The purpose was then a non -existent threat to communist teachers; Today, this is allegedly the radicalism of the academy and it is supposedly not fighting anti -Semitism.
Even before the Trump administration/Musk unleashed its current blitz against the university, Tod Wolfson, President of the American Association University Professors (AAUP), described the Mag Against Higher Education “How”New McCartism“Wolfson was wrong.
Despite the fact that today’s attack on the university is immensely worse than Makartism, there is a similarity. Both repressive movements arose from the efforts of the powerful right -wing forces to abandon progressive social and economic reforms an earlier era. In order to divert attention from their, allegedly unfriendly goals, these forces began a cross -country campaign against an inflatable and demonized enemy they proposed to eradicate. At the end of the 1940s and 1950s, the purpose of the communist teachers was the purpose; Today, this is allegedly university’s radicalism and it is supposedly not fighting anti -Semitism. The success of both companies relies on economic sanctions – and the cooperation of major academic leaders.
However, the differences between today’s attack on higher education and the 1950s are indisputable – and make the current situation much worse – for two main reasons.
The first is that, unlike McCartism, which was focused only on the last political activity of individual professors, the current pressure, which heads the foolish power of the federal government, affects virtually every aspect of higher education. In addition to repression on the territory of campus against war in Israel with gas and threatening deportation of students and teachers, it also gets into classrooms, laboratories, curriculum, libraries, dormitories, Dei programs, admissions offices, personnel solutions, athletics, accreditation agency, and even in renovation New college Florida From the liberal campus to the conservative bastion – stationary institutions.
The second reason for today’s attack on the university is worse than Makartism, which, despite the much higher higher education trail in American society, the academy today is in a much weaker position to resist political intervention. Red Fear of Cold War happened during what historians are causing The Golden Age of Academy. Colleges and universities had considerable prestige and expanded geometric progression, while politicians at each level threw money for them. But since the late 1960s, the combination of a powerful right reaction against the student movement and the simultaneous introduction of the neoliberal rigid savings has undermined the financial stability of the academy and undermines its public support.
At the end of the 1940s and 1950s, at least 100 teachers were fired and black lists For political reasons. Most had a position in office. And most of them once were in the Communist Party, but more and less refused. They would be fully ready to talk about their own political activity, but not about those others – and their administrations knew about it. But so powerful was clumsy communism that in every institution where teachers were housed on the Inquisition, they felt forced to investigate the policy of people and the alleged fitness. Surprisingly, these panels never asked about anyone’s teaching and research.
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However, the cold descended on American campuses. Professors censored, cropped curricula and avoided communication with conflicting subjects. And no one, except the victims, and the small catch of the left civic libertarian, do not resist pure. This era of silent consent ended in 1960 when students historically black colleges and universities in the south treated seat for lunch This revived the movement for civil rights, and then, four years later, the free speech was flared up when Berkeley students demanded the right to engage in political activities on the campus.
By the mid-1960s, activists of students and teachers were pushing for a democratic academy. They demanded more access to African Americans and other insufficient minorities and, especially after the Vietnam War grew the cooperation of its schools with the military-industrial complex. For several years, when student protests are dominated by Nightly News, a return reaction has emerged. Conservative politicians, such as Ronald Reagan, have taken the question and promised to crack the unrest on the campus. “If there should be bloody declared. State legislators in California and other places offered dozens of punitive measures and – even more harmful – withdrawing them previously terrible financial support.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the United States has undergone a serious economic crisis that pushed the ruling elites to adopt a neoliberal political regime that glorified the private enterprise and sought to reduce the entire state sector – including. In conjunction with political backlash that Neoliberal restructuring brought a rigor to the academy. Administrators responded, pursuing wealthy donors and federal grants, while taking the management practices of the business community, which, besides the management of teachers. And, of course, they raised the training, which made the college increasingly unavailable and creating a 1.6 trillion debt crisis. Dollars. They also eliminated so many full -time classes and teachers who work About 75 percent of the country’s faculties consists of a German track, poorly paid, part -time and temporary Work safety and academic freedom instructors are already struggling for students.
Finally, what makes questions even worse for u without getting higher education system, this results are well -funded A 50-year-old campaign on university underwear. After splitting hundreds of millions of dollars on right analytical tanks, journalists and endowed professors and programs, this company has successfully demonized university And convinced most of the public is that the Academy is now a bastion of elitism, which is governed by the radical touch.
Today, we live with the heritage desperately weakened university when the second Trump administration earns a universal war against higher education. Every day brings reasonable new attacks on autonomy and the ability of the Academy conducting conventional operations that academic institution complain About weakly – if at all. But if the sprouts of resistance that are increasingly falling into my inbox mass movement We are so desperate, perhaps in the early stages. We may have learned something from the past. During the Cold War, the red fear was nothing but silence.
