This era marked the emergence of what has been referred to as "technocratic liberalism," whereby social problems were addressed (in large part by the state, or at least state sanction) through the technical application of programs of social engineering: "the one best way," the most efficient, effective, and "scientific" approach to understanding and addressing social problems. This was the task taken up by the "rational reformers" of the era, emerging out of the Progressive period, in which the techniques of the social sciences were used to create a system of "social control." These social engineers-- social scientists, technocratic reformers, experts, philanthropists, etc. -- felt that society could "control its collective destiny in contrast to drifting with the tides" even while working toward the management of the many by the few."[57]
The notion that the social sciences were to be used in the application of and for the purpose of "social control' is not an abstract theoretical interpretation of the Foundation's policies; it was, in fact, stated policy. In 1933, the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Max Mason, wrote that the Foundation's policies:
" were directed to the general problem of human behavior, with the aim of control through understanding. The Social sciences, for example, will concern themselves with the rationalization of social control; the Medical and Natural sciences propose a closely coordinated study of sciences which underlie personal understanding and personal control. Many procedures will be explicitly co-operative between divisions. The Medical and Natural Sciences will, through psychiatry and psychobiology, have a strong interest in the problems of mental disease [emphasis added].[58]
The influence of the major philanthropic foundations is exerted in a plethora of ways, including, wrote political scientist Joan Roelofs:
creating ideology and the common wisdom; providing positions and status for intellectuals; controlling access to resources for universities, social services, and arts organizations; compensating for market failures; steering protest movements into safe channels; and supporting those institutions by which policies are initiated and implemented" [F]oundations like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford have a corrosive influence on a democratic society; they represent relatively unregulated and unaccountable concentrations of power and wealth which buy talent, promote causes, and, in effect, establish an agenda of what merits society's attention.[59]
Foundations engage in "considerable collaboration" with networks of nonprofits (which they create and fund), corporations, international organizations, and government entities at the local, state, national and international levels. Foundations effectively "blur boundaries" between the public and private sectors, while simultaneously effecting the separation of such areas in the study of social sciences. This boundary erosion between public and private spheres "adds feudal elements to our purported democracy, yet it has not been resisted, protested, or even noted much by political elites or social scientists."[60] As foreign policy strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski indicated, the blurring of boundaries "serves United States world dominance":
As the imitation of American ways gradually pervades the world, it creates a more congenial setting for the exercise of the indirect and seemingly consensual American hegemony. And as in the case of the domestic American system, that hegemony involves a complex structure of interlocking institutions and procedures, designed to generate consensus and obscure asymmetries in power and influence.[61]
In the early twentieth century, the Walsh Commission warned that, "the power of wealth could overwhelm democratic culture and politics,"[62] and the Final Report stated, "that foundations would be more likely to pursue their own ideology in society than social objectivity."[63] The Carnegie Corporation and Rockefeller Foundation, from their origins, immediately began cooperating heavily with one another, coordinating activities and planning agendas. That the financial weight of these two institutions -- and with the Ford Foundation to enter the scene with an even larger endowment -- the coordinated influence over higher education yielded an immense power for the owners of foundations in the construction of ideology and knowledge. In providing the funding, they have the power to direct the efforts of scholars and academics, to create entire disciplines and schools of thought, to fund conferences, academic journals, publications, and think tanks. The fact that the role of philanthropic foundations in the construction and management of the educational system itself is so little known is a sign of the subtle, yet pervasive power structures that exists within academia.
Rather than looking at it from a conspiratorial view, however, look at it historically. Just as the Kings and Queens of Europe supported the development of universities in order to furnish managers and technocrats for their dynastic empires, so too do the modern dynastic powers -- in this case, banking families -- seek to tie the direction and purpose of higher education close to their own interests, and for the same reasons. It is not conspiratorial precisely because of the nature of the social phenomena itself: there are far too many social actors at play, dynamic and interactive and reactive relationships between different individuals, institutions, and ideas. Resistance and problems always emerge, even for the most dominant of powers and institutions. Thus, the financial-dynastic powers must be pragmatic in their approach, willing to reform, change, reorganize and regroup. Simply because it is not well known is not reason enough to think it a "conspiracy theory.' The facts are known, just not widely disseminated.
The next part of this series further takes up the question -- what is the purpose of education? -- and adds to it: what is -- and what should be -- the role of intellectuals in society? In particular, the focus will be on the roles of radical versus technical intellectuals, within educational institutions and the society as a whole: from the ancient prophets, to Walter Lippmann, from Zbigniew Brzezinski to Noam Chomsky, this dichotomy of intellectuals has existed in society for a great deal of human history. What are the implications this could have for today's college crisis and class warfare?
Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The People's Book Project. He also hosts a weekly podcast show, "Empire, Power, and People," on BoilingFrogsPost.com.
Notes
[1] Francisco O. Ramirez and John Boli, "The Political Construction of Mass Schooling: European Origins and Worldwide Institutionalization," Sociology of Education (Vol. 60, January 1987), page 5.
[2] Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society (Unwin Paperbacks, London: 1952), page 62.
[3] John W. Meyer, et. al., "Public Education as Nation-Building in America: Enrollments and Bureaucratization in the American States, 1870-1930," American Journal of Sociology (Vol. 85, No. 3, November 1979), page 592.
[4] Robert H. Wiebe, "The Social Functions of Public Education," American Quarterly (Vol. 21, No. 2, Part 1, Summer 1969), pages 147-148.
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