Justifying is part of it, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough that people believe in liberalism in an abstract sense, they have to be trained to go out into the world and take jobs maintaining and expanding the machinery of empire. It’s why elite private universities have the prestige that they do. It’s not that learning is valued for its own sake, or that these institutions do a better job at distributing knowledge. It’s that these institutions have the best track record of producing the future imperial ruling class. Nobody tries to get into the best school they can because they think they’ll learn better, they do it to maximize their potential class mobility.
Reproducing? Or justifying.
Because I would argue justifying.
Justifying is part of it, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough that people believe in liberalism in an abstract sense, they have to be trained to go out into the world and take jobs maintaining and expanding the machinery of empire. It’s why elite private universities have the prestige that they do. It’s not that learning is valued for its own sake, or that these institutions do a better job at distributing knowledge. It’s that these institutions have the best track record of producing the future imperial ruling class. Nobody tries to get into the best school they can because they think they’ll learn better, they do it to maximize their potential class mobility.