We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Henry Giroux on the Militarization of Public Pedagogy

Click here to access the transcript of the interview posted in CounterPunch.

Seth Kershner, who is a reference and instruction librarian at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, has a very interesting interview with educator Henry Giroux. In the interview Giroux expands on the concept of pedagogy to include all of mass culture which, of course, serves the ruling class. He brings a hopeful message of resistance and is optimistic about the possibilities of radical resistance coming from today's youth.
...young people are recognizing that they’re not going to find their voice in the Democratic Party or in the existing labor unions.  What they really need to fight for are new mass and collective organizations that can call the entirety of society into question and mobilize so as to develop the policies and institutions that make a new and radically democratic society possible.