Make no mistake: this is an all-out assault on knowledge
Once is an incident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.
The fascist playbook is clear: Move quickly and smash things. And we’re not just talking about a few broken windows at the US Capitol. This time, it’s the institutions that shape democracy and the guardrails that protect them.
Two different, related decisions this week show that the US is well on its way to living the authoritarian dream. One of them got a lot of attention: the US President very publicly humiliated and fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He claimed that the bureau’s job numbers were phony and meant to make him look bad. Poor, orange baby.
In a quieter, and therefore much more treacherous move, the federal administration also bullied two leading US colleges into sharing data on race and admissions. Because there’s no way that could ever pose a problem. These moves, of course, follow the slashing of the Department of Education.
Once is an incident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.
As post-secondary institutions are cowed into obeisance, they lose their focus on what they’re supposed to do - scholarship, research and teaching. Weakening these large institutions is often a precursor to undermining public confidence in other areas of society - the police and public service, for example - leading to a general erosion of trust. Then, bingo, you have the perfect recipe for demagoguery.
Big deal, some might say. Crybaby schools took a boo-boo. This is bigger than that. Much, much bigger.
A 2023 study showed a direct correlation between confidence in universities, other institutions, and the health of a democracy. With some variances, the Canadian experience over the same period was similar. For example, the number of Canadians who favour increased spending on education (which might be seen as an analogue of confidence in the institution) declined precipitously between 1990 and 2020, followed by a slight uptick after 2020.
What happens when colleges and universities become instruments of public policy, however well-intentioned? Simple: democracy dies.
You simply can’t have a healthy, functioning democratic society without the robust debates that higher education is supposed to engender. Sometimes these debates can get ugly. They can even result in violence. Ohio State may have been 55 years ago. The echoes today are strong around the world, as leaders who see themselves as strong men (and who are really craven bullies hiding behind the apparatus of state) seek to bend education to a breaking point. We’ve seen the same behaviour - with predictable results - in Fiskville, Tennesse in 1925; the White Rose group in Germany in 1942; Orangeburg, South Carolina, Mexico City and Kent State, Ohio in 1968; Soweto in 1976; Czechosolovakia and of course, Tiananmen Square in 1989. More recently, the so-called Arab Spring protests were largely fuelled by students.
In almost every case, the students who led these protests were met with violent, oppressive, and militaristic tactics as powerful forces sought to squelch the protestors’ voices and ideas. It’s not hard to see the connection between the suppression of basic, factual information and bombs and bullets fired at those who demand access to it, or even just a discussion on the topics at hand.
The relationship between universities and democracies has not always been an easy one, nor should it be. Every good relationship has its share of friction. That’s how it grows - by learning to overcome those points of disagreement and turn them into moments of light and understanding. John Dewey said, “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” Watch for a ban on midwives, coming to a faltering community hospital near you.