As a curmudgeon of some experience I usually expect the worst and am rarely disappointed. But I am surprised that so many Universities have capitulated to the administration with nary a breath of protest. Shakespeare, notably, told us the Bad Guys would go after the lawyers first because the lawyers will stop them. (Sadly, many seem to have not read past the “kill all the lawyers” passage to the reason for that. Anyhoo, that is the order in which events have unfurled.
The administration’s first acts were to gut the legal system and staff it with incompetent and unqualified “leaders.” It laid off or fired lawyers whose politics weren’t Red enough for it. Now the admin is trying to figure out how to get rid of the judges ruling against it.
Contrast this with Universities. Admin says “Get rid of DEI, brown students, and don’t say anything we don’t like.” So far, only UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) has said “Fuck off” while a lot of their fellow elite institutions have said “Did we jump high enough sir?”
I’m relieved beyond words there are judges and lawyers who will defend the constitution and disappointed beyond anything at the capitulation of higher education. I realize it’s an apples to oranges comparison and that there are brave lawyers and educators who aren’t giving in.
But I always thought the subtext of my grad school professors’ speeches about how authoritarian regimes destroy education was that they would defend knowledge and truth, and, at least at the top, that is not what’s happening.
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