Understanding the Assignment

Another Contribution to Post-Election Discourse

“He understood the assignment.” “She understood the assignment.” “They understood the assignment.” I was coming across the phrase more and more often during the runup to the presidential election. Now that the results are in, it seems suggestive of a liberal culture that has, fatally perhaps, never left the classroom. A realignment has happened, with wealthy educated Americans breaking for the Democrats, and those without college degrees, the lower middle classes, breaking for Republicans, reversing a pattern that has held for generations. The problem with investing schooling with so much importance is that most people are done with it precisely when they reach the age of majority. No more pencils, no more books. The bully, the class clown, all of them are enfranchised along with the would-be members of the professional class, and all the teacherly admonitions to use evidence, to listen to arguments, to right historical wrongs, to vote for the best qualified candidate, all of those admonitions can be safely ignored, since the last bell has rung and the classroom is empty. Democratic Party cosigns from Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, and Taylor Swift—those assignment understanders—fall on deaf ears, or rather, they fall on no ears at all. The students have moved on to the American business of big car, big house in the suburbs, maybe getting into a low ranked party school for a business or marketing degree, and thus, a bigger car and a bigger house in a more remote suburb. That Elon Musk, a ketamine-addled moron, can become the world’s richest man is a form of hope. He doesn’t have to understand rocketry, auto manufacture, social media—very difficult assignments—he owns these things. When pundits argue about the extent of Trump and Musk’s wealth, when the decry their mistreatment of women, their flouting of the law, the lumpen bourgeoisie of this nation, actual and aspiring, see success maintained despite the losers and the haters. The truth is that you don’t have to be very smart or be very good at your job to make it and make it big—(ethics have always been an impediment to business).  When the credit card bill is due, when the mortgage needs paying, an economist is not going to magically appear beside the voter and say, well, for your particular tranche wage growth has outpaced inflation, which is, by the way, over. The only compelling takeaway, another pedantic turn of phrase from contemporary punditry, is “get your money up” and the gangster capitalists, dumb or not, are poised to make a killing. Everyday Americans expect to be cut in on the deal. This is naïve, but the belief is sustained for as long your side, or rather the side you picked, keeps on winning. And there are resentments to factor in. Voting for the rich moron presents an extended middle finger to the strivers and the suck-ups, to the teachers who put you down. The bell has rung. The books are shut, ready to be pulped. Nothing has been learned except the raw lessons of money and power. Meanwhile, outside the classroom doors, an unseasonably hot November persists.