Quote: “They have created, in the disguise of what most citizens consider a college education, a vast system of unimaginative vocational training” – William Appleman Williams
William Appleman Williams, writing in his introduction to A New History of Leviathan: Essays on the Rise of the American Corporate State, titled A Profile of the Corporate Elite, describes the thing often called a college education.
Oh, and this was written in 1972. Do you think things have improved since then?
For the giants among the elite (themselves rather impressive intellectuals) have seen to it that experts are a glut upon the market. Their strategy has been awesome: they have created, in the disguise of what most citizens consider a college education, a vast system of unimaginative vocational training paid for by the very parents who consider it an escalator to power for their children and the key to the general welfare. It has been a covert coup d'etat of almost classic proportions, and the failure of any of these authors to explore and expose it is the only major defect of their work. The product of such an education who joins the system becomes an intellectual who can only be described as an efficient (and often well-paid) combination of court jester, royal favorite ever looking over his shoulder, brilliant eunuch, and uncommitted devil's advocate.
