Neoliberalism's War on Higher Education by Henry A. Giroux -

In a world where “Higher Education”, according to Giroux, is increasingly the puppet of commercialism and production, students are becoming increasingly apathetic to “his [or her] responsibility to society” and, worse yet, free thinking is silenced by dominant corporations and media messengers something needs to change. Something needs to change because Higher Education’s purpose is not simply to crank out employable candidates but, instead, to develop free-thinking and critical individuals who question the world and are not only aware of its issues but also brave enough and wise enough to know that simply knowing is not enough. One must act upon their knowledge and be civically engaged in the world and change. In the end, if “Higher Education” institutions fail at their main purpose, who will be able to combat and challenge the wealthy authority, the crushing 1%? Who will hold the greed and actions of the 1% accountable?

The fact is, if “Higher Education” keeps producing more and more people who simply go with the flow because their individual lives are superficially fine, it will most likely be harder for any change to be instigated as one of the main ways we can combat the wealthy are by banding together and taking action. We must first, however, recognize that something is wrong and go against the grain of what the dominant media tells us. I am quite sure Giroux would agree as he discusses higher education’s purpose and why free thinking is vital:

“ …confusing a market-determined society with democracy hollows out the legacy of higher education, whose deepest roots are moral, not commercial. This is a particularly important insight in a society where not only is the free circulation of ideas being replaced by ideas managed by the dominant media, but also where critical ideas are increasingly viewed or dismissed as banal if not reactionary.”

 In other words, democracy’s future should not be based off of market and commercialism. Instead, its focus should be morals and the public good. This focus is hard to achieve, however, when any nonconforming ideas that are beneficial for the public good are voiced.

When it comes down to it, it is in our best interest to fight for a more critical higher education system. Sure, we might get good grades from easy classes and find decent jobs but when it comes to solving harder problems and combatting injustices, one needs developed critical thinking faculties. Students should resist passivity and, instead, engage in the world’s issues as critical thinking beings to, hopefully, create a better world. Democracy should be a majority vote, not what the 1% wants.