Foreword: Contesting Pygmalion democracy

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing.

Hannah Arendt (1951)

On January 20, 2025, the American people saw the return of Donald Trump to the White House. This first week of the Trump presidency left many disheartened and frightened about what is to come. Concerned with fascistic overtones of the new administration, social critics also point to growing polarization worldwide, as alignments with powerful oligarchs, overt fascistic tendencies, and anti-democratic expressions seem to be on the rise. Many have been left absolutely stunned as we witness one of the most disturbing examples of precisely the phenomenon this book seeks to unveil and problematize in the form of rhetoric and myths of Pygmalion democracy, a facsimile of democracy where political systems operate as self-fulfilling illusions rather than genuine democratic commitment. In living color, we watch the strident delivery of some of the most mean-spirited executive orders set forth by any President in the last century.

Trump has moved to abolish birthright citizenship, shut down the federal office of gun violence prevention, dissolve diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives within the federal government, halt environmental initiatives, withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, pull out of the World Health Organization, attack the rights of transgender, intergender, and gay citizens, bar sanctuary rights, call for mass deportations, uphold the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, and criminalize undocumented immigrants despite their contribution to the U.S. economy. Trump’s executive orders also called for “expanding educational freedom”^[1] through K-12 educational choice initiatives (vouchers) and by “eliminating Federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”^[2] Moreover, Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) cronies are poised to enact one of the most draconian political economic agendas of all time, through federal mandates that aim to catapult the social and political climate of the United States back to the 1950s. In fact, economists predict that under Trump’s America First protectionism, prices will indeed rise, and it will be the poor and working class, as usual, whose lives will be most severely affected.

In the midst of this, Paul R. Carr, Eloy Rivas-Sanchez, and Gina Thésée, along with the contributors to this volume, have chosen to courageously contest the realities of Pygmalion democracy that are threatening to fully hijack the promise of democracy in this country. Through fictitious portrayals and self-serving promotion, including Trump’s assertion “I was saved by God to make America great again,” a false consciousness is peddled for consumption. Trump’s unscrupulous and all-consuming narcissism, laced in the parlance of Christian nationalism gone amok, fuels a propaganda machine of deafening truisms. In The Dogma of Christ, Erich Fromm (1963) argued that any illusion (or lie) shared by everyone can regrettably become reality. This is brought to life by Trump supporters who openly refute facts undeniably sustained by all reasonable measures. Hannah Arendt (1967, p. 15) wrote, “the result of a consistent and total substitution of lies or factual truth is not that the lies will be accepted as truth, and the truth be defamed as lies, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world…is being destroyed.” Such is the discursive disorder of Pygmalion democracy, where mass confusions engendered by fake news have left many at sea, flailing to recover their bearings.

Of the 335 million people in the U.S., 254 million Americans are eligible to vote. Of these only 150 million voted in the 2024 presidential election. Of those who voted, approximately 50 percent voted for Trump, meaning that, less than 22 percent (or 75 million people) determined the Trump victory. The majority of Americans stayed home dismayed, disgusted, and disillusioned. Although we cannot fully blame Trump’s political contortions for the disengagement of the majority of the American people from their own governance, for some, his capricious antics are the straw that broke the camel’s back. Great numbers of working people across the nation sat this one out, except for a boisterous cadre of Trump supporters—many white and uneducated. In some circles, the growing apathy among workers is seen as a logical response to decades of abandonment by both political parties.

Concerned with the overall damage that political power is capable of inflicting upon the nation, the economy, and on education—one of the few remaining public spaces for deliberating on democratic life—the editors and contributors to this groundbreaking volume thoughtfully provide readers with much needed political and pedagogical considerations. These encompass provoking discussions of post-digital transformations, neoliberal resistance and solidarity, vulnerabilities experienced by women, issues linked to climate crisis, challenges of misinformation, misrepresentation of marginalized groups, the digitalization of higher education, eco-pedagogical concerns, questions of esthetical-learning, and much more. The volume, most importantly, weaves together powerful messages of radical hope in our capacity to resurrect the promise of democracy and collectively work to build a future beyond the oppressive precepts of Pygmalion democracy, where currently “the chances of factual truth surviving the onslaught of power are very slim indeed” (Arendt, 1967, p. 3).

The Promise of Democracy

Now is the time to make right the promises of democracy.

 Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)

More than sixty years after Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to a massive crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., everywhere we see the promise of democracy dying on the vine, as civil rights and social justice triumphs of the last century are being eliminated by the stroke of a pen. Yet, it is worth remembering that King spoke about democracy as a promise to remind us that it was not yet a reality but an imagined principle that might move us forward. Democracy has long been heralded as the cornerstone of a just society, offering citizens the promise of participation, equity, and shared power. Here, the promise of genuine democracy transcends the procedural apparatuses of the ballot box or rhetorical mantras; and, instead, extends to critical engagement with the lived social, political, and economic realities of individuals and their communities. This speaks to a transformative democracy that is fundamentally participatory, egalitarian, anti-racist, and economically just, with the political potential to both dismantle systems of oppression and cultivate institutions grounded in justice, dignity, and mutual respect. This is to say, genuine democracy requires a clear alignment with the social and material needs of the people, in efforts to safeguard the accountability of the state, while stifling political injustices and the unbridled advancement of capitalist exploitation.

In contrast, Pygmalion democracy operates predominantly within a framework of authoritarian governance and economic elitism meant to distance citizens from decision-making processes that impact their daily lives. It is a hegemonic expression of a pseudo-democracy that intentionally fosters alienation and perpetuates power imbalances, as individuals and their communities are reduced to passive observers rather than subjects of their own histories and active agents of social change. Paulo Freire (1970), in his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, argued unwaveringly that meaningful democratic participation requires critical dialogue that can support a political process of “conscientization,” where people are free to critically reflect on their lived circumstances, participate in robust dialogue, and collectively act to transform their world. A critical democracy rooted in the actual needs and conditions of the people creates the conditions for the empowerment of communities to take ownership of their lives, through consistent opportunities for decision-making that fosters individual and collective agency, responsibility, and participation within civil society.

A grave concern expressed by Carr, Rivas-Sanchez, and Thésée and contributors to this volume is the manner in which Pygmalion democracy, as we are experiencing in the U.S. and other parts of the world, is plagued by deep structural inequalities that marginalize social groups based on class, skin color, gender, sexuality, religion, and citizenship status. In Teaching to Transgress (1994), bell hooks asserted that no genuine democracy could flourish in an environment of systemic oppression, for inclusive and equitable spaces are key prerequisites for its authentic and consistent practice. Genuine democracy engenders structures and practices of engagement that ensure that every voice, particularly those historically silenced and oppressed, are not only heard and valued, but have a myriad of opportunities for shaping the outcome of policies and practices across society. This requires wide-reaching social movements that can both challenge the excesses of capital and put pressure on the government to remain attentive and in sync with the actual needs of the working-class and the most impoverished. This entails igniting the revolutionary possibilities of collective democratic contestation, to challenge the corruption that betrays the promise of democracy.

Moreover, the transformative potential of democratic societies lies precisely in their ability to address the root causes of human oppression. To do this, democracy must be understood as a profoundly dynamic and ever-changing political process that requires committed and on-going participation and involvement in order to effectively counter assaults to the integrity of its fundamental purpose: to provide a system of governance that ensures power rests with the people, fostering equality, freedom, and far-reaching representation, as it strives to enact the principles and policies for a just and inclusive society. At its core, the promise of democracy that King advocated encompasses the wisdom and knowledge of all people, promotes social and material equality, protects individual and collective freedoms, ensures accountability as well as checks and balances, facilitates peaceful resolution of internal and external conflicts, and fosters civic responsibility for the well-being of people everywhere. Similarly, at the heart of arguments posed in this book is the recognition that schools, as microcosms of society, have the potential to cultivate critical citizens (in the broadest sense of this term), who can question dominant narratives and envision alternative futures for a more just world. By embedding liberatory principles of social and material justice, critical inquiry, and collective action into educational practices, education can serve as a means for ensuring democracy as a participatory and transformative way of life, rather than a mere rhetorical sideshow to camouflage the economic urges and obsessions of the ruling class.

It is worth reiterating that genuine democracy embraces interdependence and collective well-being over rampant individualism and commodification of human needs. In a neoliberal context where the marketization and instrumentalization of education are prioritized over the construction of knowledge and deepening of wisdom, democracy risks being reduced to the wiles of consumer choice rather than collective deliberation. Instead, a key aspect is to advocate for a shift toward genuine forms of collective solidarity and communal responsibility. In Democracy and Education, John Dewey (1916) advanced the notion that democracy above all must be about a way of living together, characterized by shared purpose and cooperation. Inherent in the promise of a transformative democracy are political and pedagogical spaces to contest unjust hierarchical systems, to foster critical consciousness, and to prioritize the well-being of human beings as well as the protection and sustainability of the planet. However, as is made clear by the contributors to this volume, this also requires constant vigilance and struggle, in that democracy is not a fixed endpoint but an ongoing organic and evolutionary process. It is precisely these indispensable democratic qualities that become deeply corrupted by the mythos of greatness and manifest destiny that fuels Pygmalion democracy.

Mantra of “Greatness” and other Myths

America believes itself exceptional, the greatest and noblest nation to ever exist, a lone champion standing between the white city of democracy and the terrorists, despots, barbarians, and other enemies of civilization.

Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)

One of the most treacherous aspects of Pygmalion democracy is its blanket assertion of superiority under the guise of national greatness. As Carr, Rivas-Sanchez, and Thésée rightly note, the mantra of America as the “greatest nation” has been a long-running proclamation among Presidents over the years. It is not surprising then, that the cultural fervor of asserting greatness has bolstered the politics and practices of manifest destiny, which resulted in the justification of colonization, genocide, and enslavement of millions of impoverished and racialized people around the globe. These oppressive outcomes can be directly connected with fictitious beliefs that assert the moral superiority of America, beliefs that are loudly echoed today in Trumpian sloganeering.

Contributions in this volume problematize this phenomenon by offering social, pedagogical, political, and economic insights that illustrate that this national fiction cannot be effectively contested in a vacuum but, rather, it must be understood within the context of advancing capitalism. The mythos of greatness, as justification of the elite, has been utilized historically to justify the proliferation of inequalities of the state as well as to ensure U.S. economic control around the world. Greatness then as a consistent historical mantra is generated to garner unquestioning consensus and allegiance to undemocratic policies and practices that prioritize the interests of capital over all other concerns. As such, transnational corporations have license to run roughshod over communities and over the land, extracting the labor of workers and exploiting natural resources with impunity.

Trump’s version of Pygmalion democracy reinscribes symbols, language, and posture consistent with his imperialist ideations, fermented by ultraconservative evangelists who have proclaimed him manifest destiny’s child and saviour of Christian America. In response, the editors and contributors of this book are deeply troubled by the blatant advancement of pseudo-democratic discourses, ruthless technological practices, and twisted religious pretenses poised to cloak longstanding inequalities of the economy, education, healthcare, immigration, policing, incarceration, and environment. As Carr, Rivas-Sanchez, and Thésée point out, the sustained hollow narratives of American greatness, manifest destiny, and the American dream to boot, continue to work, hand in hand, to justify social and material exclusions that invoke legacies of genocide, slavery, colonization, and poverty. Moreover, the posture of superiority and exceptionalism associated with Trump’s national greatness campaign disguises the machinations of power, obscuring widespread economic and political corruption.

Dispelling Myths

 A fact which is not denied but whose truths are rationalized loses its objective base. It ceases to be concrete and becomes a myth…

Paulo Freire (1976)

The overarching ethos of greatness has also served to reinforce a number of accompanying educational myths, myths that this volume on Pygmalion democracy seeks to dispel.  These myths are founded on a one-dimensional individualism and a deceptive system of meritocracy that upholds individual and national exceptionalism, extending power and privilege to those deemed worthy and deserving. Freire (1970, 1993) firmly believed that it was necessary to unveil these myths in our efforts to contest all forms of human oppression. In order to comprehend the pervasive nature of late capitalism and its rapidly shifting cultural maps, class relations, gender patterns of discrimination, and racialized exploitation, we must recognize how hegemonic structures function undemocratically, in complicity with the political economy. Education, for example, plays a significant role in the process of capitalist accumulation, as student populations are tracked into an economic hierarchy through a fictitious system of meritocracy that legitimates the ideological and class formations necessary for the reproduction of inequality (Apple, 1995).

One of the most troubling myths, effectively exploited by the Trump campaign, is the quintessential notion that America is a classless society. The myth of classlessness functions ideologically to obscure the tensions and contradictions of social class struggle. For instance, a mainstay of global neoliberalism is the debt economy (Lazzarato, 2012), which veils poverty and normalizes indebtedness, while simultaneously reinforcing a fear and shame of poverty, among working-class populations (Chase & Bantebya-Kyomuhendo, 2015). The consequence of the debt economy has not only been a 300% growth in household and consumer debt since the 1980s but, also, a deepening of inequalities in the U.S. and abroad (Leopold, 2015).  Hence, Mario Lazzarato (2012, p. 128) argues that this systemic neoliberal creation of indebtedness is part and parcel of “a politics of totalization and individualization of authoritarian control” that, when exposed, shatters the myth of a classless society. The myth of classlessness in America, moreover, functions as an ideological camouflage for entrenched societal inequalities linked to unjust economic and political mechanisms that sustain capitalism. Here, capitalism is touted as the only viable economic system; yet in practice, capitalism operates through the exploitation of labor, the concentration of wealth, and the prioritization of profit over human needs (Chibbers, 2022).

The concept of a classless society that underpins Pygmalion democracy also informs the belief in social mobility—the belief that any individual can ascend the socioeconomic ladder through hard work, talent, and education. Social mobility also underpins the “American Dream” myth and serves as justification for the unequal distributions of wealth, with the percept that opportunities are universally accessible. In America, schooling is lauded as the greatest example of the democratic process in action, where anyone can become educated and economically successful, if only they work hard and meet academic standards of excellence. This perspective does not only justify existing inequalities but is utilized to bolster the superiority of those at the top. In addition, it assigns blame for poverty to the poor themselves by inferring that they do not possess, genetically or otherwise, the excellence to avail themselves of the educational opportunities so freely offered. Thomas Piketty (2017) refutes this myth.  In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, he argues that the ideal of social mobility is rendered bankrupt by structural forces that entrench inequality trans-generationally and limit upward mobility. What guarantees wealth is the presence of wealth itself, notwithstanding loudly broadcast exceptions.

Through such myths structural inequalities are masked by exaggerated reliance on “exceptional” success stories. Yet only a small percentage of individuals from impoverished communities manage to achieve social mobility, even with educational attainment. In fact, the U.S. now has the most educated unemployed workforce in the history of the nation (Bruenig, 2015). These myths conceal “the class war raging throughout the country…a class war that hides and makes confusing a frustrated class struggle” (Freire, 1997, p. 50). It is precisely this internal class war that Pygmalion democracy attempts to confuse, disguise or undermine—and, some would argue, exploit, as Trump did, to mobilize the disenfranchised White working-class people. This provided the perfect breeding ground for Trump to foment and reinforce hateful racialized attitudes that portrayed immigrants as the real threat to the future of the nation. Those who bought the story voted for Trump, while a large majority—believing nothing—opted out. In step with the precepts of Pygmalion democracy, such political maneuvering in the U.S. and other parts of the world has been used to advance the capitalist project with a vengeance in the interest of the wealthy and powerful, while the increasingly bleak conditions of working people and racialized communities remain unattended.

Imagining a Just Future

The fundamental tasks of educators are to make sure that the future points the way to a more socially just world, a world in which critique and possibility – in conjunction with the values of reason, freedom and equality – function to alter the grounds upon which life is lived.

Henry Giroux (2010)

Imagining a world beyond Pygmalion democracy demands a commitment to fundamental tasks that will indeed point the way to building a new future, which requires action, courage, and actual relationships of engagement in the public sphere. It demands a break from deterministic views of history and affirming the human capacity for freedom and new beginnings. Every act of creation or resistance is a testament to the possibility of renewal, no matter how dire the circumstances may appear. The essence of igniting our capacity for human action entails our ability, as Freire often reminded us, to begin anew. This calls for us to access our human creativity and our wherewithal, in order to break from a past that constricts our capacity to dream and conceive the unimaginable: a truly just and loving world.

Embracing the promise of a genuine democracy can never be a solo venture. Inherent to its meaning is the coming together of people whose dignity is respected, whose voices are welcomed, and whose social agency is empowered to govern themselves. This involves, again, the task of building and nurturing the public sphere and civil society, where the collective right of all people to participate and to influence their own lives is held dear. Hence, this demands our capacity to challenge the deception of those who would betray the basic principles of our freedom and our humanity. Politically, our future depends on our emancipatory capacity to cultivate ongoing and consistent collective engagement. This signals forms of dialogue that liberate consciousness and forms of solidarity that go beyond the restrictions of unyielding ideologies, rigid forms of identity politics, or inflexible rituals of political affiliation, where differences in beliefs, knowledge, ways of being, and cultural sensibilities find space to evolve and deepen, individually and collectively.

Carr, Rivas-Sanchez, and Thésée have brought together a cadre of dynamics educators who draw from their lived histories, formal knowledge, and educational praxis to problematize the growing anti-democratic climate of our times. They provide us with valuable insights and advance creative possibilities for (re)reading the world, as we seek new possibilities for transformative actions in our practice as educators and citizens of the world. Inherent to their discourses is the pressing need to renew our commitment to a politics of radical hope and possibility within schools and the larger society. Simultaneously, democracy is understood as an ever-tenuous pursuit of social and economic justice—a pursuit that requires our care, courage, and persistent vigilance. There is here an implicit recognition that democracy is not an object or destination, but a way of life, a way of being, most needed during moments of overwhelming odds and tremendous challenges—recalling here, as did Hannah Arendt (1958), that overcoming great obstacles is intrinsic to our human condition and essential for constructing a new world.

With an aim to counter the deceptive mythology of Pygmalion democracy and the oligarchic rule of the rich and powerful, the contributions in this book expand on multifaceted forms of educational concerns in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of the transformative potential of genuine democratic life. Here, authors problematize and make transparent the current institutional structures, logic, conditions, and practices within education and society that perpetuate and sustain massive forms of economic and political inequalities. This entails creating democratic spaces together; nurturing and cultivating the power, strength, and necessity of civil society; inserting the knowledge and wisdom of marginalized communities into the conversation of American democracy; and fostering meaningful dialogical engagement within classrooms and beyond that can reignite the promise of democracy in these times. Most importantly, their critical responses to Pygmalion democracy constitute a clarion call to educators everywhere to come together through diverse forms of collective mobilization and, by so doing, imagine a future where a shared vision of liberation, amid our differences, can flourish.

Democracy today faces profound challenges, not because its underlying principles have failed, but because foundational conditions have been neglected. Democracy, at its heart, requires active participation, a shared commitment to truth, and a vibrant public sphere where citizens can engage in dialogue and decision-making. The enactment of these pillars, sadly, has eroded in many parts of the world. The rise of misinformation and propaganda, amplified by modern technologies, has distorted reality, making it increasingly difficult for citizens to engage in meaningful deliberation. This current crisis of truth undermines the very basis of democracy, for how can we govern ourselves, if we cannot agree on a common vision? Too often, confusion and frustration cause us to retreat into private concerns, leaving the public realm to be ruled exclusively by economic interests and authoritarian tendencies. As noted repeatedly in this book, politics in its truest sense—a space where freedom is actualized through collective action—has been reduced to a spectacle or a battleground of division. Democracy thrives when there is the capacity to agree to disagree and to bring diverse perspectives into conversation. Yet, in today’s world, there is a disturbing inclination to shut out dissenting voices and to splinter physically or algorithmically into silos—limiting our engagement to only those with whom we agree. This fragmentation, coupled with growing inequalities, breeds resentment and mistrust, setting the stage for demagogues like Trump to exploit this discontent.

Within all emancipatory traditions, any revival of democracy requires reclaiming political action as the fundamental means by which we shape our collective destinies. This requires the courage and willingness to take risks, to speak the unspeakable, to foster a genuinely democratic culture of political participation and responsibility, to resist the allure of passive consumption, and to ensure that every voice, particularly those most marginalized and oppressed, finds a place at the table. It means embracing the discomfort of disagreements, the dissonance of difference, and rejecting the temptation to retreat into bankrupt ideologies and simplistic solutions that leave the roots of human suffering untouched. As such, we must work to remain dynamic, fluid, supple, and loving in dialogue, particularly during deeply contentious moments. More to the point, to break away from the debilitating contradictions of Pygmalion democracy, we must remember that democracy itself is never a finished or guaranteed product. Here, Carr, Rivas-Sanchez, and Thésée’s book powerfully reminds us that our future cannot be left to the whims of capital or in the hands of bullying demagogues. Instead, we are inspired to question the legitimacy of democratic illusions, exposing them for what they are, so that the power of transformative democracy can be (re)ignited, through the collective will and grace of the people, in the streets, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our homes, and in our communities.

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