Christopher Lasch, historian and author of "The Culture of Narcissism", discusses calls for educational reform with Studs Terkel on Chicago's WFMT. Proposals for education reform were (and are) superficial because they ignore that in a Liberal, technocratic, and bureaucratic society, education as traditionally understood-the studium humanitatis-is no longer useful to the state. In fact, such education might be dangerous both to the Leviathan and the corporation.
Source: The Studs Terkel Radio Archive (studsterkel.wfmt.com/)
Lasch discusses his most famous book, "The Culture of Narcissism" -- • Christopher Lasch - Th...
The triumph of managerial technocracy in the West is mirrored by events in 20th century Christianity--especially Catholicism. By the 1950s genuine hier-archy (sacral, sacramental order) had been eclipsed by bureaucracy. Hence the peritī at Vatican II-and the various Consilia established after the Council-viewed themselves as technocrats who must re-engineer the Catholic society so that it heads in the right direction (which is, of course, the direction dictated by science and the demands of "modernity").
From Wikipedia:
Robert Christopher Lasch (June 1, 1932 - February 14, 1994) was an American historian, moralist and social critic who was a history professor at the University of Rochester. He sought to use history to demonstrate what he saw as the pervasiveness with which major institutions, public and private, were eroding the competence and independence of families and communities. Lasch strove to create a historically informed social criticism that could teach Americans how to deal with rampant consumerism, proletarianization, and what he famously labeled "the culture of narcissism".
His books, including The New Radicalism in America (1965), Haven in a Heartless World (1977), The Culture of Narcissism (1979), The True and Only Heaven (1991), and The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy (published posthumously in 1996) were widely discussed and reviewed.