How To Make Slaves In A Free World

How To Make Slaves In A Free World

[center]How to Make Slaves in a Free World: One College Student’s Observations[/center]


Officially speaking, slavery as a socio-economic institution has been dead in the United States for almost a hundred and fifty years. That’s what the history books tell us, anyways. However, the idea of forcing individuals to serve the (usually economic) purposes of a wealthy few has always been a tantalizing desire for those with the ambition to make it happen; evidence of slavery in cultures the world over predates written history by leaps and bounds, and was looked on favorably by almost all the great ancient civilizations. The trick, in modern times, is that slavery is largely taboo in first world countries… at least, when it walks around bare-faced. That is to say that, contrary to what many people would like to believe, the underlying concepts that make slavery what it is – the taking advantage of one or more underprivileged groups to serve the needs and ends of those who hold power – is far from dead. You might say it simply got itself a face-lift. Chains and whips simply don’t strike the public mindset as the tools of a “noble” institution anymore… but trust me when I say that economics and education, when put together, can work almost as well and make recruiting a large work force much simpler.

This is one college student’s recipe for making free people slaves without them hardly realizing it. I can’t take credit for inventing it; I’m simply passing along what I’ve discovered is already true.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
• BAIT
• EXPECTATIONS
• A CONTEST
• AND MONEY



First and foremost, you need bait. The flashier or juicier the bait, the better. It can come in all sorts of forms, but it predominantly comes through a single medium: the TV. They say TV dumbs people down, but in one respect I think it enlightens them. The bait you want to put in front of people, in a word, is possibility. Kids see all sorts of possibility through the TV: people who are doctors, teachers, scientists, astronauts… the list goes on practically forever. And even if kids don’t watch TV, the possibilities come to them all the same.

“And what do you want to be when you grow up?” we ask, hardly realizing it’s a loaded question.

Just like in fishing, the bait itself isn’t what catches the fish. Bait either is food or at least looks appealing; possibilities that become dreams and aspirations are no different. The hook comes when poor little Billy or Sandy graduate High School, full of vibrant hopes and dreams for the future, and enter college. Ah yes, higher education… that’s where it all starts. Preparation for the job field, with the tantalizing promise that once you’ve got all your courses done and all your paperwork filed, portfolio filled, and mind expanded that you’ll be the best job candidate in your field of interest that they can make you, gosh darnit!

Not quite.

Those who control the job market are only interested in letting the best, brightest, most qualified, most worked, and most experienced achieve this dream life, so they raise the expectation. As well they should! I mean, if you’re a CEO looking for young blood you don’t want some green-behind-the-ears rookie that you’re going to have to spend inordinate amounts of time working with before he can go from being a cost to an asset. And so you raise the bar a little. Big deal.

Well, the bar is raised, and suddenly that oh-so-ideal college experience just isn’t quite enough. So colleges adjust: a few more courses here, higher expectations there, and everything gets more rigorous academic standards. After all, we have to prepare our students for the global economy. And we have to live up to national standards. So the next generation of students shell out more of mom and dad’s money, apply for loans, and put their noses to the scholastic grindstone. They’re a bit more tired and dragging some more debt, but they’ll make it fine. Mostly.

Well, Mr. CEO notices the stack of resumes on his desk hasn’t gone down much. Every applicant is a bit more qualified this time around than the batch before them. Those crazy college professors sure keep the kids busy nowadays, don’t they? Well, he’s only interested in the best few anyways, so he picks out the real winners. The rest? Tough luck; try the corporation down the street. You should’ve been more prepared.

And so the bar is raised, again. Colleges notice that everyone wants more intelligent, more qualified workers. Why be satisfied hiring a teacher who can teach math and science when you could hire someone who’s qualified in math, science, and has a Minor in Educational Technology? Better yet, why settle for a Minor? Jobs that used to be achievable with a Bachelors suddenly require a Masters. Not only is the bar rising, but these newer more qualified graduates can do the work of two or three people (with enough caffeine in them, theoretically at least) for the same pay we were giving the old guy! Granted, there’s this thing in teaching called “tenure” that keeps this from happening if you’ve had the job long enough… but even then, you have to have the job long enough and keep pace with developments in your subject area(s). But I digress… the bar is up, job openings are down, and the good paying work is more competitive than ever.

Colleges raise their bar: tougher majors and minors, more work and more reading. Jobs raise theirs: higher education level, more experience, need to be tech savvy. And before you know it there will be a generation of students accumulating so much debt from being in college that it’s possible to have a guy with his Doctorate in Biotechnology working the checkout counter of your local Wal-Mart.

Let that though, that image, sink in a little bit. Imagine it’s you instead of some illustrative ficticious persona. For some of you reading this, you don’t have to think hard. You may be on the road to this kind of huge life disappointment right now, whether you know it or not. You strive for years in college, working whenever you can and studying whenever you can’t, all for one thing: the hope of that diploma. But as you’ll find out, if you haven’t already, it’s just a piece of paper. And what’s more, there are hundreds of thousands of such pieces of paper out there, many of which look better than yours ever will! The college diploma is no longer society’s I.O.U. ticket; like another valuable piece of paper – the dollar – its value has seen some huge cutbacks due to inflation.

And THAT is what this rant is about: the inflationary expectations of higher education. Some people would call it merely a sign of the times; “the world is flat”, “we have to compete with China”. Well, here’s a little quote about China’s educational system for you:

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"China's annual National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) started on June 7 this year. Millions of students walked into exam rooms determined to get a place in college. However, some students lost their chance forever -- the huge pressure of the NCEE drove them to suicide."

(from a June 17, 2006 article in The Epoch Times:
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-6-17/42856.html)

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I’d argue to say that the stakes in American college are progressively becoming as intense, although in a different way, as this Chinese entrance exam… only with American students, it isn’t a matter of clean-cut pass/fail. Instead what we have is a system of ever-growing expectations joined with an ever-rising cost of college, fewer workers being needed in blue collar jobs as machine steadily replaces man in mass production and manual labor, growing cost of living, and it all comes down to one uncompromising fact: you either make it through college and get a job that pays well enough, or you DON’T. The winners have a chance; the losers get to try and swim their way out of the tar pit of mounting debt.

And this is how you create a culture of slaves. You have the one group who will perpetually fight to be qualified enough and work hard enough for you to keep their well-paying jobs and hold the debt monster at bay, and then you’ve got the other group who wear the shackles of debt every waking hour of the day and work however they can just to keep their heads above water. Sorry if I’m depressing you, reader, but debt has become the universal bondage in American culture. There’s no denying it. Life is no longer a matter of making enough to pay for the house and food each week. We buy with credit and it buys us in return, and now higher education is rapidly becoming another inescapable debt trap. You have to have it just to hope to make enough money to become debt free.

Debt now controls the one road to freedom. Why? All because the bar, not unlike the cost of everything else in life, continues to go up. Not just at a cost of finances, but at a cost of competitive human performance. The end of the tunnel is getting narrower. The skylight is closing. How long until we get to the point of no return? No escape? How long until, just like those students in China, the pressure just becomes too great?

How long until the expectations placed on American students results in a national tragedy? Or… perhaps it already is one. A silent national tragedy. But silent for how much longer?