This SMP Compendium entry will be exploring the State’s policies on education and the introduction of a ranking system to complement the political and social life of the Socialist nation. The revolutionization of education under the Work-Standard is predicated on the need to address the problems of educational curricula in most Liberal Capitalist regimes affiliated with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the Western Bloc equivalent to the Eastern Bloc’s CMEA (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance). What passes as an ‘education’ under Liberal Capitalism is a Commodity: it offers a lot of theoretical knowledge and very little practical experience for young people. It is discernible in the secondary or high school level education since all curricula are intended for later entry into the tertiary or university level, where Kapital reigns in the form of “student loans” and “job opportunities” to pay off the Schuld. And it becomes even more obvious when people enter the workforce with an astounding lack of practical experience to apply for even the most menial and boring of entry-level jobs.
Everyone who had attended a school or university within an OECD member-state within their teenage and young adult years knows how uninteresting it truly was. Anyone can deny it with rose-tinted glasses and let nostalgia serve as their opiates, but no form of escapism lasts forever. School life for most young people is like a poorly-written “Bildungsroman,” a corny coming-of-age novel where they undergo enough character development to demonstrate their personal inability to deal with the real world. Those Western young adult novels and film adaptations and those Japanese anime, manga and light novels are one and the same insofar as they describe the educational curricula among OECD member-states. Recalling of one’s teenage and early adult years and familiarizing oneself with the average school life of most young people is just the first step.
An average teenager’s school life will have various classes that are only there to inform them of theories about the world without any reference or relevance about why the world exists as it does. Their peers may be pressured into taking courses which will not help them later in life, but they must take it in order to ensure it looks great on their student transcript as “college credit.” The teachers may not be involved in the students’ school life as a Vocation but because somebody needs to look after them while their parents are away. Without those teachers, a teenager’s school life resembles their nation’s Parliament, except the students are not brawling over cutting or increasing Taxes and deregulating regulations for this or that business.
Students at the secondary school level under Liberal Capitalism lack the Will-to-Power, complete with the Intents, Obligations, Duties and Rights of a Socialist nation-state. Rather, they only have the illusion of power that causes them to rebel against their parents and their teachers. There is no opportunity for the teachers to instill within their students the Intents of Command and Obedience and the concept of Command Responsibility like the kind for prosecuting war crimes, which finds its greatest relevance within “the talk” of any sex education curriculum. Just as when a girl says “no” to the sexual advances of her boyfriend to avoid teen pregnancy, the superior is responsible for issuing direct orders which conflict with the morality of their subordinates when they say “no.”
Sometimes, one may encounter increasing difficulty finding any free time to spend on Socialization in the Socialist sense. What could have been spent on Socialization is spent on afterschool clubs and activities that resemble the lobbyists and special interest groups of Parliamentary Democracy, never to expand beyond anything resembling an actual Vocation. Afterschool sports resemble more like an illegal prize fighting ring where animals (or in this case, people) compete for the Kapital of higher educational scholarships and trophies. And a student council offers its members the illusion of political power but not the Will-to-Power, regardless of the student council being governed as a Parliamentary Democracy or a Council Democracy.
Where the school life ends, people will begin to struggle with what they want to do in Life; one does not need to look very far in order to understand the post-graduation implications. It manifests itself within the socioeconomic Darwinism among the so-called “Baby Boomers” and “Millennials” on the one hand and the “Generation X” and “Generation Z” on the other. Actually, the intergenerational struggle is about as real as Neil Howe and William Strauss, the authors of The Fourth Turning, convincing others like Steve Bannon to believe that it ought to become real. Howe and Strauss were the ones who coined the term “Millennial” to refer to people who came of age during the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s and the skewed belief that these people will become the next “Greatest Generation.” This “Generational Theory” of fifty years of “communitarianism” and fifty years of “individualism” is more of the same problem with theories defining actuality. Theory can only explain what is happening, not what shall or what ought to happen. Thus, when the Millennials fell short of expectations, that “Generational Theory” was later ‘revised’ to include Generation Z on the premise that Generation X is somehow less like the Baby Boomers.
Such a ‘Theory’ can only become real in the post-graduation life of the youth because it is never validated by any actual school life or even prior. Most spend their adult years adrift in apathy and nihilism. There are those who landed in what they thought was their “dream job,” only to find out that it was not and became miserable in the process due to the Meaningless Work. Some languish in a state of “extended adolescence,” a condition best encountered in Psychology by focusing on how it plagues the ability to act as an upstanding adult. And then there are those who kept on “building their career” and end up experiencing an existential mid-life crisis by their thirties and forties; if they get involved in Parliamentarian governance, they demonstrate their willingness to be sellouts for lobbyists and political parties. It becomes even more problematic if they happen to be married with children and have yet to pay the Schuld from their former school life.
For the Work-Standard and the Socialist nation-state, these problems which plague Liberal Capitalism can be avoided altogether. The workaround begins with the realization that the Vocations integral to the VCS Economy and the Work-Standard require an educational system where a Vocation may begin as early as secondary school. After all, how many teenagers under Liberal Capitalism find menial jobs to earn Kapital if their parents do not give them allowances?
It is feasible for the Socialist nation-state to implement an educational system where youths at the secondary and tertiary school levels learn practical hands-on experience as part of their Vocations. Here, the students are part of an “Socialist Student Economy” (SSE). Part of their school life is devoted to the theoretical but the rest is practical, allowing them to receive training and hone experiences alongside their peers in preparation for the actual VCS Economy of their nation. There will be free time afterschool and there will be time for the curricula to be integrated into youth gatherings, field trips to summer camps, and activities that can translate into actual Vocations.
The educational system shall instill within each of them the genuine assurance that everyone has latent potential that has yet to be unlocked by them as Individuals. The curriculum is designed for each of them to contribute something meaningful to the SSE by living their lives with purpose and meaning, ensuring their school life endures into their adult life, and receiving the confidence of being proud of their roles in Life. There will be outstanding school uniforms (Prussian-style, not English-style as has been the case with the Japanese and their educational system) and youths earning medals, commendations, promotions, and prizes from the State with the authentic choice of choosing their Vocation. All of that can be done as early as someone’s teenage years, reserving their childhood years for the basics that are unfortunately still being taught in Liberal Capitalist secondary schools. And it can even be done while accommodating the religious schools through arrangements between the State and the clergy.
This sort of educational system and its SSE does not exist among historical and existing Socialist nations because so much was being devoted to theory just like the Liberal Capitalists. That will change vis-à-vis the Work-Standard, and the VCS Economy will have the potential to ensure those reforms are possible. It is precisely here where it is also possible to speak of a Ranking System that begins at the secondary educational level and continues for the rest of the student’s life. Those Ranks are formal titles to be included with a student’s service record upon their promotion to a higher Rank. This Rank may apply on a general level but will eventually be reapplied to the Ranks of their Vocation as they get older. The higher their Rank, the more likely they will be eligible for certain things which normally would not be available if they had a lower Rank.
Examples of this can include eligibility to become a delegate for their local council, regional and eventually State Council, and even become the next Heads of Government and State (the terms which determine how long they are in power can only be changed with the State Council’s approval). It is the eligibility to enter the rigorous university curriculum of economic planners, a Vocation in the Central Bank, Kontore and State Commissariat, and applications in student entrance exams for governmental positions within the central government. It can be the ability to make loans from the banks, receive a large amount of Geld as part of a Stipend if their Vocation requires one, and also determine their place within the Paygrade Scale when Paygrades are wired to their personal accounts each week. It can also involve the opportunity to be in a teaching, training or instructing profession and the ability to have greater clout in the political affairs of the State through selfless civil service. The State shall update the Ranking System as young people enter the workforce as their formal rite of passage into adulthood so that the elderly can retire peacefully. In general, those who contribute the most Arbeit from within the profession of their chosen Vocation have the potential to be entitled for receiving higher Ranks.
This Ranking System cannot be organized in a manner comparable to Prussia’s “Three-Estate Representation System,” the PRC’s “Social Credit System,” or a “Credit Score System” found in most Liberal Capitalist regimes. All three are Ranking Systems influenced by Kapital and thus can provide the grounds for the mass surveillance of personal lives. Such measures are always justified within the presence of Schuld and the proliferation of Kapital within economic life. Everyone still has a Right to Privacy under Socialism, just as they have a Right to claim a reputation that they themselves can be proud of as citizens of the nation.
Categories: Compendium
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