The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear

256 Pages·2003·35.41 MB·English

by  Henry A. Giroux (auth.)

PRAISE FOR THE ABANDONED GENERATION
"} was listening to the radio the other day. An 'expert' was asking how we
can expect people in Pakistan to believe in democracy when millions can't
afford to feed their children (some men are driven to suicide by the
shame, he said) while many others live the life of millionaires? And I
thought, who is saying this same thing about the United States. In The
Abandoned Generation, Henry Giroux demonstrates once again why he is
one of our most important social and political critics. As our economic for
tunes ride the roller coaster of neo-liberal short-sightedness, and our po
litical freedoms disappear into yet another invisible war, it is the children
of this country (and the world) who suffer the most. As he has for decades,
Giroux brings his intellectual acumen, his critical insight, and his passion
for justice together in a book that everyone who cares about the future
should read!"
-Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
"In The Abandoned Gmeration Henry Giroux documents how the U.S. is at
war with its youth. Responding to recent events like 9-11 and the war on
terror, Giroux argues that creating a better future for our youth and fellow
citizens will require a struggle for democracy and creating critical citizens
rather than unthinking patriots. In these important and insightful studies,
Giroux challenges us to become critical analysts of contemporary dis
course and politics and to participate in strengthening and enriching our
democracy in the face of threats from within and without."
-Douglas Kellner, George F. Kneller Chair
in the Philosophy of Education, UClA
"Henry Giroux's provocative book, The Abandoned Generation, is not only a
condemnation of the way we neglect the young in America, but it is also a
passionate call for radical social change. Instead of the exploitive policies
and strategies of corporate America that target young people as consumers
and bring about the maltreatment of children as objects, Giroux demon
strates convincingly that there are still possibilities to close the gap between
rich and poor and to create a more democratic means of education and ac
culturation for the young. His book is a major contribution for all those al
ready engaged in collective struggle, and it will certainly stimulate all readers
to become more socially aware of the intolerable conditions that young peo
ple must presently endure in America-and not only in America."
-Professor Jack Zipes, Professor of German and Comparative Literature at
the University of Minnesota and author of Sticks and Stones:
The Troublesome Success of Children:1 Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter
ALSO BY HENRY GIROUX
Public Spaces/Private Lives: Democracy Beyond 9-11 CZOO'l)
Breaking in to the Movies: Film and the Culture oj Poli/iiS (2002)
Beyond the Corporate University: Pedagogy, Culture, and IJ/emry Studies in the "Vew ,vIi!-
lennium, edited with Kostas Mvrsiades (2001)
Kriitlen Pedagogiikka, co-authored with Peter McLaren (2001)
Stealing Innocence: Corporate Culture:, War on Children (2001)
Theory and Resistance in Aliucation (Revised edition, 2001)
Impure Acts: The Practical Politics oj Cultural Studies (2000)
Critical Edumtion in the New Information :'I.ge, co-authored with Manuel Castells,
Ramon Flecha, Paulo Freire, Donaldo Macedo, and Paul Willis (1999)
The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End oj Innocence (1999)
Sociedad, Cullura Y Educacion, co-authored with Peter McLaren (1999)
Channel Surfing: Racism, the Aledia, and the Destruction oJ Today 's Youth(1998)
Cultural Studies and Education: JiJwards a Pe/formative Practice, edited with Patrick
Shannon (1997)
Pedagogy and the Politics oj Hof)e: ThPOry, Culture, and Schooling (1997)
Counternarratives, co-authored with Peter McLaren, Colin Lankshear, and Mike
Cole (1996)
Fugitive Cultures: Race, Violence, and Youth (1996)
Between Borden: Pedagogy and Politics in Cultuml Studies, edited with Peter McLaren
(1994)
Disturlling Pleasures: Learning PolJUlar Culture (1994)
Educatian Still Under Siege, co-authored with Stanley Aronowitz (Second Edition, 1994)
Living Dangerously: Multiculturalism and the Politics oj Culture, (1993)
Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics ojE ducation, (1992)
Igualdad Educativa Y DifJerencia Cultural, co-authored with Ramon Flecha (1992)
Postmodern Education: Politics, Culture, and Social Criticism, co-authored with Stanley
Aronowitz(1991)
Postmodernism, Feminism and Cultural Politics: Rethinking Educational Boundaries, ed
ited (1991)
Critical Pedagogy, the State, and the Struggle Jor Culture, edited with Peter McLaren
(1989)
Popular Culture, Schooling & Everwia, Life, edited with Roger Simon (1989)
Schooling and the Struggle Jor Public Life (1988)
Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy oj Learning (1988)
Escola Critica I,' Politica Cultuml (1987)
Education Under Siege: The Conservative, Liberal, and Radical Debate Over Schooling,
co-authored with Stanley Aronowitz (1985)
The Hidden Curriculum and Atoral Education, edited with David Purpel (1983)
Theory and Resistance in Education (1983)
Pedagogia Radical: Subsidius (1983)
Curriculum and Instruction: Alternatives in Education, edited with Anthony Penna,
and William Pinar (J 981)
Ideology, Culture and the Process oj Schooling (1981)
THE ABANDONED
GENERATION
Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear
Henry A. Giroux
palgrave
macmilan
THE ABANDONED GENERATION
Copyright © Henry A. Giroux. 2003.
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover I st edition 2003 978-1-4039-6138-9
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in hardcover in 2003 by Palgrave Macmillan
First PALGRAVE MACMILIANTM paperback edition: May 2004
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ISBN 978-1-4039-6536-3 ISBN 978-1-4039-7336-8 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-1-4039-7336-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Giroux, Henry A.
The abandoned generation: democracy beyond the culture of fear I
by Henry A. Giroux.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical reference and index.
1. Critical pedagogy-United States. 2. Youth-United States
Social conditions. 3. Politics and education-United States.
4. Education-United States-Curricula. 5. Social justice-United
States. 6. Mass media and youth-United States. I. Title.
LCI96.5.U6 G56 2003
370.11 '5-dc21
2002035514
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Transferred to Digital Printing in 2012
For Susan, again and again

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments IX
Introduction: The War Against Youth in the Post-9/11 Era Xill
Chapter 1 Public Time versus Emergency Time:
Politics, Terrorism, and the Culture of Fear 1
Chapter 2 Democracy, Patriotism, and Schooling Mter
September 11: Critical Citizens or
Unthinking Patriots? 16
Chapter 3 Global Capitalism and the Return of the
Garrison State: Rethinking Hope in the Age
of In-Security 46
Chapter 4 Leaving Most Children Behind: Public Education
Under Siege 71
Chapter 5 Teen Girls' Resistance and the Disappearing
Social in Ghost World 103
Chapter 6 From "Manchild" to Balry Boy: Race and the
Politics of Self-Help 121
Chapter 7 Higher Education, Inc.: Training Students to Be
Consumers 153
Notes 198
Index 231

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of the most serious, yet unspoken and unrecognized, tragedies in
the United States is the condition of its children. We live in a society in
which too many young people are poor, lack decent housing and
health care, attend decrepit schools filled with overworked and under
paid teachers, and who, by all standards, deserve more in a country
that prides itself on its level of democracy, liberty, and alleged equality
for all citizens. We also live at a time when politicians are far more will
ing to cut taxes for the rich than provide social provisions for children
who are marginalized by virtue of class and race. Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
the Protestant theologian, believed that the ultimate test of morality
resided in what a society does for its children. Ifwe take this standard
seriously, American society has deeply failed its children and its com
mitment to democracy. For many young people, the future looks bleak,
filled with the promise of low-paying, low-skilled jobs, the collapse of
the welfare state, and, if you are a person of color and poor, the threat
of either unemployment or incarceration. But power as a form of dom
ination is never absolute and oppression always produces some form of
resistance. Fortunately, more and more young people nationally and
internationally are mobilizing in order to fight a world dominated by
corporate interests, and they are struggling to construct an alternative
future in which their voices can be heard as part of a broader move
ment to make democracy and social justice realizable.
This book was inspired by both the political passion and courage
of this generation of youth, many of whom recognize that the world
stands at a critical juncture, if the future is not simply going to repeat
a present in which corporate interests and power shape much of the
social, political, cultural, and economic landscape. For many young
people, social injustices-from class oppression to racial violence to