My aim in this essay is to show why we should hold 'unlearning' to be a crucial 'capability' in and for education at this point in our history. Essentially, I argue that it enables to pose and take seriously the problem of 'governmentality': How are we governed - individually and collectively? Do we wish to be governed in this or that way, to this or that extent, so much, so little, or so badly, under these or those conditions? Or do we wish instead to be self-governed and thereby practice our freedom and be more autonomous, relatively speaking? As such, it puts in question in a radical way the twin pillars of the so-called "contemporary consensus" -- 'representative (liberal or social) democracy' and 'capitalism'--, and makes it possible to take a critical measure of their limits, insufficiencies, and irremediable deficits. Only an unmitigated advocacy of 'unlearning' can bring about a paradigm shift that can move us from the present system of (mis)education as it evolved in modernit
