There is a fascinating story rumbling around the UK media today. Postmodernism tried to take control of Western society via the universities. That is where the foundational ideas came from, and that is where the army of “woke” activists have been ultimately receiving their orders from.
The story involves English philosopher Kathleen Stock, who was professor of ethics at Sussex University while I was studying philosophy there. She was one of the few academics brave enough to stand up to the postmodern gender ideologues, and they accordingly treated her as if she was some sort of subhuman. The university failed to protect her. It paid lip service to backing her, but too many of the people involved were on the side of the mob.
The University has now been fined £585,000, and the government regulator which has issued the fine has made clear that if this isn’t a big enough warning then a much larger fine may follow for further for future offences of a similar nature.
What is fascinating is the response.
The Guardian, which is usually as pro-woke as it gets, is now sitting on the fence: University of Sussex fined £585,000 for failing to uphold freedom of speech | Higher education | The Guardian
England’s university regulator has been accused of “perpetuating the culture wars” after fining the University of Sussex a record £585,000 at the conclusion of an investigation into freedom of speech on campus.
It marks the end of a three-and-a-half year investigation into the university’s handling of the case of Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor who resigned after being targeted by protests over her views on gender identification and transgender rights.
In a ruling that prompted a furious reaction from the University of Sussex and has implications for the wider sector, the Office for Students (OfS) found the institution’s governing documents “failed to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom”. It also identified failings in the university’s management and governance processes.
But those who have been found guilty do not show any sign of acknowledgement of having done anything wrong:
The Kafkaesque investigation into our university looks like political scapegoating
The OfS investigation should have been short, focused and straightforward. But for those at Sussex who spent thousands of hours responding to the many OfS requests for information, the experience has instead been Kafka-esque.
On 21 March 2024, after two and a half years, the OfS made a wide range of provisional findings against Sussex. In the final decision, the OfS abandoned, without any explanation, most of its provisional findings, reduced its original penalty by nearly half, and dropped additional regulatory requirements on the University.
The OfS has not investigated the circumstances that led to Professor Stock’s resignation; it does not have the powers to do this. It insists it was ‘impartial and view-point-neutral’, but it has not talked to anyone apart from Professor Stock. The investigation was otherwise entirely desk-based — trawling hundreds of university documents and webpages, reviewing policies, statements, guidance, and minutes to find potential breaches of the conditions of registration to which higher education providers must adhere.
The OfS repeatedly refused to hold any substantive meeting with the University. The only such meeting ever scheduled was unilaterally cancelled by the OfS. We repeatedly asked for feedback to ensure compliance without response.
etc…
There is no admission of defeat or guilt here. Which means this is not over, because this issue is not going to go away. What is happening is government intervention to bring an end to the postmodernist stranglehold on academia. The regulator is now threatening a £4.6m fine for future offences – a sum that no UK university can afford in the current economic climate.
This is what ideological change looks like in the real world. It is making space for something new.