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Ultimate Goal of Corporations in
America: Gaining Control of Universities
By Charles Mercieca
08/15/05 "ICH" -- -- The policies used by big corporations in America to achieve what they want by all means are very different from those used by peaceful democratic organizations world-wide. Responsible democratic organizations across every continent try to get what they want by educating the general public to see things into true perspective as they relate to their exclusive welfare. This way they build a wide support for the humanitarian goals they are trying to achieve. As a result, the majority of the population becomes enlightened to make appropriate choices.
Strategy of Control
Big corporations have no regard whatsoever as to what the majority of the people may think. They get what they want by trying to control the man on top and/or the small elite that has the decision-making power. Usually, the top man goes by the name of king, president or prime minister. They study carefully his strengths and weaknesses and then they plan a strategy to capitalize on his/her weaknesses. They do likewise when they try to bring the surrounding influential people under their tightened control.
In their plan of absolute control, they hire psychologists to study the mood of the people in an entire nation but, in particular, the mood of those in charge. Then a strategy is developed that consists of deceitful advertisements and presentations as to impress their intended victims that occupy decision-making positions. After all, that is what lobbyists in Washington, DC do day in and day out. They literally try to hypnotize not only the US President and those around him but also as many senators and congressmen they possibly can.
Since almost everyone in the US government has attended college or university at one time or another, the preliminary groundwork of big corporations is targeted at universities. They are convinced that once they control the universities, they can produce a generation that can absorb all kind of deceitful propaganda and indoctrination they want to inject forcefully and effectively ahead of time.
This explains why professors and students are not allowed to have a say in the selection of the college or university president and of the members of the Board of Trustees. With some very rare exception, such top positions in institutions of higher learning in the United States are virtually all political appointments. It explains why teacher and student initiatives in peace work, for example, are not encouraged because they advocate the importance of international disarmament and arms control. This is interpreted to go directly against the financial interests of big corporations linked to the war industry.
Victimization of Universities
During the decade of the seventies, former Dean of Columbia University in New York, Dr. Jacques Barzun, said: “There was a time when the institutions of higher learning were guided by people who felt the responsibility to create a better world. Nowadays, such colleges and universities have fallen into the hands of those who want to use such institutions for any purpose but learning.” A brief analysis of the mind of institutional presidents and the members of the Board of Trustees as a whole vindicates Barzun’s statement. The vast majority of the top officials of colleges and universities are business oriented people who view the college or university they direct primarily as a money-making instrument.
This explains by big corporations headed by the weapons industry, are interested in talking to students on campus in the hope to recruit an elite to work for the war industry in particular in a variety of ways. The US military also has its eyes on colleges and universities where recruiters go there to encourage young men and women to join the military. As we all know, the war industry has become a very lucrative business. It explains why the US government, which works hand in hand with big corporations, tries to send representatives to every head of state to offer military aid, which consists of the sales of weapons.
They do this under the formulated gimmick: national defense and security. US big corporations provide all of their lethal products to friends and foes alike, as witnessed in the Iran/Contra affair where the US big corporations sold to Iran, arch enemy of the USA at the time, in the tune of $15 billion worth or armaments via Brazil, South Africa and Israel. Many in the teaching profession at the college and university level have advocated that the faculty and students are most qualified to select their president and the Members of the Board of Trustees. If they are deemed qualified to vote and elect the President of the United States along with all the members of the government, senators and congressmen alike, surely they must be qualified to elect the College or University President and to have a direct say in the formation of the Board of Trustees.
To what extent did US big corporations have gained control over American colleges and universities? Although the extent of control cannot be measured with absolute accuracy, it remains a fact that most of the academic freedom is disappearing faster than anticipated or one can imagine. Some time ago, an excellent professor at the University of Colorado was fired from his institution simply because he tried to make his student understand the link between the 3,000 Americans killed innocently in New York in 2001 by terrorists and some 30,000 innocent people killed and maimed in Iraq with American bombs.
Absence of Academic Freedom
This professional educator was Professor Ward Churchill of Native American descent. He became tired of hearing US government officials referring to innocent Americans killed in New York as “victims” while innocent Iraqis killed with American bombs as “collateral damage” like they were a piece of furniture. He said that US government officials did not have in mind to kill innocent civilians in Iraq and their death was referred to as “collateral damage.” Professor Ward Churchill told his students that, by same token, the terrorists did not have in mind to kill innocent Americans but only to attack the “seat of world capitalism” that has exploited millions of people world-wide over the years.
He added saying that the Americans that died in New York could also be viewed as “collateral damage” to use the same terminology of US government officials relative to the Iraqi people. Also, when you have people in the US government that are heavily influenced by big corporations headed by the war industry, referring to the National Education Association of which the vast majority of US teachers at all levels of education are members, as being a “terrorist organization,” the situation cannot go worse. We also have had both corporate managers and US government officials who claimed that “those who advocate the promotion of peace are terrorists!”
Of course, if peace would render the manufacture and sales of weapons as unnecessary, needless and obsolete, then we should understand why big corporations in the United States that view war as a lucrative business enterprise, they view “peace” as their enemy in the strict sense! US big corporations that are especially linked with the manufacture and sale of weapons want to implement an educational philosophy in our colleges and universities that would view the continuous struggles and waging of wars as an absolute necessity for survival! This explains why the US President wants to spend countless billions of dollars that may amount to trillions to put endless weapons into space circling over our heads day in and day out all the year round.
They tell us that they need to safeguard the lives of Americans from premature death by terrorists. Americans in tens of thousands are dying every week of cancer. What are the US big corporations of the war industry doing to save some 2 million Americans dying every year from this malady? What is the war industry doing in the USA to protect the American people from deadly toxic wastes that are being emitted by such corporations throughout the year? What are such US big corporations doing to cure Americans from epilepsy, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and numerous other maladies? The answer is simple: Absolutely nothing!
Distortion of Patriotism and Bravery
If you were to find colleges and universities in the USA talking to students about the hazards of war, that would be a rare exception. US big corporations, particularly those linked with the war industry are trying to portray the fighting of wars as a sign or “patriotism and bravery!” Hearing this as originating from US big corporations, one may begin to understand the corporate financial interests that are involved, even when fully detrimental to the lives of Americans and other people elsewhere. But when you hear US government officials viewing war as a necessity to safeguard “democracy and freedom,” when these elements do not really exist in the United States, the situation becomes somewhat serious.
The fact that the US President is elected by the Electoral College, which consists of a few hundreds of people and not by a simple majority of the American people, shows that there is no democracy. The fact that teachers and students are not allowed to select and elect their college and university president and are not allowed to have a say in this matter, shows that there is no democracy. The fact that to run for a top political office you have to have countless millions of dollars to bring your message statewide and nationwide, shows that there is no democracy.
The fact that the US government prohibits Americans from traveling freely anywhere in the world, shows that there is no freedom. The fact that the US government prohibits Americans to visit their peaceful neighbor Cuba that gives its people free health care and free education from the cradle to the grave shows that there is no freedom. And the list goes on and on! In view of what has been stated, the American people should open their eyes widely, to understand the realities that they face and to proceed to dehypnotize themselves from all the false beliefs they were fed especially over the past few decades. The universities remain the seat of learning where students are enabled to see everything into clear perspective the way God does without any deception or deceit.
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. - <mercieca@knology.net> President International Association of Educators for World Peace. NGO, United Nations (ECOSOC), UNDPI, UNICEF, UNCED & UNESCO. Professor Emeritus. Alabama A&M University
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