The Academy Learns to Speak Trump
Reading this morning’s report on a meeting of the Northwestern faculty with its interim president Henry Bienen, I was struck by the language Bienen uses to set out his stance toward Trump:
I want to do a deal with the federal government. I don’t want to get into suits with the federal government.
Set aside the substance of what he’s saying. I’m more startled by the effluence of such Trumpian language—not just “deal” but “I want to do a deal”—from the mouth of a university president. Not, “I think we might come to a prudent arrangement with the federal government.” Not “I think a path of compromise is always more productive than one of confrontation.” Not “the law and the courts are crude instruments to reconcile the legitimate concerns of the federal government with the values of our academic enterprise.” No. Bienen has learned to speak Trump: “I want to do a deal.”
For those of you who don’t know of him, Bienen is a long-time and respected scholar of African and comparative politics, a former dean at Princeton and former president of Northwestern, a consultant during the 1970s and 1980s to the State Department, the National Security Council, the World Bank, and the CIA.
He’s old-school, in other words, someone who came up under the establishment aegis of “the institutions” and “the norms” and the “facts matter” that supposedly were going to protect us against Trump.
This is not just a case of “look how easily these leaders capitulate to Trump.” It’s more profound, where the language itself, a la Klemperer, infiltrates the very sensibilities and assumptions of the ruling class, preparing the groundwork for their capitulation, if not now, then at some point.
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8 Comments
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Geoffrey DeWan
Or it could be just an iteration of the old negotiating tactic of “meeting people where they are” though, if that was the case he could’ve begun his statement with “Listen motherfucker…”
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Well said!
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Like a better Texan than any we’ve got now once said of Pat Buchanan’s blather, this sounded better in the original German. During Trump’s first term, I was pretty sure he could be warded off, my idea being that he was too lazy to pursue any course of action longer than it took to become fascinated by some shinier atrocity on Fox News. What I wasn’t expecting was that the depth of disaffection with our moribund political economy and the cluelessness of the Democratic Party under Biden would lead to his being elected again. This gave the grand army of think tank fascists, techbro rent-seekers, Christian dominionists and purveyors of Opus Dei sanctimony time to gather the troops for a full-on assault on the body politic behind his orange banner. Once it became clear that our fate was sealed, I fully expected university administrators to start sounding like this. Being old enough to have endured in loco parentis, and briefly become an officially designated “outside agitator” at UC campuses, I knew exactly what kind of ass-covering weasels they’ve always been when asked to defend the so-called principles of western civilization against an enemy with the power to deprive them of their sinecures.
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It’s so naive for people to imagine that it’s possible to “do a deal” with Trump when he keeps showing, including on this particular issue, that he will not honor any deal he makes. Agreeing to one demand just tells him you’re weak and then he should start making a lot more demands.
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Glenn
I
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I am happy to find another person who finds the relevance of Victor Klemperer’s “Language of the Third Reich”, which I now hold in my hand.
I share, to some small extent, the feeling of isolation that Klemperer experienced in the extreme.
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And I am not Jewish in the least.
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I’m familiar with Bienen by name and reputation. This is sad.
