Pedagogy is Propaganda

I said He said–what did he say?

“In the next revolution,

we will have to shoot all the teachers.”

I paused.

I then said, as I had the space to do so,

and without hesitation caused by anticipating another speaking

in the same space of time

within which I went on to add:

Why does it seem outrageous to say or to think,

let alone believe it possible,

that a revolutionary spirit could sweep away any impediment

to murdering en-masse any group of a society,

even those we reflexively like to imagine have dedicated themselves

to the betterment of society,

but just might be seen as those most directly responsible

for perpetuating the great ills that that society suffers.

Weren’t teachers one of the groups in Germany

who en masse voted for the Nazis Party

in their local elections

ensuring that Adolf Hitler would become Chancellor,

de facto dictator?

Teachers, butlers and women. 

 

I then said He said emphatically, “School teachers!

They are the most contemptible perpetuators

of everything that has ever wrong with the Status Quo

wherever whenever they work,

whether it is Franco’s Spain, Stalin’s Soviet Union, Hitler’s Germany,

Pinochet’s Chile . . . it really does not matter, yes,

everywhere, anywhere . . . what then should we do . . .

Kill all them? If you ever want to change a society–

but no, wait, this cannot be the solution . . .

what dissolves in blood?

It would not be necessary to kill them all

because if you have ever noticed,

you will find them to be always and forever contemptible changeling creatures

who can shift alliances as easily as most bureaucrats do, have, will.

From Weimar to the Nazis to East or West Germany, totalitarian Soviet Communist, totalitarian American Capitalist,

bureaucrats did not do not will not ever miss a beat–

School teachers have as much to do with manipulating thought

as the administrators of propaganda who worked for Goebbels,

All of a culture’s received ideas for good or for ill

can be traced to the lessons learned in school.

It’s not that these received ideas do not have other mediums of transmission;

it is only that every enduring lesson learned . . .

each rule most responsible for supporting the Status Quo

can be found embedded in State sponsored pedagogies.”

 

Whatever else it wasI said I will not record here.

Whatever else I could have said, or perhaps should have said–

and what is it that I should have said? I ask you,

one of the stauncher supporters of the Status Quo

and too many of our more beloved conventionalities never questioned?

 

I cannot say succinctly here,

just what it is that remains unjust,

nor do I wish to take the time to say it

in any form I could muster extemporaneously.