“Radical moments” such as the ones found here, fraught with social and historical contradictions stemming from opposing deeply held beliefs, reveal common conceptual bases previously invisible within the staging of their enmity or opposition. It is in this space that whole generations can rediscover the possibilities of Utopia and radical critique. What follows is an exploration of how different radical moments speak to one another across time, continents, and generations; and, as these moments bridge temporal gaps, of what meanings can be derived from their interaction.
It seems almost impossible to import any of the truths of these moments to a different reality. They lie too much in their own time, context, and specific situation. Yet it is crucial to grasp these moments and their political dimensions. Sometimes it is necessary to “unframe” them from their complex social histories and stare at the raw pieces that remain.
What story can this palimpsest tell us?
In the text that follows, we try to strip learning from the structures of education. It is impossible, of course, to do so completely, but the effort is all the same necessary if we are to explore the underlying processes by which we make something our own, wresting it back from its formal “framing” and allowing actual “learning” to take place. As the microcosm of the society it represents and reproduces, school is the first proposal for and the first hindrance to both understanding the world we live in and shaping the idea of the world we want to live in. In starting from this point, we found a chance to rewrite our political education.
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