Then They Came For Us

Then They Came For Us

Media Rants 

by Tony Palmeri 

From The April 2013 edition of The SCENE

Few except the extreme right wing deny that the University of Wisconsin System contributes greatly to the cultural, economic, and civic life of the state. In this Walker Era toxic climate of hostility to the public sector, UW faculty and staff do not expect a “thank you” for their efforts. Still, university personnel and students are mystified by the recent rash of negative press, especially Gannett’s shallow scrutiny of what “we” pay for public higher education, the amount of money expended on overload payments, and even the grading patterns of profs. Similar “revelations” of academic privilege, bloat, laziness, and/or administrative incompetence can be found in the national media.

The end result of this style of reporting is to undermine the credibility of the professoriate and make it easier for establishment powers to marginalize, mock, and/or ignore academic critiques of contemporary American society and public policy. After all, who would trust the judgment of an overpaid grade inflator?

The targeting of the academy, especially public universities, at this time in our nation’s history is not an accident. And it is likely to get much worse.

Why? 

Because in 2013 tenured university faculty represent just about the last group of citizens empowered to express dissent against the USA’s ruling Iron Triangle of Big Business, Big Government, and Big Media. The fact that university faculty uphold existing power relations more often than challenge them does not matter to an Iron Triangle that wants to eliminate even the possibility of effective dissent.

Where else can dissent come from? Students? Saddled with debt. Labor unions? Beaten down and struggling for survival. Religious institutions? Too accommodating to power and scandal plagued. Political parties? Today nothing more than tools of the Iron Triangle. Occupy Wall St. and other social movements? Divided and lacking focus. Alternative media? Happy to preach to the choir.

Without meaning to engage in any kind of “blame the victim” game here, I would argue that the silencing of the universities is in large part the result of  tenured faculty, historically and today, displaying zero solidarity with social justice activists and movements. I am reminded of the famous quote attributed to German pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the socialists, 

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, 

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, 

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

All of us can name individual professors who have spoken out courageously for a variety of causes. But those individuals are, sadly, rare exceptions to the rule of “see no evil, hear no evil.” Professor Noam Chomskylong ago articulated a vision of what the rule ought to be:

“Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions. In the Western world, at least, they have the power that comes from political liberty, from access to information and freedom of expression. For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest, through which the events of current history are presented to us.”

Ten years ago, in a speech that in part lamented the decline of political activism among the Wisconsin professoriate, former State Superintendent of Education Bert Grover channeled Chomsky: "Who in the university is lending the institution's wisdom, judgment, intuitive response and resources to talk about campaign finance reform? Who in the university is talking about tax reform and the fact that 80 percent of the insurance companies in the state do not pay taxes? We subsidize our corporations in this state to the tune of $2.7 billion a year. Who at the university is saying that?" Were Grover to give the speech today, he’d still have trouble coming up with more than a handful of names. And remember, the exceptions prove the rule.

Modern universities are supposedly rooted in Enlightenment Era values of free inquiry in the search for Truth, resistance to all forms of tyranny, and minimizing abuses of power via systems of checks and balances. Since 9/11 we’ve had a government at war with those values, from Mr. Bush’s sanctioning of torture to Mr. Obama’s global assassination campaign. The academy’s silence on these matters is deafening.

Today we find champions of Enlightenment values in prison or dead. Think WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, an enemy of Western governments because he dared expose their mountains of lies and hypocrisy. Think Private BradleyManning, tortured and facing life in prison for revealing to Americans the horrors being done in their name. Think the late Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist driven to suicide by a government that goes after anti secrecy advocates with a fervor and zealotry not seen when it comes to Wall Street crooks, corrupt bankers, and other economy wreckers.

It would be nice for citizens at the grassroots level to defend the Academy against media cheap shots. But why would citizens speak out for the Academy if academics do not speak out for them?