The “Cynical Recklessness” of Capital

This article develops the foundations of a revolutionary Marxist social studies education, which can better equip students and workers to push toward the socialist transformation of society. We demonstrate the processes by which today’s educational system developed in the transition from the era of manufacturing to the era of industry, linking the standardization of production to the standardization of bodies, intelligences, and education. Insisting that the future is always immanent in the present, we observe that capital’s requirements for educated workers can, at a certain point, lead to a positive, qualitative transformation out of capitalism, despite the intended domesticating purposes of contemporary working-class education.