I attended a carol service at a primary school this morning. Around forty pupils participated in this service none of whom were older than eleven years. It was not really a service as there was no religious input and was simply a joyous celebration of children singing Christmas songs, old and new. The audience was composed of family members of the children, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. We were addressed by the head teacher who spoke to us for just over five minutes and in that time referred to the children's performance as 'an enterprise' three times and described the audience as 'customers' three times. My wife restrained me from remonstrating with the teacher at the end. This is an example of why I never assume that someone is educated just because they have academic qualifications. They obviously display a modicum of intelligence, but no educated person, or even someone who reflects on reality, would employ language like that in such a context. That episode reflects on someone who has been brainwashed to a degree and who utilises language without any understanding of what they are saying.
This may seem a rather trivial matter but I ask you to think about it as it demonstrates how deeply the free market narrative has perverted our understanding and in particular our language. I have just been described as a customer as I enjoyed my grandchild's Christmas carols. This would suggest that there was an economic relationship taking place during this social event, which of course is simply nonsensical. By describing the performance as an enterprise you are similarly assuming an economic relationship between what you are doing and the outcomes you are seeking to achieve. Describing it as an enterprise is itself not provocative, but by immediately relating it with the description of the audience as customers, that is exactly what you are doing.
Anyone who has an understanding of sociology recognises that language is symbolic and conveys meanings. Every day we see governments and politicians go to inordinate lengths to distort language and 'spin' it in order to avoid people seeing their lies, understanding their evil and identifying their motives. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the pigsty and its inhabitants is how they constantly parrot that there is no alternative to the dominant economic and political model that is destroying our societies. This was the theme tune of Thatcher and her cronies and it has been very successfully embedded in the British collective conscience. This is evidenced by teachers describing a Christmas performance by eight to eleven year olds in the language of the economic market as an enterprise and their families as customers. Children are not able to discriminate between such use of language and will accept such terminology as the norm. Indeed most adults will fail to discriminate and identify such perversions of the language. However, a parent is a real live flesh and blood person, they are not a thing. A customer is an abstract concept, a thing, a description of a person performing one particular aspect of human behaviour, and such language employment is part of the free market process of dehumanising and atomising people. This is the language of modern British education, providers and customers. No-one learns anything nowadays, they consume, and, if they consume, then of course they should pay for the privilege. Thus, education ceases to be a right or a necessity, it becomes a purchase which, if you cannot afford, then you will have to do without. The same poison is destroying the health service, care, and all sectors of our society. This is the kind of development that produces what sociologists call 'anomie' or normlessness where people experience fewer and fewer reference points in their lives. It is no accident that we are seeing a literal explosion of mental illness within society as people are losing touch with reality; and viewing a family enjoying their children's performance as customers is indeed truly detached from reality. This is a huge problem and a huge topic, but we must challenge all forms of free market perversion, this is just the most recent I have experienced. You have been warned
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
No comments:
Post a Comment