Displacing Fear from Education: Regaining Cognitive Compassion and Democracy

Critical globalization scholars argue that democracy is in crisis, negatively affecting political systems, social relations, and education. Most think education and democracy ought to play a progressive role in advancing the common good for humanity. We demonstrate that education has become a reflection of neoliberalism, replacing mutual concern and compassion with fear of uncertainty, which results in preserving global capitalism’s negative processes. We propose that to achieve real democracy, education, and radical emancipa-tory processes that can overturn neoliberalism, we ought to make individuals aware of the role of freedom under capitalism, in warping the foundation of modern societies. To do this, education ought to be conceived as the pillar of cognitive compassion and not as a component of neoliberalism. Education must be directed at overcoming the capitalist ideology and promoting cognitive compassion. This is the path toward a good society and ultimately real democracy.