You
should not honour men more than truth.
Plato
In an era
marked by unprecedented threats to democracy from rising
authoritarian forces, universities—once celebrated
citadels of democratic learning and public service—now
find themselves caught in a profound political and ideological
siege. Rather than championing social justice or fostering
spaces for rigorous intellectual exchange, many institutions
have shifted their priorities to profit, silencing dissent
and embracing market-driven models that serve a predatory
capitalism, thus betraying their democratic mission.
This crisis has deep roots, but the recent onslaught
by far-right politicians and a reactionary billionaire
elite is without precedent in its intensity and scale.
This trend weakens the humanities and liberal arts,
stripping higher education of its capacity to serve
as a democratic public sphere and robbing it of the
potential to cultivate socially aware students who challenge
injustices and hold power to account. Increasingly,
higher education runs the risk of becoming either right
wing indoctrination centers or dead zones of the imagination.
Neoliberal
ideology, marked by the irrational belief in the ability
of markets to solve all problems, has deeply infiltrated
public life, depoliticized critical issues and shifted
education’s focus to workforce training. As education
becomes increasingly privatized and subordinated to
right-wing agendas, students are steered away from engaging
with collective issues, ethics, or democratic participation.
In the neoliberal university, students are encouraged
to abandon any commitment beyond personal gain. Education
is stripped of its civic purpose, no longer a path to
responsible citizenship but a high-stakes financial
transaction—a competition for entry into the lucrative
world of hedge funds and exploitative financial ventures.
This transformation reduces learning to mere careerism,
undermining the university’s potential to cultivate
engaged, socially conscious citizens.
Neoliberalism,
as both an educational force and a pedagogical practice,
promotes a dangerous historical and political amnesia.
It obscures the reality that, in a crisis of legitimacy,
neoliberalism has aligned with a fascist politics rooted
in white nationalism, white supremacy, and the politics
of disposability. This alignment signals the rise of
what I have called neoliberal fascism, a fusion of market-driven
policies and authoritarian ideologies. Moreover, right-wing
billionaires such as Bill Ackman, the hedge-fund CEO,
are putting enormous pressure on universities to silence
dissent —especially against critics of Israel’s
genocidal war in Gaza and Lebanon, branding opposition
as anti-Semitic. At the same time, advocates of the
neoliberal university are pushing to strip faculty and
students of power and autonomy, reshaping curricula
to serve a narrow, repressive agenda. This vision finds
expression in places like New College in Sarasota, Florida,
transformed into a MAGA stronghold—an alarming
prototype for the future of higher education.
This assault
on higher education is all the more alarming because
it coincides with a near-total capitulation of university
governance to corporate management practices. Today,
over 70 percent of faculty are relegated to part-time
or non-tenured roles, stripped of job security and influence,
while students are treated as clients, customers, and
commodities. In this corporate mold, faculty are not
only deprived of power but also silenced, as the very
principles of academic freedom and democracy are redefined
as threats. As Judith Butler insightfully notes, in
such an environment, “a call for democracy is
interpreted as sedition [and] a call for freedom is
taken to be a call to violence.”
This market-driven
transformation has reshaped universities, reorienting
them toward profitability and marginalizing disciplines
that foster critical thinking, social responsibility,
and collective imagination.
This market-driven
transformation has reshaped universities, reorienting
them toward profitability and marginalizing disciplines
that foster critical thinking, social responsibility,
and collective imagination. The resulting commodification
of education deprives students of the tools to challenge
injustice or envision a more equitable society. Under
such circumstances, the language of the market replaces
civic language with personal, consumer-oriented perspectives,
isolating individuals and obstructing a shared understanding
of public concerns. In short, the critical function
of higher education is under siege. Under such circumstances,
higher education increasingly resembles disimagination
machines.
The shift
has also marginalized public intellectuals who contribute
to society’s understanding of critical issues
by connecting academic work to larger social problems.
Instead, universities increasingly favor faculty who
align with corporate values, reinforcing depoliticized,
market-oriented approaches to education. This trend
has led to the rise of what George Scialabba calls the
"anti-public intellectual," figures who endorse
market policies without addressing issues of justice
and democracy. Or as in the case of anti- public intellectuals
such as Niall Ferguson whose writing legitimizes an
outright fascist such as Trump. These corporate-aligned
"anti-public intellectuals," supported by
neoliberal foundations like the Heritage Foundation,
champion policies that erode public resources and democratic
institutions. The Heritage Foundation’s Project
2025 manifesto, for instance, aims to dismantle the
welfare state and punish dissenters—a blueprint
for an authoritarian reordering of American society
under a potential second Trump administration.
Against
this tide, public intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky,
Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Cornel West have
long advocated for a different vision of education,
one that invites students to question authority, seek
justice, and cultivate democracy. Rather than focusing
solely on producing economically viable graduates, universities
must also strive to cultivate active, engaged citizens
who can imagine a future free of climate catastrophe,
militarism, systemic racism, and predatory capitalism.
Historically,
universities have largely supported resistance and critical
engagement, playing pivotal roles in movements for free
speech, civil rights, and gender equality. However,
this legacy is at risk. Neoliberal ideologies target
universities because of their potential to promote democratic
values and critical thought. As a result, right-wing
movements and corporate interests increasingly attack
universities’ public roles and democratic functions.
In response
to these threats, a coalition of young people, critical
public intellectuals, and progressive social movements
has emerged, asserting that universities must be protected
as bastions of democracy. As white nationalists, authoritarian
billionaires, and neo-fascists wage war on education,
it becomes clear that treating education as a public
good is essential to sustaining a healthy democracy.
Public intellectuals, students, and workers must defend
educational institutions as sites of social justice
and resistance against corporatization and the authoritarian
impulses encroaching on democracy. Universities have
a moral responsibility to press for social and economic
justice, countering both corporatization and the rise
of authoritarian ideologies.
The crisis
in higher education is part of a broader neoliberal
assault on democracy, which systematically privatizes
education, undermines public trust, and weakens collective
institutions. This relentless assault corrodes the very
foundations of democratic life, replacing the values
of cooperation, civic responsibility, and community
with self-interest, competition, and social isolation.
In this climate, public intellectuals play an essential
role as guardians of engaged citizenship and intellectual
integrity, equipping students and the public to see
that democracy cannot sustain itself passively; it demands
an active, vigilant defense. Universities, when aligned
with their true purpose, become crucial spaces for cultivating
the capacities, solidarity, and critical awareness necessary
to confront and resist the encroachments of authoritarianism.
What must be stressed here is that habits of power are
learned and must in some cases be unlearned. This is
an important pedagogical task.
The path
forward for universities is clear: they must resist
corporatization and recommit to fostering critical thinking,
academic freedom, civic engagement, and democratic renewal.
If higher education is to fulfill its democratic mission,
it must resist the neoliberal plague and foster young
people equipped to challenge inequities and envision
a just, compassionate society.
In an era
of collapsing visions, emotional plagues, manufactured
ignorance, staggering inequality, environmental ruin,
human misery, and rising authoritarianism, it is vital
for academics to affirm higher education’s claim
on democracy. Above all, academics need to stand firm
in their ethical convictions, engage with the pressing
social issues of our time and bridge the gap between
learning and everyday life. Evoking the spirit of James
Baldwin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Edward Said, Ellen Willis,
Angela Davis, bell hooks, and Paulo Freire, our role
as educators and citizens demands that we champion public
intellectuals who dare to confront power, alleviate
human suffering, and combat the moral vacuum of ultra-nationalism,
white supremacy, and economic exploitation. Intellectuals,
when aligned with these commitments, transcend the constraints
of academic disciplines, engaging in society’s
most urgent struggles, resisting the commercialization
of knowledge, and bringing truth to bear amid a deluge
of lies and conspiracy theories. They embody, as Kiese
Makeba Laymon notes, “the vital connection between
a reflective self-awareness and a commitment to social
responsibility. Without an informed public, democracy
is imperiled; without a language that interrogates injustice,
there can be no path to justice.” At stake here
is the recognition that without an informed public,
there can be no democracy, and without a language critical
of injustice, there can be no path to justice.
Today, the
role of educators as public intellectuals aligned with
broader social movements has never been more vital,
especially when far-right extremists around the globe
seek to turn education into a force for indoctrination.
Education has always been political, but in this era
of book bans, weakened faculty autonomy, restricted
curricula, and whitewashed history, imagining education
as a practice of freedom is a radical act. It is not
merely a means to transfer knowledge or a method, but
a site of struggle over agency, identity, history, and
the future. In a time when education can also become
a tool of oppression, it is crucial to imagine education
as a living pathway toward a strong and vibrant democracy.
This suggests that young people and academics engage
in a profound dialogue with history, a commitment to
honoring the memories of the forgotten, the silenced,
and the oppressed as part of a relentless pursuit to
hold power to account. It also suggests taking seriously
the idea that pedagogy is a powerful force for shaping
identities, agency, and social values. As Homi Bhabha
rightly observes, pedagogy demands vigilance “at
that very moment when identities are being produced
and groups are being constituted.” In such contexts,
pedagogy becomes a catalyst for empowering individuals
to take responsibility not only for themselves but also
for their communities, equipping them with the knowledge
and skills to question authority and expose abuses of
power. It urges us to learn from history, sharpening
our ability to recognize, comprehend, and resist the
insidious forces of fascism.
The McCarthyite
rhetoric espoused by figures like J.D. Vance and Donald
Trump poses a grave threat to the foundations of higher
education. Vance has publicly branded professors as
"the enemy," while Trump has pledged to cleanse
universities of so-called 'leftists,' whom he denigrates
as 'vermin.' For Trump, labels like 'leftists' and 'Marxists'
serve as sweeping condemnations for anyone who dares
engage in critical thinking or challenges the status
quo. These attacks reveal a deep-seated contempt for
universities as spaces of intellectual freedom, dialogue,
and the pursuit of truth. By framing educators, scholars,
and the media as “enemies from within,”
these political figures are not merely undermining public
trust in academic institutions; they are working to
extinguish open inquiry and eradicate the diversity
of perspectives essential for a vibrant democratic society.
Their ultimate aim is to strip universities of their
cultures of criticism, unsettling knowledge, and democratic
values—even those values that remain tenuous The
consequences of this discourse are severe, and we have
seen a similar script played out in Nazi Germany, Pinochet’s
Chile, and more recently in Orban’s Hungary. To
put it bluntly, this rhetoric signals a project of repression
that escalates toward expulsions, imprisonments, and,
if Trump’s language is any indication, hints ominously
at what Fintan O’Toole refers to as “so
many of European history’s lagers and gulags and
prisoner-of-war camps.”
Reviving
historical consciousness as a pedagogical practice illuminates
patterns of repression and opens pathways for resistance.
Simultaneously, it offers a vision of leadership that
amplifies the power of both individual and collective
agency—a fierce, binding force that calls us to
the obligations of social responsibility, justice, and
freedom. It is a foundation for a democracy that pulsates
with the promise of a future where economic, social,
and personal rights are not merely ideals but lived
realities, untouched by fear, repression, or the shifting,
ever-present ghosts of fascism.
Universities
now stand at a crossroads: they can either continue
down the path of market-driven values, eroding their
purpose, or reclaim their democratic mission as spaces
of critical inquiry and social responsibility. Since
the 1970s, neoliberalism--a predatory form of capitalism--has
systematically dismantled the welfare state, public
sphere, and commitment to the common good, reshaping
universities in its image. This ideology insists that
the market should dictate not only the economy but all
realms of society, concentrating wealth among a corrupt
billionaire financial elite while promoting unchecked
individualism, deregulation, and privatization as guiding
societal principles. Under neoliberalism, education
is commodified, and citizenship is reduced to consumerism.
Universities—once spaces for cultivating democratic
ideals and intellectual freedom—now risk becoming
extensions of this form of gangster capitalism, mirroring
the racialized inequalities, militarism, and extreme
wealth gaps that define our broader social landscape.
To surrender to the commodification, commercialism,
and corporatization of education and the fascist currents
shaping contemporary politics would be a profound betrayal
of higher education’s foundational mission.
In the shadow
of fascism's rise, the horrors of the Holocaust, and
the dissolution of the working class, Adorno and Arendt,
as Seyla Benhabib notes, grappled with a profound question:
“What does it mean to go on thinking?” Benhabib
suggests that one response lies in “learning to
think anew.” This challenges us to radically reconsider
how we address, understand, and resist a culture that
has, once again, paved the way for fascism. Now, more
than ever, we must reimagine theory, education, and
the transformative potential of learning to ignite a
mass movement that is deeply anti-capitalist and fiercely
democratic in its vision and practices.
The stakes
could not be higher: without an unrelenting commitment
to radical democratic ideals, universities risk not
only forfeiting their own relevance but also imperiling
the very future of democracy at a moment when the specter
of fascism looms with renewed force.
By
Henry Giroux:
Childcide
in Fascist Theocracies
The Corporate Firewall Against Truth
Assassins of Memory
Not Joe's But Our Collective Memory Issues
The
Politics of Emergency Time
Hijacking
Freedoms
America
at the Crossroads
Gangster
Capitalism
Historical
Amnesia in Age of Capitalist Apocalypse
The
Inequality of Freedom
The
Nazification of Education
Killing
Fields in Age of Mass Shootings
The
Pedagogy of Resistance
The
Death of Ethics
Banning
Books
Homage
to Paulo Freire
Plague
of Manufactured Ignorance
Racial
Cleansing and Erasing History
Plague
of Historical Amnesia
Recovering
from Trumpism
Tribute
to Noam Chomsky
The
Ouster of Trump
White
Supremacy in the Offal Office
The
Plague of Inequity
Covid
and our Embattled Society
Trump
and the Corona Death Waltz
Neoliberal
Fascism
The
Terror Unforseen
Interview
of H.A.Giroux
The
Normalization of Fascism
The
Public Intellectual II
Bertrand
Russell: Public Intellectual
Thinking
Dangerously in Dark Times
Democracy
in Exile
Authoritarianism
in America
Violence:
US Favourite Pastime
Losing
in Trump's America
In
Dark Times Teachers Matter
The
Age of Civic Illiteracy
Exile
and Disruption in the Academy
What
Society Produces a Donald Trump
From
School to the Prison Pipeline
Orwell
& Huxely
American
Sniper and Hollywood Heroism
Selfie Culture
The
Age of Disposability
In
the Shadow of the Atomic Bomb
Killing
Machines and the Madness of the Military
The
Age of Neoliberal Cruelty
The
Politics of the Deep State
Challenging
Casino Capitalism
Crisis
in Democracy
America's
Descent into Madness
