Thoughts on Shannon

I want to start this off by saying I'm no philosopher, so I need to qualify the following thoughts and remarks with that understanding.

As I read Shannon, I was struck by a disagreement with him--not in his underlying thesis about what's become of reading instruction and how it's been hijacked by businesses, transforming students into commodities and teachers into unskilled factory workers. What I dispute is his pinning that on capitalism. Okay, bear with me.

I appreciated that he increasing identified rationality as the issue (although in continued to tie this to capitalism). When we look at Western (and Eastern for that matter) countries, even those who have espoused Marxism value rationality, efficiency, above creativity and individuality. Neither system intends for people to lose their individuality, but whenever rationality is highly prized, this will happen to some extent because thoughts and behaviors that deviate from the rational are dichotomized as then irrational. There becomes no middle ground. Shannon writes, "The material fate of the masses becomes increasingly dependent upon the continuous and correct functioning of the increasingly bureaucratic order of private capitalistic organization." Well, this statement could just as easily apply the masses in the old Soviet Union, Cuba, or even modern Russia controlled by the mafia. You just replace "private capitalistic organization" with the name of whoever is in control.

However, I think the problem goes deeper than any economic or social philosophy. Capitalism is no more inherently dehumanizing than Marxism, yet in practice both of them can suck. Marxism in practice has certainly not embraced the individual or free thinking. The deeper issue is the nature of man. I don't think that all people are doomed to selfishness in a Hobbesian/Lockean, but I do believe that men are corrupted by power--in whatever framework they get that power (government, business, etc.). Reading Shannon's arguments, I couldn't help but wonder (I feel like Carrie Bradshaw typing that phrase) how a capitalist reading of education in China or Cuba would look. It would probably talk about how capitalism relies on individuality and original ideas as the foundation for business and economy. Man is corrupt and those in power will always try to control those who aren't in power; the social or economic system in place has little to do with it.

All that said, I do agree with Shannon's thoughts. I hate what has become/is becoming of teaching and learning in this country--but really, it's happening everywhere. The world is small and only a few people own it.