Towards a not yet named academy of the Left

15:45 — SPECIAL GUEST: Pro­fes­sor Wolff inter­views Pro­fes­sor Michael Pelias about the ratio­nale and goals of launch­ing a new Left Uni­ver­si­ty in New York City.

“The insti­tu­tion­al intent today is only to cre­den­tial and ini­ti­ate new mem­bers of the busi­ness sta­tus quo, not to encour­age orig­i­nal think­ing or self dis­cov­ery. This puts acad­eme in col­lu­sion with the cor­po­rate state to elim­i­nate intel­lec­tu­al ten­sion and cre­ate a false new class of “man­agers” and “pro­fes­sion­als,” who will then rein­force the cycle of repli­cat­ing them­selves and the exhaust­ed sys­tem they con­tin­ue to sup­port. The cor­po­rate realm is only too hap­py to pro­vide exter­nal fund­ing and “pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships” in order to con­tin­ue to co-opt the uni­ver­si­ties in order to but­tress reac­tionary busi­ness ortho­dox­ies. Last­ly, this makes the fac­ul­ty com­plic­it in enabling this neg­a­tive trans­for­ma­tion of the acad­e­my; their devil’s bar­gain is to con­tin­ue to draw salaries and ben­e­fits pack­ages from the beast that ulti­mate­ly will dis­card and starve them.”