On Henry Giroux's "Disposable Futures, Dirty Democracy and the Politics of Higher
Bombard us with bitterness about a Brave New Bureacracy
You are the paper we push.
Waken the world with your whittling words
You are the bed we betray.
With your Socratic soundbites and CNN slur
With your brandished bullets and the angst they incur
With your text you entwine us in accusatory blur
When does dialogue begin?
Henry Giroux' critiques of the American "Military-Industrial-Academic Complex", though accurate, fell short of inspirational. Like so many academics, it seems he has resolved himself to be the "public intellectual," as he puts it, who can point out the problems in society (or to those in society who understand his bang-for-your-buck esoteric sentences) with fierce indignation as if there is an evil elite who puppeteer the system to the detriment of the rest of us. It seems as if American activists feel the need to counteract the sensationalism of mainstream press with their own expose oriented, inflammatory language. I do appreciate that he answered questions with an open-heartedness and vulnerability that Ward Churchill would certainly not have suffered, but I don't understand why he must rely on the rapid-fire approach of rhetoric and key examples of extreme human behaviour without an analysis of how things can and must be changed. Maybe it is a male-ness in the warlike approach to fact that I mistrust. Either way, such talks are like juicy gossip and are no doubt riveting for the majority of academics who weren't too busy with MSN.
Sorry for the lack of description for those who weren't there. Giroux touched on three themes: Neoliberalism, Youth and Education in the post 9/11 context. He spoke of how the latter two were becoming commodities, how power is made invisible, how minorities are made invisible and how youth are criminalized as a result of our current political system and the production of fear (etc.). Interesting but I feel like I'm ready for less expose and more exploring options. Maybe that's just where I'm at.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Henry Giroux
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2 comments:
The title should read "Higher Education"
There is so much to talk about in regards to Henry Giroux’s talk. His talk flew through issues, filled with quotable declarations. He spoke passionately and put on a good show. He talked about neo-liberalism, the corporatization of education, ‘disposable populations’, the state of American youth culture. As was pointed out, none of this was particularly new, but I felt he presented it well, with some powerful examples. Yes, there’s a lot of scary shit going on, so what can we do about it?
So I agree with Carolyn. What good is all this talking, if no one is actually going to do anything about it? It’s funny, just before I headed over to the lecture I’d been having a conversation with a fellow student about just this question. What exactly is the role or place of theory in action/social change? Action can certainly take place without theory. Many activists are not academics. I’ve been trying to work that one out since I got here (MES) and I think I’m just starting to figure it out for myself. Having been outside of academia for a really long time, I actually considered this question when deciding to return to school. I work at U of T, and have sat through countless lectures, papers, talks, you name it, and I kept thinking to myself, all that these academics ever do is sit around talking about things. What good is that really doing? I’m realising that (for me) theory is definitely necessary. It allows me to view problems through a different lens, and hopefully that will result in making better, well-informed decisions in my practice. Theory can provide the tools to be critical, in order to locate, question, confront, and challenge problems, and, as Giroux said, to ask those embarrassing questions. But still, is urging and compelling others to take action enough? This lecture certainly provoked a lot of discussion. Is that a good enough start?
Anyhow, this is just stuff I've been thinking about. Sorry for letting some of it out here!
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