"Again, any kind of research to back up such a bold and incredibly controversial statement?"
There are dozens of books and movies about this. Life Inc by Douglas Rushkoff, the documentary Century of the Self, even John Taylor Gatto's book The Underground History of American
Education goes into this quite a bit. Not to mention The Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson.
The idea that we arrived at mandatory fiat currency, compulsory education, ubiquitous advertising, etc. through some process of 'cultural consensus' is ridiculous.
There are dozens of books and movies about this. Life Inc by Douglas Rushkoff, the documentary Century of the Self, even John Taylor Gatto's book The Underground History of American Education goes into this quite a bit. Not to mention The Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson.
The idea that we arrived at mandatory fiat currency, compulsory education, ubiquitous advertising, etc. through some process of 'cultural consensus' is ridiculous.