Saw the words “lifelong learners” in the announement of a summer school somewhere, and it reminded me of how some years ago lifelong learning was the whole big idea, also from policy makers. And now Demir, who certainly wasn't living under a rock at the time, comes with ideas about limiting lifelong learning? This is hella confusing at face value. While I am learning of the deeper mechanics that keep policy so repressive and having a tendency towards increased capitalism and quite aware of that, I can't deny a modicum of shock at such a very visible twisting-turning of policy narratives. What is the goal: lifelong learning because we are a knowledge economy in Belgium, or no lifelong learning because we need more proletarian low-schooled workers in an increasingly multipolar world where we aren't certain of which countries we work together with versus are ennemies or what? Oh... OOoooooooh. Okay. But then there's Mercosur and the picture becomes confusing again. I tried to get why the sudden change of direction in policy, but all I got was this lousy new reason to hate the war. Okay, granted someone has to do the handwork, but can we please all learn? It's perfectly reasonable to keep learning while working. But hey, in Germany they already have a concept of “lifestyle-teilzeit-arbeit” and it's a reproach by neoliberal quacks who pretend working halftime because you want to do something else with your life is somehow bad? And then this reminds me of reading somewhere how before modernity kicked us in the nuts with its everlasting exhausting rationalisations and calvinist “you gotta work or else you bad” logics (at least according to Weber), we all found it perfectly normal to arrange your life around having a good life and funding your leisure instead of organising it around being a heartless, feelingless, joylus bundle of working capacity.
failing to express the existential 'meh' this makes me feel