Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.
Fascinating article. As a Farage fan, I think he was a bit underrated, but this new Tory leader really sounds interesting. I hope we hear more from and about her.
That was a frightening reminder of what horrors the Universities are capable of doing to our societies. Academia portrays its institutions as the panicle of reason in society and yet the evidence all over the West is the opposite of this. I realised after my late career PhD and some lecturing for a few years that all was not well. Like the Bolshevik’s or Communists in China’s cultural revolution or indeed the French Revolution they are very keen to denounce and destroy colleagues. The students are their useful idiots. The treatment recently at Oxford of the Jewish speakers during a debate shows how UK Universities have also fallen.
Excellent article. It caused me to think about how the universities have become such institutions where everyone involved is unhinged from reality, in spite of their alleged great learning. Instead of a body of truth seekers, they have become a body of (as Eric Hoffer put it) true believers. That is, they have become a form of mind control cult. Among such cults, there is the doctrine put out by the leaders. Questioning of the doctrine is forbidden and results in punishment or correction of some sort. There is an arrogance, a great pride, in which the members see themselves as superior to the uninitiated. Only the members are the enlightened. Only the members in good standing can be allowed to lead into the future. The question is, can American academia be redeemed from its cultish mindset, or must we start all over again with new institutions? It is extraordinarily difficult to rescue someone from a mind control cult. They must be taken out of the group and exposed to other thinking and retaught to think for themselves. Unfortunately, the cult of American academia has also taken over most of our culture shaping institutions - the general media, the teachers' groups in the lower schools, our government administration, the legal profession, and our courts. There is one increasingly marginalized but critical institution that offers a message that is different than the monolithic influence of academia - the church. Maybe not all churches, but those that allow a genuine search for truth from all sources, including those excluded by academia.
I believe you can trace a direct line from both critical race theory and the removal of "useless eaters" to a book embraced completely by western academics of the day with the subtitle: "the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."
I don't get Niall's logic. Whatever you might think about the academic community in America today, it is absolutely opposed in general to the "the charismatic leader" who wants us to vote for him and then shut up and let him run the country. BTW. the Nazis slaughtered a lot of intellectuals who opposed them or drove them out of the country. As they say in baseball, you can look it up.
Your claim is not true at all. The US left saw Obama as that charismatic leader and he attempted to anoint Kamala Harris to carry his torch. But she lacked even the basic IQ to speak in comprehensible sentences.
“ Like Hannah Arendt and George Orwell, Klemperer understood that the totalitarianism of the right and the totalitarianism of the left had fundamentally similar characteristics. In particular, they loved to impose Newspeak on those they subjugated.”
Non-profit organizations created by individuals such as George Soros have been and are still funding anarchy in the USA. Consider this: George Soros, apparently, worked for the Nazi regime in Germany identifying Jewish people for the Reich. Now he, his family, and his organizations are funding anarchy in the USA using the college campus as their battle ground. You can search the IRS online database of Form 990, which is the tax reporting statement for a non-profit organization, and get a glimpse into the financial workings of a non-profit. However, when an entity uses “dark money” to fund the non-profit, those donors are hidden. Super article Sir Niall Ferguson.
This is the most convincing, clear, and frightening explanation of what has been happening in the past few years. Because I live in the world of academia; and because I am old enough to notice clear changes over time, both in academia and in attitudes toward Israel; and because I have also been following the vertiginous rise in antisemitism, with its thinly veiled coverup - "anti Zionism"; nothing has clarified so well to me both the current changes as well as the world leading up to the mass psychosis that was the Holocaust.
Thank you, Professor Ferguson. Not covered in this piece, he surely knows that one of the major engines powering antisemitism on American campuses is the donation of billions of dollars to many American universities for programs that plant and nurture the seeds of antisemitism. The current wave of protests on campuses across the country show remarkable similarities to and coordination with one another, not resembling anything that was seen, let us say, during the Vietnam War protests. but rather suggesting they are authored and coordinated by the few same (or related) sources. It is insidious, and deeply threatening.
The fact that the protests against Israel began on Oct. 8, 2023, before the IDF had done anything in Gaza in response to what Hamas did on Oct. 7, vividly illustrates how the protests were initiated and managed by a common source. That common source was and is comprised of a number of different organizations, but they act in lockstep with each other. They masquerade as grassroots organizations, but they are clearly top down, not grassroots.
Here's one way to attack this problem. Pass legislation that mandates all colleges and universities that receive any form of federal funding to accept all scholastically eligible american applicants prior to allowing any students on a visa from attending. This will dramatically reduce the number of "america haters" that end up on our campuses and expand educatiion opportunities for our children. These imported marxist-socialists are very wealthy and often end up with teaching positions that allow them to practice their indoctrination techniques with no oversight or control.
I would like to know what it is that Claudine Gay can teach that even begins to justify her reported $900,000 salary. Based on credible reports I have heard, her scholarly research record is pretty thin - won't even go into the plagiarism. Let's all root for - and support however we are able - University of Austin.
The Germans (ok, Prussians) invented the research university to make Germany strong, and put an end to invasions of the German homelands by French cardinals and Corsican upstarts.
Universities are all organized after the administrative hierarchy model. Just like armies.
Even before the Germans, universities were generally in the business of training priests for the state church. Harvard was created to make sure that Massachusetts didn't have illiterate ministers.
The first university president to become US president, Woodrow Wilson, immediately got the US into a world war.
You ought to explain your view of "Left" and "Right". I suspect others are also confused.
Fascinating article. As a Farage fan, I think he was a bit underrated, but this new Tory leader really sounds interesting. I hope we hear more from and about her.
That was a frightening reminder of what horrors the Universities are capable of doing to our societies. Academia portrays its institutions as the panicle of reason in society and yet the evidence all over the West is the opposite of this. I realised after my late career PhD and some lecturing for a few years that all was not well. Like the Bolshevik’s or Communists in China’s cultural revolution or indeed the French Revolution they are very keen to denounce and destroy colleagues. The students are their useful idiots. The treatment recently at Oxford of the Jewish speakers during a debate shows how UK Universities have also fallen.
You are a beacon of light
Excellent article. It caused me to think about how the universities have become such institutions where everyone involved is unhinged from reality, in spite of their alleged great learning. Instead of a body of truth seekers, they have become a body of (as Eric Hoffer put it) true believers. That is, they have become a form of mind control cult. Among such cults, there is the doctrine put out by the leaders. Questioning of the doctrine is forbidden and results in punishment or correction of some sort. There is an arrogance, a great pride, in which the members see themselves as superior to the uninitiated. Only the members are the enlightened. Only the members in good standing can be allowed to lead into the future. The question is, can American academia be redeemed from its cultish mindset, or must we start all over again with new institutions? It is extraordinarily difficult to rescue someone from a mind control cult. They must be taken out of the group and exposed to other thinking and retaught to think for themselves. Unfortunately, the cult of American academia has also taken over most of our culture shaping institutions - the general media, the teachers' groups in the lower schools, our government administration, the legal profession, and our courts. There is one increasingly marginalized but critical institution that offers a message that is different than the monolithic influence of academia - the church. Maybe not all churches, but those that allow a genuine search for truth from all sources, including those excluded by academia.
Brilliant analysis- thanks.
I believe you can trace a direct line from both critical race theory and the removal of "useless eaters" to a book embraced completely by western academics of the day with the subtitle: "the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."
I don't get Niall's logic. Whatever you might think about the academic community in America today, it is absolutely opposed in general to the "the charismatic leader" who wants us to vote for him and then shut up and let him run the country. BTW. the Nazis slaughtered a lot of intellectuals who opposed them or drove them out of the country. As they say in baseball, you can look it up.
Your claim is not true at all. The US left saw Obama as that charismatic leader and he attempted to anoint Kamala Harris to carry his torch. But she lacked even the basic IQ to speak in comprehensible sentences.
“ Like Hannah Arendt and George Orwell, Klemperer understood that the totalitarianism of the right and the totalitarianism of the left had fundamentally similar characteristics. In particular, they loved to impose Newspeak on those they subjugated.”
Harry, you missed the point….
Non-profit organizations created by individuals such as George Soros have been and are still funding anarchy in the USA. Consider this: George Soros, apparently, worked for the Nazi regime in Germany identifying Jewish people for the Reich. Now he, his family, and his organizations are funding anarchy in the USA using the college campus as their battle ground. You can search the IRS online database of Form 990, which is the tax reporting statement for a non-profit organization, and get a glimpse into the financial workings of a non-profit. However, when an entity uses “dark money” to fund the non-profit, those donors are hidden. Super article Sir Niall Ferguson.
“The universities have been to the nation as the wooden horse was to the Trojans’
Thomas Hobbs, 1588-1679
Not a new phenomenon.
This is the most convincing, clear, and frightening explanation of what has been happening in the past few years. Because I live in the world of academia; and because I am old enough to notice clear changes over time, both in academia and in attitudes toward Israel; and because I have also been following the vertiginous rise in antisemitism, with its thinly veiled coverup - "anti Zionism"; nothing has clarified so well to me both the current changes as well as the world leading up to the mass psychosis that was the Holocaust.
Thank you, Professor Ferguson. Not covered in this piece, he surely knows that one of the major engines powering antisemitism on American campuses is the donation of billions of dollars to many American universities for programs that plant and nurture the seeds of antisemitism. The current wave of protests on campuses across the country show remarkable similarities to and coordination with one another, not resembling anything that was seen, let us say, during the Vietnam War protests. but rather suggesting they are authored and coordinated by the few same (or related) sources. It is insidious, and deeply threatening.
The fact that the protests against Israel began on Oct. 8, 2023, before the IDF had done anything in Gaza in response to what Hamas did on Oct. 7, vividly illustrates how the protests were initiated and managed by a common source. That common source was and is comprised of a number of different organizations, but they act in lockstep with each other. They masquerade as grassroots organizations, but they are clearly top down, not grassroots.
Oh my God. 1933 all over again. Ferguson is a genius.
Here's one way to attack this problem. Pass legislation that mandates all colleges and universities that receive any form of federal funding to accept all scholastically eligible american applicants prior to allowing any students on a visa from attending. This will dramatically reduce the number of "america haters" that end up on our campuses and expand educatiion opportunities for our children. These imported marxist-socialists are very wealthy and often end up with teaching positions that allow them to practice their indoctrination techniques with no oversight or control.
I would like to know what it is that Claudine Gay can teach that even begins to justify her reported $900,000 salary. Based on credible reports I have heard, her scholarly research record is pretty thin - won't even go into the plagiarism. Let's all root for - and support however we are able - University of Austin.
Let's make the problem bigger:
The Germans (ok, Prussians) invented the research university to make Germany strong, and put an end to invasions of the German homelands by French cardinals and Corsican upstarts.
Universities are all organized after the administrative hierarchy model. Just like armies.
Even before the Germans, universities were generally in the business of training priests for the state church. Harvard was created to make sure that Massachusetts didn't have illiterate ministers.
The first university president to become US president, Woodrow Wilson, immediately got the US into a world war.