This podcast pursues paths marked out by the book 'Against Capitalist Education', published by Zero Books. The podcast explores themes of a spiritual science, art, mathematics, economics, politics and society. Depending on the guest the topics may roam more freely than the book. There is no explicit theoretical orientation, no philosophical affiliation or religious perspective that dominates. Here are some quotes from the book which help set the context of discussion:
- Schooling indoctrinates youngsters into the world without challenging it, without imagining alternatives. It is a claustrophobic, cramped place to be in, and with every new initiative getting further mired in different dead-ends. And teachers are, of course, nobodies. Their social status is lower than bankers. In the news you hear people arguing how important bankers are for our social, political and economic well-being, how banking bonuses are necessary to keep the best. But you can pay teachers a pittance and they’ll be as good as anyone else – because anyone can teach. Meanwhile, in the real world, our education fails to be a civilising force.
- We constantly break up the human into a logical side and a poetic side. What we don’t want are thinkers who can also use their imagination. Or imaginative people who really think. Now they would be a problem. They would see what the rest of us don’t. For them, the imagination is not an escape. It’s a view into the inward depth of our lives and the world – when it operates properly. Thanks largely to the entertainment industry the imagination has become dysfunctional – obsessed with shadows and echoes of reality and unable to separate its own activities from the world around it.
- If we don’t do it because we fear failure, nothing will change. We will stay in the same state, go round the same circles, forever repeating the same mistakes and watch as our lives are crushed under the force of capitalism. Is that what we want? Do we not want to try? Do we not want a different power, a power to change, a power to transform this fragmented world?
- The wasteland is growing. There’s no doubt about that. And the system is being corrupted from within. People just don’t see it. We need to shine a light into the heart of things. But to do that we need a light powerful enough to show the corruption for what it is. An alternative generates a different light. That’s what we need. That’s the first step.
- In the modern world of the career academic it’s all articles, papers and specialised research. It has no poetry. It’s more like a pale echo of modern scientific writing. And now they’ve turned philosophy into a private club. Only for professionals.
Nadim Bakhshov
Creator of Shovian Art