The mechanisms of pedagogical perpetuation (sorry- I seem to be stuck in alliteration) of neoliberalism need not be a part of a conspiracy theory-- just the sad result of a couple processes:
--a century and a half (or so) of intellectual pandering by tame theorists and universities who make it their business to produce intellectual fig leaves (The Invisible Hand, Market Forces, Free Trade,  etc.)for the professional plunderer class that emerged with the mercantile (spelled Capitalist) overclass, and
--Once the production of endless garages filled with "stuff" became not only possible, but became recognized as the most addictive political event and powerful mode of social control in human history--
It was a done deed.

Once we were good and well hooked, the media and the schools fell right into line.

 

Do you sometimes think that all of this train-to-the-test emphasis of the last 8 years or so has been foisted simply to avoid these wider questions in the school environment?

Of course, but to "foist" implies a human agency and a plan-- and it's probably not that. It's part of a process implicit in the consumer society, and in a view of the world as endless competition, endless battle-- a battle to "conquer nature", to tame the wilds, to gain market share--then rape them. If you conduct your affairs at the point of a gun (as we do) or based on plunder, you probably need to massage the narrative into a less ugly version.

This is all over, Paul. resource scarcity has resurrected the much-maligned but resurgent Malthusian dialog.
What was Jimmy Buffet's prophetic lyric?

"Cannon's don't thunder, and there's nothing to plunder,
I'm an over-forty victim of fate--"

Bush declared victory in Iraq, and is packing up.
Israel is trying one last blast of savagery in Palestine, and it will accomplish just what we did in Iraq--nothing.
But not only are the cannons losing their thunder, --we already plundered most of the world, and broke ourselves in the process.

The problem I see is that people will realize this fact about two decades after it's too late to fix.

Giroux's piece was called "Beyond Bailouts". This topic, (and Speth's) is at the heart of the process of replacing exploitive and consumptive patterns of life with policy and patterns more in accord with physical and social realities--which is what ET should be about, in my opinion. The overwhelming response to your diary helps to explain my long absences from here, as much as summer vacations.
Thanks again.
 

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.