Omega777 ago

In 1964, Fred Emery, who would be a senior member of Tavistock, wrote “Theories of Social Turbulence” which he explained more fully in FUTURES WE ARE IN (1975). According to this theory, individuals or societies faced with a series of crises will attempt to reduce the tension by adaptation and eventually psychological retreat as if anesthetized (similar to Pavlov’s “protective inhibition response”). This can lead to social disintegration, which Emery called “segmentation.”

In 1970, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) of the NEA published TO NURTURE HUMANENESS: COMMITMENT FOR THE ’70s, in which Sidney Jourard (Fellow at the Tavistock Clinic and former president of the Association for Humanist Psychology), wrote: “We are in a time of revolt…. The new society will be a fascist state or it will be pluralistic and humanistic.” The primary characteristic of the fascist state is increasing control over people’s lives by government in league with corporations. Sound like today?

Relevant to this, in October 1997 the Tavistock Institute (and Manchester University) completed a final report (under Contract ERB-SOE2-CT-96-2011) for the European Commission, and described in a report summary was that there will be “partnerships between government, industry, and representatives of worker organizations.” The report summary also described “the relevancy of Goals 2000, SCANS (U.S. Department of Labor SECRETARY’S COMMISSION ON ACHIEVING NECESSARY SKILLS) typology with its profound implications for the curriculum and training changes that this will require,” valid skills standards and portable credentials “benchmarked to international standards such as those promulgated by the International Standards Organization (ISO).” The report summary went on to say that “there is increasing attention being focused on developing global skill standards and accreditation agreements.

In the 1990s, the Tavistock Institute not only began a new journal titled EVALUATION in 1995, but the Institute and the European Commission also worked on a feasibility study to research the effect of using “Smart Cards” in competence accreditation. The study was carried out in the U.S. and parts of Europe. The project involved assessing and validating students’ skills, with information placed on personal skills Smart Cards which “become real passports to employment.” The implication, of course, is that without this “real passport,” one will not be employed.