Duplicity

I knew about the grade inflation, It advanced by baby steps for decades, facilitated by a regime that defined students as customers. But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

I knew about the athletics violations, the most in over 50 years. There were scandals that gained notoriety, followed by promised reforms, and then more sophisticated ways to game the system. But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

I knew about obscene salaries for the President and administrators, the political payoffs to gain revenue streams and police the system. But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

I knew what happened in the fraternities, even served a year as a faculty advisor, seeing how rent-a-cops collaborated with official lackeys to cool out the marks, and keep evidence of the rape culture off the media radar. But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

I knew about promiscuous revenue hustling, like Good Neighbor programs, a shake-down racket to fleece local merchants, hidden behind the veil of respectability.

But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

I knew about the inexorable development of a National Security University, the glorification of military symbols and the war or terror, the dirty little secrets of classified research dollars that purchased souls for market value. But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

I knew about the exploitation of adjuncts, Who taught many more classes, so the tenured professors could enjoy their privilege. Parents would be scandalized to learn about the dark side of the educated class, and what is compromised to gain legitimacy for the new order. But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

I knew about the destruction of faculty governance, as apparatchiks sought dominance in the struggles for more and more power. I saw it first-hand in my two stints as Faculty Senator. But what could I do? It was going on everywhere. I had to go along to get along.

For two decades I taught the Holocaust as an ethics course, stressing the evil of being a bystander, when high and low crimes are everyday fare. But I didn’t follow my own teaching. I am a hypocrite.

John M. Johnson