Schools, Prisons, and Institutional Behavior: How Americans are being Conditioned

I'm hardly an optimist about how things are going, but I learned a very surprising fact in my state. Apparently, 90% of the people who are currently in prison in Pennsylvania have less than a high school diploma. I wasn't surprised that people who lacked an education were most likely to end up in prison, but the percentage and probability was surprising and it made me realize just how many people are going there.

Last night, I was at a meeting for an education committee near where I live in the City of Pittsburgh. Like many major cities, it has a struggling school system where budgets are shrinking, performance is questionable, and the quality of education is in doubt. Specifically, two high schools were being merged into one with class sizes rising from 15-20 to 25-30. Programs and extra-curriculars were being cut, but what was being increased was security, metal detectors, and making sure people were safe.

When I was listening, I couldn't help but think of a prison, and I've noticed more and more of our institutions in this country are taking on the same traits of a jail. You have counselors where if you don't meet their requirements of what is normal, you can be forcibly detained, indefinitely. Education is available, but it takes a secondary priority to making sure people are safe, and the goal is simply to pass people through without focusing on the learning in either place. Moreover, the very idea of what is normal is being taught, where you learn to get along, or you will be detained.

I don't know if it is a mass conspiracy, or signs of a society caught up in its own paranoia, but what I do know is schools look more like prisons, prisons seem to be the biggest growth industry, and we keep expanding what is considered an offense to lead to being put aside. That so many people were in prison, and that the majority going in there are younger (18-30), seem to me part of a society that is losing its future and I wonder why this is happening.

I worked for the Courts for a few years where the prevaliing attitude was people can sit out their problems in jail, and even though the majority were there for the victimless crimes set, it was thought they'd learn a lesson from the system. And they have, to work the system, and to think that normal is what the state says.

But our new normal scares me. And considering I only graduated from high school under fifteen years ago, it's amazing how fast it is happening.

Another very frightening and troubling thing, which i have noticed much more frequently recently, is the ease with which education is cut--oftentimes it is the FIRST thing slashed during crises and budget overhauls--while simultaneously hiring more and more cops, building more prisons and police stations. This is UNACCEPTABLE and onyl adds to the decline of this country and the creeping and encroaching police state.

This also goes right along with your OP, but i might add that it also extends to this: keeping people dumbed down and placated enough in order to control them more easily. Could that be a part of the plan? Materialism and happy citizens not aware or caring about the larger picture, or putting people away, forgotten, and no larger a threat to the materialistic utopia disguised as a police state.

Of course, all of the increasing loss of freedoms and being subject to more invasive control in order to move is under the guise of "safety" and "security." It's all about "following commands." And people buy it, because they are conditioned with worthless crap and fear.

Education is the foundation to a prosperous society, but when we put it first to be cut, while eagerly hiring cops, increasing patrol in the name of security, creating a regulated and structured society that must always "obey," "follow commands," and "adhere to what's normal," what do we expect: cultural and societal decline (and rebellion) and more people in prison (largely not not in act to "crime," but to draconian and needless laws).

Where i live, there was recently built (during the extreme economic times), a brand new state patrol post. It sits there, and there is NO activity. I do not know what it cost, but i do know that it serves little purpose and those funds could have been better used for the state.

There's a neighborhood near my house where they built a multi-million dollar police facility but had to shut down a school. When they were asked about it, apparently it was easy to get matching grants and other funding for the station, but no one wanted money for the school.

Now part of that in my state is that the funding for schools comes from property taxes. There's no uproar because people who are well off have better schools, but the funny thing is they think they can ignore these problems in poorer areas. You might not have to pay for education for everyone, but you will pay when it comes to crime, or to incarceration.

That's where it gets odder to me. The same people who wouldn't spend $100 on education have no problem with spending $50,000/year to house an inmate, but would also throw a fit if there was a $1,000 spent on a program for inmates which had a demonstrated track record of substantially reducing them coming back to jail.

But, I agree with all your observations, and often think the biggest failing of our society is that we don't value education, and I am certain a price will be paid for that.

Originally posted by cassandranova
I don't know if it is a mass conspiracy, or signs of a society caught up in its own paranoia, but what I do know is schools look more like prisons, prisons seem to be the biggest growth industry, and we keep expanding what is considered an offense to lead to being put aside. That so many people were in prison, and that the majority going in there are younger (18-30), seem to me part of a society that is losing its future and I wonder why this is happening.

I believe there to be a conspiracy to serfdom, slavery, what have you. I have always believed in the existence of a previous civilization(s) that either destroyed itself or was destroyed by something global. Nonetheless, I recently read a book titled, Babylon's Banksters, by Jospeh P. Farrell (which many people around here are probably familiar with), which describes the conditions of the ancient world, where there was a ruling class using foreign mercenaries, to manage local slave labor. He backs this up with research, so if you are into that sort of thing, check the book out.

Nonetheless, your thread brings us to the reality that everyone and seemingly every country, is being placed into debt or owing-ness to someone else, in this case, the ruling elite (through proxy of bankers). So, how will we ever be able to pay them back? Never. So, therefore, we as a unwitting society have been lured into playing a contractual game, where we were never likely to win; but instead, end up as willing (at the time of making the agreement) slaves. What you are really documenting in your post is the situation now during this overall game, where it is exponentially growing, feeding upon the failure of the system itself (i.e. increasingly diminished schools = increasingly imprisoned 'worker bee' class).

I believe I saw a thread somewhere, where corporations were increasing the purchase of public prisons. I find it morally and socially repulsive and have addressed that in a thread here on ATS.

Anyway, thanks for bringing this to the consciousness party. We just need to keep reporting on these types of scenarios, no matter how small, so that it fills the collective consciousness enough where people start opposing it without second thought.

Peace.

reply to post by alyoshablue


In a similar vein, I look at the move away from home ownership to encouraging renting. Even something as simple as taking away the home mortgage exemption or the continuing increase in local property taxes: What it adds up to is people aren't born owning anything, and so simply to live, they must work for someone else is increasingly disadvantageous circumstances.

Compare that with some of the gated communities you see, and you wonder if we aren't seeing an age of neo-feudalism begin. I remember learning in my history seminars in college that the late Roman empire fell as the soldiers who were promised land sold it off to fewer and fewer buyers who eventually owned all the land, and by extension, all the people who came with it.

reply to post by cassandranova


Good points. I think those points could contribute to an argument that we are reliving a previous cycle, be it like Rome or further back in lore. If that is the case, perhaps we will have a different decision to make this go around? I honestly don't know about that, but what I can say is that I think what is happening is 'old school' in its tactics and its purpose it to create a Golden Age - but not for the servants, but rather the ones doing the manipulating.

reply to post by cassandranova




If you're able to make time...

Can you give me a brief summary?