Fast knowledge can be considered part of fast capitalism, especially an emergent new generic form of capitalism based increasingly on forms of symbolic capital associated with the rise of global finance and associated with new information and communication technologies. In this essay, the authors first theorise fast knowledge in relation to fast capitalism through the work of the American sociologist, George Ritzer (2000), whose analysis of the fast-food industry in "The McDonaldization of Society" has a ready application to education. In the second section, they specifically draw out the aspect of "the "theatre" of fast knowledge" by focusing on the management of "performance" and the relation of performance management to "fast knowledge." (Contains 7 notes.)