Toby Young Toby Young

Academics who dare not speak their names

When I first read about plans for a new academic periodical called The Journal of Controversial Ideas, I got the wrong end of the stick. Fantastic news, I thought, particularly when I saw the distinguished group of intellectuals behind it. They include Jeff McMahan, professor of moral philosophy at Oxford; Peter Singer, the well-known Australian philosopher; and Francesca Minerva, a bio-ethicist at the University of Ghent. An authoritative magazine bearing the imprimatur of these distinguished free-thinkers is a great way to persuade other, less celebrated academics to stick their heads above the parapet and publish essays that dissent from groupthink.

Then I spotted an important detail: all the material will be published pseudonymously. That’s right — the contributors won’t use their own names. Far from a cause for hope, this is confirmation of my worst fears. The Maoist intolerance of anyone who dares to challenge the ‘woke’ orthodoxy has reached such a pitch that the only way to persuade non-conforming intellectuals to contribute to public debate is to guarantee they won’t be identified.

When I described universities as ‘left-wing madrassas’ in a Sunday paper earlier this year, I was accused of being alarmist by various higher education ‘experts’, including some conservatives. Sam Gyimah, a higher education minister, told vice-chancellors that, ‘Our best universities are not ivory towers. Still less are they “left-wing madrassas”, as one controversialist chose to describe them.’

I wish I had been exaggerating, but when eminent academics are forced to go to these lengths to protect colleagues from the career-ending consequences of expressing heterodox views, even the most sanguine observer has to admit there’s a problem.

‘I think all of us will be very happy if and when the need for such a journal disappears, and the sooner the better,’ Professor McMahan told the BBC.

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