We have never, in the history of humanity, had more access to knowledge about how to organise a society. And somehow, everything’s on fire.
We know everything. How to build roads, run hospitals, redistribute wealth, educate children, grow food, protect rights, house people and prevent genocide.
We’ve got centuries of theory, data, lived experience, global case studies and academic frameworks.
It’s not ignorance that’s wrecking the place. It’s self-interest in a suit.
Because…
People are still hungry.
People are still homeless.
People are still being bombed.
People are still exhausted, broke and gaslit by systems that know better.
And it’s hard to fathom because the people in charge have studied all of this.
They’ve studied it well.
They’ve studied it long.
They’ve studied it at some of the best universities in the world!
That’s where PPE comes in. Not the masks. The degree: Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
It’s a golden ticket course for the elite – designed to churn out future prime ministers, policy wonks, and boardroom bootlickers. It promises to equip them with the tools to lead, manage and “change the world.”
But what it really teaches is how to perform leadership while preserving power.
And here’s where we need to talk about the university system itself. Because it’s not just about what they’re learning – it’s about who gets to learn it, how they’re taught, and what it costs to play the game.
Working-class kids are fed degrees in debt and survival – how to budget, grind, and settle for “realistic goals.”
Middle-class kids get professional pathways and LinkedIn optimisation.
And the rich? The rich float through Oxbridge on family names, Latin mottos and home counties accents.
It’s a class filter. A networking machine. A conveyor belt from privilege to policymaking.
The result? A ruling class trained not in empathy, but in efficiency. Not in justice, but in optics. They quote Rawls while cutting disability benefits and they discuss Plato’s Republic while selling off public housing.
It’s theatre. And we’re the unpaid extras.
And let’s be clear. These aren’t dumb people. They’re not uninformed. They’re not unaware.
They know. They’ve read the papers, done the modules, passed the exams.
So why are we still importing plastic shite from China?
Why are Palestinians being slaughtered while world leaders look away?
Why does your electricity bill look like a ransom note?
Because at the heart of it all, politics is no longer where the power lives.
Money is.
Politics is just the PR arm of capitalism now.
It’s the front-of-house while the real decisions are being made upstairs in the shareholders’ suites.
You can have all the philosophy and ethics training in the world, but if you’re building policy in service to profit, not people – you’re part of the problem.
Our learned friends know exactly what’s going on.
They’ve just chosen which side they’re on.
Because at the end of the day, a PPE degree isn’t about learning how to serve humanity.
It’s about learning how to manage it.
Let’s say that again:
They don’t study politics to create a better world.
They study it to maintain the one that already serves them.
And while they’re polishing their C.V.s and speaking on panels about “resilience in the global economy,” the rest of us are stuck cleaning up their mess.
Raising the children. Paying the price. Doing the care work. Living in the ruins of decisions made in conference rooms we’re never invited into.
So no. Don’t be fooled by the degrees.
Don’t be dazzled by the titles.
Don’t think for a second that intelligence is the same as wisdom, or that education guarantees moral courage.
Because if these lads were really learning how to lead, we wouldn’t be watching the world burn while they take selfies at summits.
They didn’t fail to learn.
They learned exactly what the system wanted them to: how to protect it.
They studied power so they could serve it – not challenge it.
They memorised the rulebook so they’d never have to rewrite it.
And they entered politics not to change the world – but to ensure the world never changes too much.
Domesticky 
Leave a comment