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An English professor is discussing the relationship between absurdism and fascism. He points out that, despite their philosophical commitment to meaninglessness, Samuel Beckett and Albert Camus were involved in the French Resistance. In the midst of his talk, the Professor briefly performs a Nazi salute to illustrate a point. Students, filming the lecture, predictably circulate a little clip of this online; it leads to protests and calls for the lecturer to resign. After an open discussion on campus, the professor is suspended, and soon his job becomes untenable.
At a debate with the motion “This house believes there is no such thing as good taste”, an art historian impersonates Adolf Hitler. As “Hitler”, the art historian bemoans, in a fake German accent, his failure as an artist, his hatred of Jewish-backed modernism and of “Negro-inspired” Cubism. There is outrage following the event, as audience members claim to feel horrified and physically unwell, and the chair of the debating society apologises for “failing to intervene”. The society then draws up a “blacklist” of speakers it will never invite again, including the art historian in question.
The first scene is from Netflix’s recent light-hearted parody of American academia, The Chair, starring Sandra Oh as Ji-Yoon Kim, the head of English at the fictional Pembroke University. The second, however, is from real life, last week at the Cambridge Union. The art historian in question, Andrew Graham-Dixon, has since apologised, stating: “It was not my intention to upset anybody, merely to persuade them that bad taste and bad morality often go hand in hand.”
You can watch a clip online (though the full video has not been released by the Union). It seems obvious that Graham-Dixon was mocking the aesthetic ideals of Hitler, not defending them, just as the lecturer in The Chair is baffled to have to clarify that he is in no way a defender of fascist or Nazi beliefs. As the art critic JJ Charlesworth, who proposed the motion at the Cambridge debate, says:
Andrew’s impersonation of Nazis, who thought they knew what good taste was, was comic and to the point. If we can’t do impersonations of the Nazis to mock the Nazis, then we’re in trouble… Andrew finished his talk by describing his decision to burn racist statuettes he found in a house he’d bought in Scotland… I think students need to think more carefully, contextually and critically.
Life is mimicking art: it’s hard to know which has the more ridiculous dimensions. Despite Netflix’s attempts, however, little is humorous about what’s happening at our universities. Every week, in seats of higher learning, there seems to be a new crisis, some perceived new offence.
Last week, Kathleen Stock resigned her professorial chair at the University of Sussex after masked protesters greeted her on campus with flares and posters demanding that she be ousted for her views on sex and gender. (Like many, Stock holds that human beings cannot change sex, and has concerns about proposed changes to the law which would make sex a matter of self-identification.) “We don’t pay you £9,000 for Kathleen Stock’s transphobia,” ran one of the complaints.
This, in a nutshell, is much of the problem. A civilisation whose highest values are money and protecting feelings, as opposed to, say, truth and understanding, will inevitably become censorious. When students are told by institutions themselves that they are clients buying a product (a degree), it is no surprise that a consumerist society that lives and dies by the motto “the customer is always right” will find itself up against buyers who object to being taught things that offend their beliefs.
In this climate, there can be little discussion of unpopular ideas, no transgression and no provocation, lest offence or bad publicity ensue. And academics become not seekers after truth but frightened employees, afraid to speak out or defend their colleagues lest their ideas are badly-received or they become the target of anger themselves. In The Chair, Ji-Yoon refuses to forsake her colleague – the one who gave the fascist salute – and soon she is removed from her position as chair of the English faculty. Nor does the lecturer himself, like Stock, remain in his job for long.
The Chair may be fiction, but clearly it is all-too-accurate satire. It correctly points to a serious tension between education and current “sensitivities”, not the least of which is the status of comedy itself: when is it appropriate to run the risk of offence, as both The Chair’s lecturer and Graham-Dixon did, in order to make a point?
The university, in its current incarnation, is starting to seem untenable. No wonder, perhaps, that academics are choosing to set up their own institutions, such as the new University of Austin, where Stock has accepted an advisory role. Billing itself as “dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth”, and involving cultural figures from Bari Weiss to David Mamet, this as-yet-uncredited establishment will pitch itself against the censorious climate of today’s academy.
Whether the University of Austin will merely offer the “anti-woke” position in an increasingly stupid culture war remains to be seen. Either way, truth and reality are looking for new defenders.
An academic brought down by a Hitler impression: Netflix’s The Chair was ahead of reality
Life is mimicking art, as a new farrago in Cambridge proves – and it’s becoming hard to tell which is the more ridiculous