I am an old tenured professor, and I have seen this recycling of relativism and sophistry many times, and studied its recurrence as well. It is by no means unique to this newest "Oh My God Foucault!" crowd. From Protagoras to Pelagius to Robespierre to Lyotard, it comes back every few dozen years, every time alienation peaks. Loss of personal meaning leads to fear, and fear leads to the oppression of reason that may lead somewhere even more frightening. But woke is broke. So I disagree: this round of intellectual hygienics too will subside as soon as the children of the Woke find they are unable to use the basic reasoning skills necessary to enter materially significant professions. No one would fly in an airplane designed by a Woke engineer, or face heart surgery at the hands of a Woke surgeon, or drive across a Woke bridge or even hire a Woke roofer to fix a leak in your roof. Let's not panic; Woke is broke. Its demise was baked in thousands years ago. The golden calf does not last. But it does return again and again.
Hi Jim: Also an old tenured prof. I like your long view, which reminds us that punitive authoritarian tribal groupishness (or whatever) isn't new. But, alas, in the short run each particular version does its own kind of damage. And it ill prepares those who fall for it to, for example, defend democracy. Given what's going on with the groupish right, it seems that those of us who can't join either tribe are going to be left to deal with the consequences. Hopefully, I'll be gone from academia before long, either because I've been kicked out or because I've decided to make a premature exit. Even so, the confirmation that the authoritarianism is strong in academics and aspirants under forty suggests that the long run is far away indeed.
This tribal issue is so darn difficult! Thank you for your very kind comment. I sometimes think I have no friends but medieval philosophers I scarcely understand. I look forward to retiring but then I feel like I have a duty to stay and make a fuss until the bitter end. At least they don't force hemlock on us anymore. I hope?
No hemlock that I know of! Just social media campaigns, student evaluations, the disapprobation of peers, Bias Response Teams, EEO complaints, and--as the recent case at Georgetown Law School shows--summary firings. Hanging out with medieval philosophers sounds like heaven!
I identify as left of center, not conservative, though my colleagues and students in women's studies tend not to see any distinction between "liberal" and "conservative." I've said in a post here in Persuasion what this study finds: that there is a gendered dimension to the phenomenon of social justice trumping facts and free inquiry in the academy ("American female academics had a more pronounced preference than male academics for dismissal"). In women's studies, we tend to think that patterns related to gender--in this case, what we used to call "sex"--are significant and should be analyzed. So let's not ignore that pattern here.
I see why those in the community who aren't academics might get tired of talking about this subject. One response to your understandable boredom with what seems like "our" academic navel gazing is that these academics are training, and the universities are disgorging, large numbers of students with these values every year. In many respects, these folks constitute a mirror image of the right-wing conspiracist immunity to facts and liberal democratic values. One bright spot: they don't tend to own guns.
Hi Jim, I fervently hope you are right. I have several family members who are professors or PhD students in UK universities and this toxic stuff seems rife. I’m a traditional ‘leftie’ but all this punitive censorship leaves me deeply downhearted.
I am an old tenured professor, and I have seen this recycling of relativism and sophistry many times, and studied its recurrence as well. It is by no means unique to this newest "Oh My God Foucault!" crowd. From Protagoras to Pelagius to Robespierre to Lyotard, it comes back every few dozen years, every time alienation peaks. Loss of personal meaning leads to fear, and fear leads to the oppression of reason that may lead somewhere even more frightening. But woke is broke. So I disagree: this round of intellectual hygienics too will subside as soon as the children of the Woke find they are unable to use the basic reasoning skills necessary to enter materially significant professions. No one would fly in an airplane designed by a Woke engineer, or face heart surgery at the hands of a Woke surgeon, or drive across a Woke bridge or even hire a Woke roofer to fix a leak in your roof. Let's not panic; Woke is broke. Its demise was baked in thousands years ago. The golden calf does not last. But it does return again and again.
Hi Jim: Also an old tenured prof. I like your long view, which reminds us that punitive authoritarian tribal groupishness (or whatever) isn't new. But, alas, in the short run each particular version does its own kind of damage. And it ill prepares those who fall for it to, for example, defend democracy. Given what's going on with the groupish right, it seems that those of us who can't join either tribe are going to be left to deal with the consequences. Hopefully, I'll be gone from academia before long, either because I've been kicked out or because I've decided to make a premature exit. Even so, the confirmation that the authoritarianism is strong in academics and aspirants under forty suggests that the long run is far away indeed.
This tribal issue is so darn difficult! Thank you for your very kind comment. I sometimes think I have no friends but medieval philosophers I scarcely understand. I look forward to retiring but then I feel like I have a duty to stay and make a fuss until the bitter end. At least they don't force hemlock on us anymore. I hope?
No hemlock that I know of! Just social media campaigns, student evaluations, the disapprobation of peers, Bias Response Teams, EEO complaints, and--as the recent case at Georgetown Law School shows--summary firings. Hanging out with medieval philosophers sounds like heaven!
The first witches got burned ...
I identify as left of center, not conservative, though my colleagues and students in women's studies tend not to see any distinction between "liberal" and "conservative." I've said in a post here in Persuasion what this study finds: that there is a gendered dimension to the phenomenon of social justice trumping facts and free inquiry in the academy ("American female academics had a more pronounced preference than male academics for dismissal"). In women's studies, we tend to think that patterns related to gender--in this case, what we used to call "sex"--are significant and should be analyzed. So let's not ignore that pattern here.
I see why those in the community who aren't academics might get tired of talking about this subject. One response to your understandable boredom with what seems like "our" academic navel gazing is that these academics are training, and the universities are disgorging, large numbers of students with these values every year. In many respects, these folks constitute a mirror image of the right-wing conspiracist immunity to facts and liberal democratic values. One bright spot: they don't tend to own guns.
Hi Jim, I fervently hope you are right. I have several family members who are professors or PhD students in UK universities and this toxic stuff seems rife. I’m a traditional ‘leftie’ but all this punitive censorship leaves me deeply downhearted.
(Oh, Cathy Young, I have very much enjoyed your writing in Reason over the years. Sane and trenchant.)