First thing’s first: Financial Information. This past week, the project was saved by some very generous donations from readers, so thank you very much! Total donations for the project this past week equal $1,085.00, and the hours worked on the book were 24 @ $15/hour, making my total payment for the week $360.00. I would have done a lot more, but I got quite sick halfway through the week, so this delayed my efforts.
However, a great deal of work was accomplished this past week. I can safely and happily report that I managed to start and finish a 35 page chapter on the history of education, both mass schooling (elementary and secondary) as well as university education, leading up to the 20th century. I study and present this formation as very much central to the processes of strengthening social institutions, and specifically fostering nationalism and supporting the state. It occurred in different ways, and to different degrees in varying countries, but the basic principle was in supporting the formation of nation-states (at least for the development of mass schooling). University education was somewhat different in its origins, as it developed out of a rapidly changing society in the medieval period, and represented a new institutional form of power over knowledge, originally supported mostly by the Church, but eventually, as the modern nation-state developed, it became increasingly under the control of the state and designed to serve the interests of the nation.
I also examine the concept of “social control” which emerged in the discipline of sociology in the late 19th century, and thus, discuss the emergence of that discipline itself. The examination of social control as both a method and an objective, as well as its implications for the social sciences, in terms of effecting the fields of sociology, political science, economics, and psychology in directing social scientists into becoming social engineers with the objective of creating social control in a rapidly changing social order. The aim, then, was to maintain the social hierarchy through rapid social transformations. This was done through a process of social engineering, and with the aim of social control.
These concepts were very important to establish since they are generally expressed throughout the rest of the book. The next chapter, then, will be specifically on the origins of the philanthropic foundations, and most especially on their influence over higher education and the social sciences, understanding the foundations as “engines of social engineering” with the institutional objective of social control. This is a chapter that I am excited to get writing, simply because I have been doing research from a large array of books and academic journals on this particular subject for over a year, and have quite a wealth of information to properly inform this chapter. So, for this week, my aim is to get a lot of work done on this chapter, and to perhaps return to my chapter on the consumer society to finish that off.
Regardless, the fact that in the past week I managed to start and finish a chapter (35 pages in length) is a very promising development. Also, I will be sure to come out with another sample from a chapter of my book. Not sure what chapter I will sample from yet, though I have a few ideas, and am leaning toward giving a sample on some information in one chapter regarding the Trilateral Commission.
Anyway, a great deal more work to be done, but I am definitely more productive than I have ever been on this project, and feel as if, for the first time, I can see the ending. I can’t quite specify how long it will take to get there, as I want to remain hopeful that it be finished relatively soon, but also be realistic in the sense that I don’t want to rush the effort just to finish for the sake of finishing. I need to make sure the finished product is worth the effort.
Thanks again for all your support, please keep it up!
Andrew
