Education as Provocation

The career path of the term »education« is breathtaking. It is employed wherever other practices or institutions fail. But what is sold to us today as education has nothing to do with serious educational intent.

Everyone is talking about education. It has become a secular doctrine of salvation, a means supposed to solve every problem – from combating poverty to the integration of migrants, from climate change to the fight against terrorism. But while the buzz word »education« has become omnipresent, »the educated« – the ultimate goal of educational efforts – is a term that has not just disappeared from our vocabulary; every real attempt at education has become a provocation. Konrad Paul Liessmann brings to light the reasons for this in his new book. He journeys through the lowlands of the political landscape as well as the depths of social networks. He thinks about the moral discourse of our times and asks why meeting educated people is so unpleasant.