The End Times of Academia

The year is 2013. The Great Recession has turned into the False Recovery, Trump is but a Twitter pest, and I was a new PhD with two small children who had ditched academia for journalism — a move akin to leaving the Titanic for the iceberg.

I did not regret it and still don’t. I was freelancing for a pittance while staying home with my kids, but my mind was free to wander. My articles attracted interesting people — one of whom, anthropologist Ryan Anderson, interviewed me that May. I am reprinting that interview with Ryan’s permission. Our 2013 conversation covers issues relevant to 2025 — including careerist conformity, economic exploitation, and threats to intellectual freedom.

Higher education is under attack like never before. The government is defunding and extorting universities. Schools are eliminating renowned departments and replacing courses and educators with AI. International students are denied entry and politically active students are surveilled — especially students who aren’t white. Credentialism and soaring tuition lock Americans out of the job market and scholars without inherited wealth are locked out of “pay-to-play” careers. The academic Ponzi scheme I describe in this 2013 interview remains in place — now with an authoritarian bent.

While many of academia’s wounds are self-inflicted, everyday people pay the price. The assault on university life is part of a broader authoritarian agenda. Fascists seek a society where people lack not only the motive to learn, but also the means. Alternative avenues of education — libraries, search engines, archives, museums — are being shut down or restructured to curtail access to knowledge. Curiosity and community are under attack.

It is strange to reread an interview from a time that felt very dark in an era that is far worse. But my advice stands. If you are a student, a professor, or a self-taught intellectual — fight. Fight by refusing to abandon your humanity, your originality, and your will to explore. Do not fall for prestige — the etymology of which means “illusion” — and do not bow down to power. Do not submit to anyone, including the plagiarized digital detritus called “AI.” Read and think on your own terms with your own words. Do not take your ability to do so for granted.

I’ve had a strange run since 2013. Every industry I’ve worked in collapsed along with my country. But at least it was my strange ...