Entry 6

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s Logan’s Run, the authors guide us through dystopian societies, each with their own particular allegories in illustrating the downfall of the human character. While these books were all written in the 20^th century, it is almost chilling how accurately the prolific authors depicted the future of their not-so-fictitious tales. Each book provides tremendous breadth in their respective attempts to encapsulate the issues they saw in the world. Thus, the application of any of these texts is a ready adhesive to any of the relevant and glaring injustices faced by members of society today. Namely, in the arena of public education, the massive loss of identity foretold by Huxley, the destruction of knowledge foreseen by Bradbury, and the rise of classism forecast by Nolan and Johnson are attributed to the impressive twelve-story shadow cast by big business. The subsequent subordination, ignorance, and group-thinking correlate directly with the invisible hand decked in red, white, and blue; the fingers capitalism may be seen dipping into the pool filled with the blank canvases of the young, impressionable, and uneducated.

      In the age of No Child Left Behind, schools saw many faces stream through their halls, but learned little about the curiosity or confusion in their eyes. The immense and sudden loss of identity may be exemplified in the general absence of art and music programs due to cut funding, as well as the installation of mind-numbing and endless standardized testing.

      The implementation of standardized testing left educators with no other option than to starve their lesson plans to skeletal remains, leaving students desperately sucking the precious marrow where they could. This profound loss of knowledge has led to an extreme ignorance that has become a frightening epidemic. Asked who the vice president of the country is, or where Germany is on a map, or who Charles Dickens was, many students past and present respond with a blank stare, then panic, then a string of guesses that quickly turn to defensive dismissals.

      It is true that all businesses must fill positions at the bottom of their pyramids, but it is racist, classist, and truly deplorable for one (or many) to assume responsibility of predetermining on whose backs the business will remain aloft. Nevertheless, time has shown again and again that the corporate goliaths cannot keep their hands out of the proverbial cookie jar, and so we see the end result in millions of individuals with a severe lack of comprehensive knowledge and critical thinking skills, even post-graduation.