Unwelcome Guests #631: The Neglected Genius of John Taylor Gatto (Extended Childhood and Western Spirituality)

Episode #631 - The Neglected Genius of John Taylor Gatto (Extended Childhood and Western Spirituality)
Unwelcome Guests

In our first hour we hear a somewhat cut down version of Bianca, You Animal, Shut Up!, the keynote talk at the 20th Anniversary Conference of Growing Without Schooling. In this beautiful and sensitive talk, Gatto describes the effects on children of mass confinement schooling and how this serves the interests of a hierarchically directed, society that is directed by corporations.

In our second hour, we hear The Neglected Genius of American Spirituality, which Gatto gave at the Conference on Spirituality in Boulder, Colorado. Gatto examines the project of the great industrialists of the late 19th and early 20th century, the establishment of what Illich termed the 'The New World Religion'. Again, he is unequivocal in his damnation of the massification and Dumbing Down of the population so that they can be rendered predictable, unimaginative and perpetually childish in order to smooth the machinery of Social Control so that the top dogs can stay that way for ever.

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