Originally published at: History Has Lessons For Universities As They Consider Giving In To Authoritarian Demands
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. Many American universities, widely seen globally as beacons of academic integrity and free speech, are giving in to demands from the Trump administration, which has been targeting academia since it took office. In one of his…
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From Timothy Snyders Thinking About substack
Tyrannies always seek to weaken, suborn or destroy established institutions and it is difficult to prevent them from doing so even if the threat of violence is small (which it typically isn’t). It is probably impossible if defense is not conducted for all rather than institution by institution just as it is with individuals. What is the old adage of the US revolution: we must all hang together or we will surely hang separately?
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Those who fail to learn history
are doomed to repeat it;
those who fail to learn history correctly–
why they are simply doomed."
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Guessing Rfuss V-hole read and plagiarized the cited books for Project 2025.
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The difference today is (and I say this as someone at a top R1 institution) is that universities themselves are in the crosshairs.
The Thiel set seems to think a “next” stage of knowledge production is in the offing. Josh’s observation they are breaking basic research seems to be for this reason: they believe AI plus the AI incubator/accelerator model can REPLACE universities.
Also the Regents/Trustees model is killing university resistance. My Chancellor and almost all members of the faculty want to resist, but the actual authority (now largely delegated to the administration) is housed in the appointed Regents. Some of which believe the real threat is radical faculty criticizing Israel. So this bifurcation may neutralize our potential to resist long term.
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“History has lessons for universities”
Sadly, history departments at many colleges and universities have shrunk to a shadow of what they were 20 years ago, so there are a lot fewer people around to convey those lessons.
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In graduate school I was close to a Jewish professor, GS, who was a graduate student in Germany when Hitler came to power. (An advanced grad student who, in the American system, might already have been awarded a Ph.D.) She described being ejected from her position not immediately but after some weeks or months. In the meantime, no one scoffed at her or called her names. They just stopped speaking to her. She became invisible. GS was particularly hurt that she became invisible to a fellow student, VP. They’d been in the trenches together for years and had always enjoyed one another’s company. She’d thought they were friends.
GS and her husband soon left Germany and eventually settled in Ann Arbor. In about 1959 the publisher of VP’s widely acclaimed book contacted GS, asking her to translate the book into English. She said that, after thinking long and hard about it, she accepted the offer and then wrote VP a letter, telling him that she forgave him.
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Collectively, all these events and happenings tell me that this admin is using all the plays out of the Handbook for Ascendant Autocrats.
My biggest fear – among others – is that midterms will be sabotaged or rigged in some way.
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I just finished reading “Sashenka” which was somewhat about a horrible dictatorship and how they would “grind people to dust.”
Well, trump is not Stalin, but if everyone caves in to his stupid ignorant hate and self loathing bullshit he could get close.
For educated people, you would think, these University people are awfully short sighted and out of touch with a past they well ought to recognize. Franklin had it right, hang together or hang separately.
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Stalin’s motto:" No man; no problem".
He would just say, “Shoot him,” eh voila!