Be Careful What you Think

David Graeber was an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University until recently, and the author of Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams and Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, among many other academic articles, essays, and publications. Apparently he was a gifted teacher who was recognized by Yale as an accomplished teacher. However, in today's corporate run and big business financed ivory tower, conservative correctness determines who works in academia.

Last spring Professor Graeber was informed that his teaching contract at Yale would not be extended. It was not Graeber's writing and scholarship or teaching that was ever an issue; rather it was his political ideas that played a role in the Yale administration's unwarranted decision to remove him. Graeber, a renowned anarchist scholar, was terminated because of his politics AND his willingness to talk about them.

"One thing that I've learned in academia is no one much cares what your politics are as long as you don't do anything about them. You can espouse the most radical positions imaginable, as long as you're willing to be a hypocrite about them. The moment you give any signs that you might not be a hypocrite, that you might be capable of standing on principle even when it's not politically convenient, then everything's different..." --David Graeber