Matt Goodwin, earlier this year, published Bad Education. He is doing a good job in making himself the critical voice of civilisational desperation, and doing so, not only as an academic, now former academic, but a fully-fledged public figure. Goodwin is making himself the tip of a spear of a grinding recognition and growing realisation: one which is still not admitted very often inside the universities. This is that the universities are privileged, guilty, degraded, pandering institutions heading towards expansion and heat death.
However, the arguments back and forth get very tangled. And I don’t think it is very helpful to blame the Left for the problems of the university. Goodwin blames the Left. So does Peterson. Well, one can blame the Left if one wants: but it comes at a cost: it alienates everyone who thinks the Left is beautiful, truthful and honourable. So I think the argument should be subtler. Plus, we don’t want a university to be Right either. Not unless we define Right and Left very carefully. Which no one does. ‘Right’ and ‘Left’ are political words, and therefore about as helpful in analysis as a custard pie or grapeshot.
To read the rest of this article, you need to donate at least £5/month or £50/year to the Daily Sceptic, then create an account on this website. The easiest way to create an account after you’ve made a donation is to click on the ‘Log In’ button on the main menu bar, click ‘Register’ underneath the sign-in box, then create an account, making sure you enter the same email address as the one you used when making a donation. Once you’re logged in, you can then read all our paywalled content, including this article. Being a donor will also entitle you to comment below the line, discuss articles with our contributors and editors in a members-only Discord forum and access the premium content in the Sceptic, our weekly podcast. A one-off donation of at least £5 will also entitle you to the same benefits for one month. You can donate here.
There are more details about how to create an account, and a number of things you can try if you’re already a donor – and have an account – but cannot access the above perks on our Premium page.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.