James Baldwin is one of the most shrewd analysts of the American psyche and subconscious of all time. And so this quote of his is relevant today.
“The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”
When we see republican politicians and their minions in this battle for education, when we see their fascist tactics like banning books and seeking to control the flow of information and all of the perspectives being taught to our children. This is exactly why.
It’s is why you have republican politicians now expunging the mantra, “This is where woke goes to die.”
It’s John D. Rockefeller’s belief that says, “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.”
Imperialism relies on stupidity. It relies on ignorance. It relies on the rat race, keeping everybody in a posture of scarcity and fear.
And this is what you see when people take humanities courses. They become liberals. But what republican politicians are trying to do is stop that and make college about fitting into capitalism, not about learning.
And so we have the republican politicians and their white evangelical christian nationalist backers, that want to continue gaslighting everybody, so we can live in this fantasy story where they want to believe that Americans and the natives had Thanksgiving together. Where they believe and want to teach our children that slavery wasn’t that bad. Where all of the false things we’ve been telling ourselves for centuries continue to be true. That’s what the republican party wants today. Keep the lies going. Don’t be woke.
Time to Wake Up
A lot of us want to wake up and start to become more conscious of the truth of reality and move the human species forward out of the bondage of the imperialist, colonialist, capitalist mindset.
So we have to maintain clear messages. Social media does that. And that’s why you see republican politicians and their minions try to minimize social media by equating it to only young people dancing or some other foolish statements. They are trying to squash the importance of social media, that brings us together and educates us.
Social media has been a great educational tool for people to get different perspectives from subject matter experts and each other. The mainstream news becomes irrelevant. And as the republican politicians see this, they want to lock down social media sites to control the narrative.
So no matter what happens to your favorite social media site, we’ll have to find other platforms, social media sites, so we can continue finding authenticity, vulnerability, and actual shared experience. Learning, growing, and healing together.