Our institutions are already, perhaps not totalitarian, but definitely authoritarian.
Again, look at 'schools,' you must stay in your seat, you must ask for permission to go to the bathroom, and sometimes that permission is denied. I mean, how much more authoritarian can you get ! ?
Authoritarianism is the ocean we swim through and we usually don't see it. (and fair warning, challenging institutions on these grounds usually gets you doghoused, punished, punished for a while even after you're no longer questioning. Even for someone with some real social skills and backed up by supportive family and friends, it's a real question of how challenging the typical institution is going to have any kind of favorable outcome for any of the people involved, the person challenging, institution, bystanders, etc)
I think the real challenge is to write a mirror image book where things are not authoritarian.
Eh, not majoritarianism. Totalitarianism in the 20th century, rather, reflected,
A. Dictatorship being more explicitly based on ideology rather than blood, as it was in the past, and,
B. Attempts to totally mobilize a society for the totalitarian goals.
Nooblet and GeographyDude do you realize how petty your comparisons of public school environments to totalitarian or authoritarian regimes sound? Do students in public schools run the risk of execution for arguing with a teacher? Does the school put you in prison if you don't want to play on the football team or be in the school play? Are innocent students routinely "beaten up" by guards? Really?
I think if I were a gulag or holocaust survivor, I'd find these comparisons rather offensive.
Look at special ed, which is supposed to be a positive thing instead becomes tracking and second-class citizenship, which is very difficult to get promoted out of.soft pressures and a total control over the development and life path of the child once they are entered into the system. From an early age, a child entering the school system is regimented into their expected place in life, while they are told they are "free" and that they should be grateful they don't live in a place like Russia where the government decides what job you will have...
Look at special ed, which is supposed to be a positive thing instead becomes tracking and second-class citizenship, which is very difficult to get promoted out of.
Look at the emphasis on formality in writing, and I have argued (unproductively) on this subject with college professors, that the mere formality of the writing covers up a wide range of highly questionable governmental and corporate policy.
And look at how schools, say, handle dyslexia. Before it was understood the child was defined as "bad" or "not trying." Schools seem to have a very hard time understanding that a person can be good at some things but not others. And . . . I'll try and end on an optimistic note. We have come some ways from the days around 1915 in Pennsylvania when they tried to pressure my grandfather to write with his right hand instead of his left. So progress is possible!