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October 30, 2006
Robert Jensen in an article entitled Academic Freedom on the Rock(s): The Failures of Faculty in Tough Times in Znet says:
While I would like to see U.S. academics, as a class, take a leading role in movements to assert radical humanistic values that have the possibility of transforming society, I don't believe it is likely, or even possible, in the near future. In fact, I assume that in the short term there is very little progressive political change likely in the United States, with or without the assistance of university-based academics. Instead, I will argue we should work to hold onto what protections for academic freedom exist to provide some space for critical thinking in an otherwise paved-over intellectual culture, with an eye on the long term. Toward that goal, I will suggest ways to approach these threats to academic freedom and attempt to assess realistically the conditions under which such defenses go forward.
Jensen adds that the impetus to protecting academic freedom should be seen in the context of a long-term strategy of protecting a saving remnant of intellectual integrity that at some point in the future may provide the core of a politically activated group that can be part of a meaningful shift in values in this society. He adds that we can be reasonably sure that the common faculty reactions today -- (1) duck-and-cover when things get edgy, or (2) whine when there really is little at stake -- guarantee failure.
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