This essay assumes that the reeducation of society can be modeled upon inferences from three citations from classical literary sources: Homer's The Odyssey, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Since the Minister of Education is not only attempting to educate, but to reeducate, he must identify aspects of society which must be changed if any new educational strategies are to supplant them. Homer and Shakespeare help the minister identify the problem; Chaucer allows him to proceed with a solution.
In Homer's The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men run into trouble on Aiaia, the island of the evil enchantress Kirke, who seduces the men with drugged Pramnian wine. They are destined for her service, like the enchanted creatures of power--lions and leopards--who guard her house, mesmerized and static. Odysseus' unsuspecting men drink Kirke's wine, and
Scarce had they drunk when she flew after them
with her long stick and shut them in a pigsty--
bodies, voices, heads, bristles, all
swinish now, though minds were still unchanged.
So, squealing, in they went. And Kirke tossed them
acorns, mast, and cornel berries--fodder
for hogs who rut and slumber on the earth. (172)
For the Minister, this story is an analog for the problems which characterize the society he seeks to reeducate. Kirke, whose power is subtle, manipulative, and deadly, is a metaphor for corporate power (the status quo), which seduces and drugs the masses into a "slumber" of ignorance and complacency. The powerful in society intoxicate the masses with the wine of ceaseless consumerism and a daily dose of intoxicating entertainment that valorizes stupidity, moral vacuity, violence-as-solution, and quick-fix answers. The result of this onslaught is a slumber of apathy and cultural insulation not unlike the slumber of those drunk on Kirke's wine, who wander sleepy-eyed into oblivion.
The Minister must realiz...