It’s really unfortunate that the term “uneducated” is such a broad generalization. In terms of understanding the world around us, there’s so many useless paths of education. The luxury price tag of education in the US creates this dynamic that we see with luxury fashion labels where people will spend every last cent they have to buy the tiniest designer brand item, just to say they have it. The item will serve no greater purpose than as a sort of personal social capital that permits the person to feel connected to a community they aren’t a part of.
Capitalism commodifies education in the same way and, as we know, No Child Left Behind intensified the effect. Any ol’ education will do for these people to feel like they’re part of some elite class of peasantry that gives them authority over the generally “uneducated.”
It’s a disgustingly elitist and anti-intellectual mentality that maligns the idea of education itself as yet another token of internalized classism. We see it everyday on the timeline. Regular people wield “degrees” and “education” as weapons of language to humiliate and denigrate other regular people.
But what makes it so bad is the people who have this mentality are often only “educated” in very specific interests rather than broader globally inclusive concepts. They know that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell but they didn’t know about the Balfour Declaration.
They know that y=mx+b but they didn’t know that Pres. Grover Cleveland tried to give Hawaiians their land back after John Stevens ordered our troops to attack and forcibly dethrone Queen Lili’uokalani and forced Hawaiian government officials to swear allegiance to the US.
They know Tom Sawyer’s bff is Huckleberry Finn, but they have no idea how Mark Twain’s satirization of King Leopold helped illuminate the atrocities. committed in Congo and helped turn public opinion against Leopold, leading to the Belgian government removing him from power.
They have no idea how every social and economic struggle we have as a society is deeply interconnected and shingled on top of each other like a roof preventing any real liberation from seeping through.
So then, instead of learning how to use the tools of education to understand the world, the way people regard their educations becomes the very thing that prevents them from understanding the world.
They aren’t interested in acquiring new information, they aren’t interested in interrogating their own opinions. They’re focused on social signifiers of belonging to the elite group. They’re focused on separating themselves from the “uneducated” with insults and verbal abuse.
“Educate yourself!” we exclaim, as we repeat unchecked imperialist propaganda without ever digging into actual historical records. It’s truly disturbing how much of the world we know has been artificially implanted in our minds by an entire century of mass media.
The violent fall of Columbia University’s reputation is an indication that there is hope, I think. The younger generations of “educated” people are realizing how manufactured American life and American society has always been.
They don’t rely solely on education by the establishment and they’re more likely to conduct deeper research about new information they acquire than previous generations.
Knowing that, I believe that I will see a free Palestine in my lifetime. And I know that, in turn, my people will then have a fighting chance.
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