Tag: behavior

It is interesting to observe the phenomenon underway in higher education. At the same speed that universities are becoming diploma factories and, in the case of the humanities, tools of political indoctrination, the demand for independent professors, who teach what they want, what they are passionate about and consider fundamental, without worrying about guidelines outlined by any authority whatsoever, nor about dwelling on what others say is important, is increasing. Thus, we clearly distinguish two groups: those thirsty for diplomas, and those thirsty for learning. It is hard to assume that the day will come when pitiful courses like these humanities ones will be universally regarded as obsolete, but it seems inevitable that in the near future someone will catch on to such a trend and found a major educational institution that will bring together such teachers and such students, an institution that will rescue the purpose of education and, whether it provides diplomas or not, will behave in the way they all should behave.

It is an unmistakable trait of tyrannical epochs to attack the freedom of thought, which manifests itself in the detestable form of censorship. This delirium of subjecting souls to uniformity has fortunately never been realized, although the violence employed to achieve it has always achieved patent results. Ideological censorship is a crime, unjustifiable from any point of view; it is a disgrace in every century and a condemnation of the very values on which it thinks it stands. That is why today’s attempt to bend authors of the past to the despicable ideology that has dominated Western thought by subjugating universities and the media will be a permanent blemish. Only incurable scoundrels find anything remotely reasonable in censoring those who, dead, cannot defend themselves; in adulterating their words, falsifying them, and selling as theirs lines that they never wrote. Beyond that, there is nothing to be said.

Another from Proudhon:

L’autorité ne fut pas plutôt inaugurée dans le monde qu’elle devint l’objet de la compétition universelle. Autorité, Gouvernement, Pouvoir, Etat — ces mots désignent tous la même chose —, chacun y vit le moyen d’opprimer et d’exploiter ses semblables. Absolutistes, doctrinaires, démagogues et socialistes tournèrent incessamment leurs regards vers l’autorité, comme vers leur pôle unique.

Proudhon’s revolt, the vehemence and ardor that leap like sparks from his lines is quite understandable: it is very easy to imagine a society that does not consist of oppressors and oppressed; yet it is astonishing to see that oppression, in whatever guise it is presented, does nothing but consolidate by molding itself to the prevailing propensities. And to see that, even though the obvious is blatantly exposed, the majority does not see it, taking an active part in the perpetuation of that which goes directly against not only their interests, but their own dignity.