How to Avoid a Phd (Penalty for Hardworking Dummies): Wishing I Were an Autodidact

Tamara I. Hammond

Description

This book is the result of decades-long academic research and 25 years of emergence in the myth of the American dream. In reality, a small minority of ultra-rich corporations have complete control over the government and mercilessly exploit the majority of Americans. The author debunks the illusion of meritocracy, heavily promoted by ubiquitous propaganda. Through the mainstream media, PR, and academia, the legend is sold to the American people and the world as an equal opportunity for all. Packaged in glamorous fabricated stories, the myth is glorified by Hollywood and legitimized by multiple mainstream news channels that are owned by five companies, which control the narrative. At the same time, higher education is designed to enslave graduates with enormous debts in order to keep them obedient. In the complete absence of adequate opposition, these institutions create and maintain a plutocracy while purporting to represent freedom and democracy.

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Histoire
• State
• United States
• History
• Local

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 13 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665575256
• Langue: English

Extrait

HOW TO AVOID A PHD (PENALTY FOR HARDWORKING DUMMIES): WISHING I WERE AN AUTODIDACT
Tamara I. Hammond


AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2022 Tamara Ionkova Hammond. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Cover Designer: Ivana Georgieva
 
 
Published by AuthorHouse 11/10/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7526-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7527-0 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7525-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022920788
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
 
Chapter 1 The Failure of Mainstream Media to Counter-Balance the Three Estates of Power: A Short History of the Corruption of the Forth Estate
Chapter 2 The Critics of the Media Are the Fifth Estate: The Rise of Dissident Indie Media as Opposition to the Fourth Estate
Chapter 3 The Regulatory Capture of the Four Estates of Power by Neoliberal Robber Barons: The Crime Bill of 1994, The Telecommunication Act of 1996, the 1999 Repeal of Glass-Steagall Act, the Patriot Act of 2001, and the Great Reset of 2020
Chapter 4 The Role of Academia in Supporting the Status Quo: From Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays to Barak Obama and Sheryl Sandberg, the Propaganda Wheel is Always Well-Greased.
Chapter 5 Academic Dissidents: The Glaring Absence of Noam Chomsky, Cornell West, and Chris Hedges from the Mainstream Media
Chapter 6 The Infiltration and Co-option of Genuine Movements: Neutralizing Opposition through Corruption and Violence from the Black Panthers and the NOW to #BLM and #MeToo
Chapter 7 The Climate Change Disaster: From the Oil Industry Sabotage to the New Green Deal Profiteers, No One Has the Wellbeing of Species in Mind
Chapter 8 The Dissident Indie Media: If They Can See Through Propaganda, We Can Too
Chapter 9 Never Trust Politicians, Mainstream Journalists and Academics: They Are the Ruling Class
Chapter 10 Ignorance is Propaganda’s Best Friend: Challenging and Investigating The Official Narrative Is the Only Way to Educate Yourself and Others
 
Conclusion
The Tale of The Stairs
Bibliography

For my talented and reliable American husband Ernie, who, unlike his country, kept his promises to me, and to whom I dedicate this book with love and appreciation
Acknowledgements
M any special thanks to my grandson Triston for his Toltec wisdom, love, and help during my work, and for brightening my life.
Many profound thanks to my daughter Tammy for her enlightening information, and to her husband, Peter, for his hard work.
Many genuine thanks to my American friends and family, who inspired me to write this book, and who will always have my love and gratitude.
Many heartfelt thanks to my Bulgarian friends and family, whose support and encouragement are essential in my expatriate life.
Many sincere thanks to my friends around the world for their care, communication, and networking.
Many whole-hearted thanks to my book-cover designer, Ivie, for her creativity and profound understanding.
Introduction
T his book is a continuation or rather rebuttal of my 2011 book titled How to Obtain a PhD, about hard-working dummies chasing the American Dream. In my subsequent book with the same acronym for PhD (Penalty for Hard-working Dummies), I argue that incredibly naïve thinkers and intellectuals fall victims of the educational system and propaganda in America including the author of this book. I was heavily brainwashed by a sophisticated industry called “People Relations” founded by Edward Bernays in the 1920s that is even more effective today. In my case, after 15 years in academia and a Doctorate degree, I finally broke free from the neoliberal ideology that kept me hostage for quite some time. Yet, in the first book I deciphered some important aspects of the propaganda and was able to see through it. For example, the financial predatory lending for profit, the food and drug fraudulent industry, and the two-party system that works for the same elites, among others were obvious to me from the beginning. Paradoxically, as I delved into my academic studies, I was swayed away from my critical perspective as I was emersed in the deliberate promotion of corporate agenda in the complete absence of opposite views.
Fortunately, thanks to dissident figures such as Eugene Debs, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, and independent journalists such as Chris Hedges, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, and Caitlin Johnstone among others, I reexamined and challenged the propaganda imposed on everyone by equally mercenary academia and media. In addition, whistleblowers and heroes who risk their freedom and comfortable lives to reveal the truth about our government’s unconstitutional spying on its citizens and carrying out illegal military actions, lifted the veil of secrecy and shed a light on the grim reality of corporate tyranny. To celebrate my liberation from the manufactured consent among corporate controlled media and academia, I decided to share my newly acquired enlightenment with everyone eager to know the truth. More importantly, I wish I were an autodidact instead of investing more than a dozen of years in ridiculously expensive institutionalized boot camp called higher education. I argue that the goal of the business model of higher education is to enslave future employees through enormous debt and to condition them to work around the clock in low-paying, precarious jobs for decades in order to pay back their student loans. Any massive investment in formal education precludes the quest for learning the truth while simultaneously delays unbiased research by years. As an autodidact, I could have stumbled upon the truth significantly sooner if I weren’t wasting time digesting the mandatory ideology of mendacious mythology designed to maintain the status quo.
This astonishing delay in my discovery of the truth illustrates how powerful the industry of propaganda is, strengthened by the network of mass media, academia, and think tanks working for the real owners of Americans – large corporations driven by profit. The exploitation of the majority of Americans by a handful of super rich multi-billionaires is both facilitated and obscured by mass media because their very few owners control the official narrative. Through very sophisticated mechanisms of propaganda that constantly disseminate the illusion of freedom, democracy, and meritocracy, the myth is perpetuated ed nauseum . More outrageously, the media sell to the public absurd ideas such as endless wars, individual responsibility for institutional failures, and social injustice presented as meritocracy. At the same time, the incessant propaganda conditions the public to accept the denial of basic human rights such as healthcare, living wages and higher education as undeserved luxuries. More importantly, the persisting system driven by greed, which prioritizes profit above human health and existence leads to the devastation of life on earth and cannot be sustained anymore.
Fortunately, people are waking up to the sobering facts of climate emergency and the independent new media both inform people and organize their resistance against their extinction. Demonstrated in organizations such as Extinction Rebellion founded in November 2018, as well as Sunrise youth movement in the US from 2017, citizens’ outrage cannot be suppressed anymore. The opposition is especially embraced and led by the younger generations who are educated by new independent media and have avoided the massive propaganda by choosing not to watch TV or mainstream digital media. Although constantly growing, the awareness of Americans about the exploitative and deadly system that benefits only a few moguls and denies everyone else a decent life, still lags behind the world’s response. Only since 2019 there was a shift in public opinion, and as of 2021, two-thirds of Americans believe global warming is both real and caused by humans. 1 The change is driven by the mainstream media who finally decided to support the ideas for green energy for profit, thus breaking the silence they maintained about what they knew since the 1970s. To paraphrase Greta Thunberg, the teenage environmental activist from Sweden, people are not evil or lazy, they just didn’t know the scientific facts about our dire situation.
Sadly, as history teaches us, most of the genuine movements get co-opted by special interests, and perhaps unwittingly, they are neutralized by the very powers they fight. The environmental movements are not immune from being co-opted in government cabinets that work covertly against their ideas. By the time this book is published, many of the movements and independent media outlets could be disempowered or corrupted. This recently happened to the Sunrise movement as its leaders were neutralized in 2020. By given a fake seat to the government table they are compelled to accept incremental changes with generous promises for future betterment. 2 The predominant bad actors here are the corporations whose financial interest leads to gross inequality a