The Staff’s Column
The difficulty of freedom
How should academics respond to a free society in crisis? Academics have the freedom of choice to look inwards and down into the depths of basic research. But perhaps it is precisely when free society is in crisis that we must look outwards and initiate major debates about the direction in which society is heading.
The conditions of freedom
Like so many other things, academic freedom is most needed – and also most difficult to protect – when it is under threat.
We are living in extremely turbulent times. Social media is awash with war, crisis and chaos. The traditional media spin every story in order to survive. Politicians are dividing the population to secure their base of loyal voters. Opinions on what universities should and should not do are strongly expressed and are at times unpleasant. In this way, the crisis of the free society is becoming the crisis of academia. In fact, we have seen similar developments in previous eras; from a historical vantage point, perhaps the lesson we must learn is that freedom is something we must take responsibility for.
Mitigation strategies and responsibility
Universities have been in the eye of the storm on several occasions, and academics have several ways to withstand the pressure. The philosophical response is to look inwards to contemplation and inner enlightenment. The technical response, on the other hand, looks downwards at specific problems and the specific competences that can solve them. The rationalist reaction is to look upwards into a sphere of data-based knowledge of systematicity, which may eventually seep from the ivory tower and into society.
But sometimes we need to look outwards. To paraphrase Raymond Aron, in times when despots dress as liberals society needs committed thinkers.
The great debates
A liberal society needs academics who debate basic concepts such as freedom, rights, security, dignity and responsibility. The debates could also include health and equality, or innovation and technology. Fortunately, academics have great freedom to frame these debates as they see fit.
Of course, universities as institutions also have a responsibility. Universities must be able to look beyond the portfolio of ‘competences’ which are demanded by politicians for the benefit of societal equilibrium and productivity. Competences are important, but they cannot stand alone. Universities need to organise and prompt debate across all our disciplines and serve as a bastion of knowledge in contradistinction to mere opinions.
Freedom is a responsibility – particularly in turbulent times.
