Thursday, October 2, 2008

Groupthink

To understand what is going on in the so-called civilized world today; think of hordes of lemmings unthinkingly following each other off a cliff. Or consider mob mentality; blatantly conditioned consumerism; groupthink; or unfortunately even doublethink from many media pundits who up until very recently were so enthusiastic about asset and commodity growth during the artificially-based rise in home values right up to the last hours before the crash.

Is individual education combined with a large moral compass the key? The kind of education we have today is very much based on Taylorism.

As a result, and as a society we have devised an artificially-based educational system at both the bottom, and at elite levels. Among many, it's seen as politically incorrect to attack the sacred cow of business practices. Business practices are seen to create jobs, jobs, jobs after all.

For example, the average MBA student goes into the world armed with knowledge that has the potential to do either good or bad. Often however as already overwhelmingly proven by what's happening in the US, it's manipulated for selfish and damaging uses.

The allowable legality of amassing obscene amounts of wealth for a single individual is very much part of the problem. This causes great pain in society overall, whether its in our western hemisphere, or in third world nations. Someone has to work hard for that money. It simply doesn't come out of thin air. In actuality, many citizens end up toiling their lives away as factory workers to pay this one individual's overwhelmingly large share of the pie.

And this is the problem - the unwillingness to address this very basic, and even psychotic behavior, and the continuing stance of business pundits to refuse to cap CEO salaries, or bonuses/share allotments, or acknowledge anything is wrong at all....

2 comments:

Amy Anderson said...

Re:Taylorism in modern education,

Have you ever read "An Angry Look at Modern Schooling," by John Taylor Gatto?

This book is available in its entirety online, and takes a cold hard look at why school is the way it is.

Have a look - Gatto was an award-winning teacher when he wrote this book.

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/2a.htm

John Ackerson said...

Oops! Sorry Amy, I missed seeing your comment here! Thanks, I'll have a look!