Genuinely, I think these sorts of radical activist-professors have done immense damage to the reputation of higher education (and, quite frankly, have pushed some people towards the right in response to their advocacy for the abolition of police, capitalism, Western civilization, etc). My difficulty with accepting critical theory as useful scholarship is that it, from what I've seen, consistently fails to provide meaningful alternatives or solutions to the problems it discusses. There's a Teddy Roosevelt quote that summarizes my feelings: "Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining." Not to mention, capitalism (specifically, the protection of private property and a market economy) has its flaws, but it's the best system we have for improving standards of living, spurring technological innovation, etc (i.e. materially improving people's lives). I think it's worth pointing out that these academics are still happy to live in the U.S. and are able to keep their jobs because of liberal democratic norms like freedom of speech. Two Churchill quotes here: "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." and "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
Sorry that this comment reads kind of negatively. The article is a good report on the Center - I just genuinely cannot stand this side of academia!
The contrast is breathtaking between how powerful these people are (others in academia dare not call them out on their lunacy) and yet how powerless (best of luck on your project to "dismantle the logics and institutions of advanced capitalist accumulation" outside of campus, guys).
Genuinely, I think these sorts of radical activist-professors have done immense damage to the reputation of higher education (and, quite frankly, have pushed some people towards the right in response to their advocacy for the abolition of police, capitalism, Western civilization, etc). My difficulty with accepting critical theory as useful scholarship is that it, from what I've seen, consistently fails to provide meaningful alternatives or solutions to the problems it discusses. There's a Teddy Roosevelt quote that summarizes my feelings: "Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining." Not to mention, capitalism (specifically, the protection of private property and a market economy) has its flaws, but it's the best system we have for improving standards of living, spurring technological innovation, etc (i.e. materially improving people's lives). I think it's worth pointing out that these academics are still happy to live in the U.S. and are able to keep their jobs because of liberal democratic norms like freedom of speech. Two Churchill quotes here: "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." and "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
Sorry that this comment reads kind of negatively. The article is a good report on the Center - I just genuinely cannot stand this side of academia!
The contrast is breathtaking between how powerful these people are (others in academia dare not call them out on their lunacy) and yet how powerless (best of luck on your project to "dismantle the logics and institutions of advanced capitalist accumulation" outside of campus, guys).