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- Title
THE SCOURGE OF ILLITERACY IN AUTHORITARIAN TIMES.
- Authors
GIROUX, HENRY A.
- Abstract
This article argues that at the root of the emerging authoritarianism is a crisis in memory, history, and civic literacy. As the social state is gutted those public spaces in which critical thought, thoughtfulness, and informed dialogue is produced are being erased. One consequence is that ideological forms of domination are being formed through a reign of anti-intellectualism in which reason is trumped by emotion, entertainment replaces informed dialogue, and literacy gives way to diverse forms of ignorance that undercuts the possibility for producing critical citizens willing to struggle over and fight for a sustained democracy. The scourge of civic illiteracy undermines a formative culture capable of creating the informed and critical citizens necessary in a robust democracy. Giroux argues in this article that these new forces of domination are largely educational in nature and demand a new understanding of the educative nature of politics itself. In other words, democracy should be a way of thinking about education, one that thrives on connecting equity to excellence, learning to ethics, and agency to the imperatives of social responsibility and the public good. The question regarding what role education should play in democracy becomes all the more urgent at a time when the dark forces of authoritarianism are on the march in the United States.
- Subjects
HIGHER education; LITERACY; PUBLIC spaces; AUTHORITARIANISM; EMOTIONS; SOCIAL responsibility
- Publication
Contemporary Readings in Law & Social Justice, 2017, Vol 9, Issue 1, p14
- ISSN
1948-9137
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.22381/CRLSJ9120172