(This post was last modified: Today 02:58 AM by Magical Realist.)
I here voice an observation that ironically places me on the somewhat right side of the political spectrum--that it is hard to effect social change thru institutional power. As was observed once by Clay Shirky: “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” This means that the government itself, a paragon of institutional power and domination, has a huge resistance to enacting policies that threaten its own livelihood and mission. It is not just the people who run them. It is the nature of institutionalization itself, which is a structure designed to preserve and maintain certain values and traditions and policies of the past. Which means that while this seems a rightwing stance for me to take, I am in fact motivated only by my own liberal and progressive values of the need for change and even revolt if need be when it comes to our govt serving the needs of the people. As for our educational system, as effective as it seems to be, I have only this point to make:
“Invariably, knowledge dictates life, liberty, and death, but those who have historically occupied the seats of power not only dictate what is defined as knowledge but also dictate what’s included, what’s excluded, and how it is filtered to society vis-à-vis America’s major institutions . . . particularly the educational system; ultimately, shaping the very essence of life.”― Martin Guevara Urbina, Latino Access to Higher Education: Ethnic Realitites and New Directions for the Twenty-first Century
“Invariably, knowledge dictates life, liberty, and death, but those who have historically occupied the seats of power not only dictate what is defined as knowledge but also dictate what’s included, what’s excluded, and how it is filtered to society vis-à-vis America’s major institutions . . . particularly the educational system; ultimately, shaping the very essence of life.”― Martin Guevara Urbina, Latino Access to Higher Education: Ethnic Realitites and New Directions for the Twenty-first Century
