Donald Trump's—and many other authoritarians'—attacks on education mimic the measures taken by the first fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, against the Italian education system a century ago. Nazi Germany would soon follow. Books were banned and burned. Curricula were revised. Subjects that encouraged critical thinking were outlawed. Obedience to white nationalist ideology was mandated as educators became state enforcers, and free-thinking among students was suppressed. As similar trends appear to be taking root today, how do we get off this path?
It is clear that authoritarian fascists do not want education that promotes critical thinking. Authoritarians claim that we live in a scary world where only strongmen can protect us. An anti-fascist alternative narrative proposes that we can all be strong and shape our future in common. Yet simply making this case is not enough.
Gramsci revisited
The fascists' attacks on education tap into the current crises. To challenge authoritarians’ anti-education narrative, we need to understand where it comes from. Ninety-nine years ago, critical thinker and anti-fascist Antonio Gramsci was imprisoned by Mussolini's regime. Still today, Gramsci offers invaluable insights into why we must prevent critical thinking from being suppressed in order to fight fascism. His thinking also asks us to consider the context in which fascists build their power.
Gramsci explained how the powerful not only rule by force, but also redefine what is considered common sense. He emphasised the need to understand our historical moment and the starting point for the authoritarians to manipulate and create a new “common sense” that underpins their power through violence.
The rise and fall of free university education
After WWII, a new consensus favored universal, tuition-free higher education. This was widespread, including in the U.S. and UK, in most other European countries, and in other early adopting countries including the USSR, Argentina and Morocco. In the U.S., tuition-free education ended in the mid-1960s. Three decades later, the UK followed suit (with the exception of Scotland).
During the same period, from the late 1970s onwards, the UK under Margaret Thatcher and the U.S. under Ronald Reagan led the world in pushing through a neoliberalism policy agenda. In practice, this led to cuts in public spending, while privatisation and deregulation increased corporate power. Today, the effects of these actions are evident: extreme financial inequality has been exacerbated by the collapse of public spending on education, healthcare, housing and other social services.
Education cuts and neoliberal reforms are two edges of the same sword, as demonstrated by the U.S. and UK among other examples in recent decades. As a result, students without rich parents leave universities with massive debts, if they choose to attend at all. In the process, universities have turned into money-making operations, diverting ever more money into management and flashy buildings, and away from teaching, cutting the range of courses they offer.
Whether a society offers free university education has further ramifications on how we relate to each other as citizens. Universities are the final flagships of the education system. How a society treats students reflects how important they consider the next generation to be. Education is a space to make society more equal, or to recreate and reinforce class and other structural oppressions, such as gender and race.
For these reasons, far-right politicians traditionally despise universities since they have often been seen as bastions of social rebellion against the status quo. Institutions of higher education are not as strong socially as they once were, say in the 1960s, which is why it is vital to stop the crackdown on free and critical thinking happening today on campuses. We need an offense alongside a defense.
Education in context: elitism vs egalitarianism
The fall of free education as an ideal was made possible by neoliberals pushing the merits of market ideology, alongside notions that students were free-loading drains on society. This narrative still exists today, and is the space from which the right can continue its assault on education as the preserve of elites.
Universities are elite institutions, and the UK is noteworthy in this discussion. Due to its imperialist legacy, Britain would greatly shape the modern globalized university. Two schools, Oxford and Cambridge, out of the three oldest universities (Bologna was the first) are British. Since their inception, and even during the post-War, pre-neoliberal period, UK universities have stood as centres of elitism. Over half of all UK Prime Ministers went to Oxford or Cambridge. Students from elite universities have always dominated Britain in terms of getting the top jobs.
Things were better before tuition fees, yet they were never perfect. The right and far-right moves against education today make hay from this reality. The status quo is glued together by social antagonisms of different groups, as David Graeber explained eloquently in Bullshit Jobs.
Summarizing Graeber, capitalist elites such as Musk and Trump can deflect anger onto liberal elites, including those educated at top universities, as a it is easier to imagine one’s children becoming super-rich than breaking into the liberal elite and doing a valuable job, say, as a human rights lawyer or as journalist working for a large corporate newspaper (unless you are part of that elite already).
Meanwhile, the current education system does not work for the masses. They are locked out of going to university, unless they are willing to get into astronomical debt.
Trump and his friends gain from the anger about our broken education system. Their conclusion: tear it down. But this is where they are wrong. Nothing would challenge this more than asserting how society would be better by unlocking everyone's potential imagination, intelligence and creativity.
Free education and celebrating our collective imagination
There are many amazing examples of free education beyond the state. The self-managed urban commons in Naples are one example of spaces run for the people, by the people, offering a range of learning opportunities from theatre to crafts, sports to music and much more.
Yet there are also far better national systems of education than the UK or U.S., which are worth showcasing in order to regain the common sense of why free education matters. One is Finland, where kindergarten teachers are respected and well paid, taught at university how to allow children to play.
During their school days in Finland, all children are given a school meal; in the country’s universalist understanding of education, every child and their education matters. This philosophy continues into university, where students are offered tuition-free education with grants and support. In worldwide ranking, Finland nears the top, as it does for other markers of general well-being and happiness.
Finland is no utopia. It has likewise suffered from neoliberal reforms and cuts, especially lately with the present government. Yet compared to the shambles of the U.S. or UK university systems, it offers massive lessons in how universal education can be valued.
This ethos around education connects to a quote from Gramsci before his confinement: “Culture is a privilege. Education is a privilege. And we do not want it to be so. All young people should be equal before culture.”
To challenge authoritarianism worldwide, we must recognize with common sense that the privilege of education needs to be offered to everyone, reimagining institutions beyond their legacy of elitism.
