from The Anonymous Don, The Critic
An irrational and censorious ideology is undermining the search for truth
The whole point of a university should be to learn how to think. This is a Sisyphean task, whether for the fresh-faced eighteen-year-old or the academic who has spent decades perfecting this craft. Yet, the importance of learning how to think as part of the pursuit of truth is rapidly plummeting. Universities have become colonised by equality, diversity, and inclusion both in name and nature.
Notwithstanding the all-too-many EDI officers and EDI commitments, this unholy trifecta has poisoned what students can and cannot be taught, and how academics are to fulfill their vocations by way of teaching and research. Most worryingly, the tentacles of EDI have overwhelmed the appointment of academics. Adding insult to injury is a damaging reality: once universities go down the path of EDI, they rarely—if ever—turn back. If there is one lesson from the scandal surrounding the life and tragic end faced by Jason Arday, it is that now is the time for EDI to end. He would have been in such a damaging position had it not been for ideological enablement.
One of the results of the justified scandal surrounding Cambridge University has been the exposure of longstanding, deep-rooted, and lethal failures in academic hiring at the best universities in Britain and the world. It has shone a bright light on the deeply flawed priorities of EDI-warriors from within. It has also underscored how the search for truth is no longer the beating heart of today’s academic institutions. Instead, the pursuit of truth has been quashed by the enemy from within our universities, as more and more academics, not least those in senior leadership positions, view academia as synonymous with ideological activism.