Those of you who remember the very early songs by Tom Lehrer will be familiar with the gentlemanly fight song he wrote for his alma mater, Harvard. If not, well you can listen to it here, if you are (or ah) really anxious to hear it. That, however, is not the point of today’s posting.
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| Tom Lehrer |
Whatever its merits as the oldest university in the United States, and the prestige associated with attending the Ivy League school of Ivy League schools (unless you attended Yale, of course), Harvard has not made a lot of friends among hoi poloi who may have attended other schools which Harvard grads might regard as somewhat lower on the scale of acceptability. There is also the problem of the “Harvard School” of legal (and thus moral) positivism, which many — including us — regard as both symptomatic and a cause of significant problems afflicting modern society. Then there is the perceived arrogance, superciliousness, etc., etc., etc., and so on, and so forth, of Harvard grads. We could go on.
That being said, there is reason for Harvard to, as Tom Lehrer said, “fight fiercely,” not only for itself, but for all of us, even non-college grads. For some rather complex and possibly misleading reasons (or because his son didn’t get in), President Trump has decided to single out Harvard for punitive treatment. This may be something of a tactical error, given the prestige and influence of the Harvard law school, to say nothing of other Harvard alumni who occupy key positions in both the public and the private sector.
However much President Trump thinks he is running the country and the world, he can only do so, so long as other people let him. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, President Trump’s glamor may be dimming somewhat as the economy tanks (no, the stock market is not the economy), the dollar weakens, international relations take a cannonball dive into the garderobe, and divisiveness and chaos spread throughout business and government.
President Trump is, in fact, playing a very dangerous game. Whether this was his intention is beside the point, but his tactic is familiar in general, although badly executed in particular. Elites, be they political, economic, social, educational, or anything else, only exist at the sufferance of non-elites. The moment ordinary people feel they are victims of the elites, the elites had either better change their ways or prepare to be eliminated.
Autocrats can use this tendency to good effect to maintain power over the people they control, albeit with the ultimate consent of those who are controlled. All they need do is maintain hatred and fear of the elites on the part of non-elites.
During the French Revolution, the leaders stirred up hatred of the aristos, then their sympathizers, then their personal enemies . . . and finally went too far by turning virtually everyone in the country into an enemy. Hitler used this to great advantage against the Jews. Putin is doing something similar against “Jewish Nazis,” Ukrainians, the United States, NATO, and dangerous countries like Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican. Autocrats and tyrants can only remain in power so long as popular feeling is with them.
That may be President Trump’s misstep. Harvard is an elite school, even the elite school; rumor hath it Harvard grads even look down a bit on Oxford and Cambridge. It’s easy to whip up a frenzy of hatred against Harvard . . . until people start to think. Yes, thinking is hard work, even painful, and the educational system is, by and large, dedicated to teaching people how not to think, but to swallow the party line. Occasionally, however, genuine thought starts to creep in and sometimes, despite not being welcome, finds a home.
In this case the genuine thought that may start to creep in is the realization Harvard is not alone in being an elite school. All colleges and universities perceive themselves as elite schools, i.e., for an elite. No one goes to college by right. Each and every student has to apply and be accepted.
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| Robert Maynard Hutchins |
This has resulted in some rather odd consequences when it comes to finding employment, and which people like Robert Maynard Hutchins (who went to Yale) and Mortimer J. Adler protested. A university should not be a job training center, but a place where people receive an education, but that is an issue for another day.
The bottom line is whether other colleges and universities actually meet the criteria of being a true elite is irrelevant. The fact is “higher education” is and has always been for an elite. Harvard isn’t unique because it is an elite school, it’s unique because it is perceived as being the elite school . . . just as Yale graduates, Notre Dame graduates, and alumni of virtually every college and university tend to view their school as the elite school.
And that is President Trump’s misstep. His actions against Harvard will probably be unshakably acceptable to anyone who never went to college and those who view intellectual activity with deep suspicion, going by faith and sentiment rather than faith illuminated and guided by reason.
The vast majority of college grads, however, once their rather deplorable burst of exultation is past, are going to start to think. If he succeeds against Harvard, what is to stop President Trump from going after any other school that gets on his radar . . . such as theirs? And for any (if you’ll pardon the expression) trumped up excuse he can find? Good old Unnamed State U and their fighting kumquats might find themselves in the same boat, and with fewer resources to fight it.
Ultimately, President Trump has not gone after an unpopular university, but all universities, and thus education itself. Does Harvard need reform? Of course it does. All human institutions are imperfect and as human creations are always in need of reform. But reform does not mean destruction, as should already have become evident from the bizarre and hideously inefficient antics of DoGE. The process of social justice — the reform of institutions — is a slow process, but not a destructive one.
And that seems to be something President Trump has yet to learn . . . even if they don’t teach it at Harvard.
#30#