You have a situation in which the U.S. is fighting three unjust wars and wasting trillions of dollars in public funds, all the while draining money from important social services and public and higher education.
Henry GirouxThe alternative position to whether torture is acceptable - that's not an alternative position, that's barbarism. The question here is not whether torture is acceptable or whether it works. It should be simply seen as a war crime. There's no other position on torture.
Henry GirouxAs modern society is formed against the backdrop of a permanent war zone, a carceral state and hyper-militarism, the social stature of the military and soldiers has risen.
Henry GirouxWe need to remember that education can be both a basis for critical thought and a site for repression, which destroys thinking and leads to violence.
Henry GirouxAll too often the worst thing that can happen to the young is to depoliticize them. When that happens, not only are young people told that they do not count โ your agency is worthless, your experiences are worthless, and your voice should remain silent โ but they are also told that there is no alternative to current state of affairs.
Henry GirouxThe Left doesn't realize that unless you create a formative culture and a critical consciousness capable of changing the way people think about the common sense assumptions that drive their lives, then you've got an ideological foundation for totalitarianism that not only destroys the capacity to think critically, it destroys the capacity to have convictions at all.
Henry Giroux