I think that academic freedom is in very poor shape these days. The atmosphere on campus is such that if you speak up in class to say that you're in favour of free markets, that you're in favour of Israel or that you think there might be some arguments in favour of America's role in the world, then you really do risk getting chased off campus, and sometimes literally chased off campus.
If you are putting in for a grant, of course you have to say that it will help with climate change and will help with DEI. All of these things are obligatory nowadays. I think, again, that this is just very harmful.
When I went to college years ago, my father said, “Don't study English. The profession's lost its mind.” By the way, I should mention that my father's parents never owned a car. My grandfather, who made good, was the poor boy on scholarships. I can play the poverty card too, if it will help my credibility here.
The critical point is that, as John Stuart Mill said, the state should require that children get an education and make sure that they can afford it, but a state-delivered education is a contrivance for moulding people into conformity. This is what universities now do. The one who pays the piper calls the tune. I want to add that I think it's a very impoverished vision that if they're privatized, all they'll do is sell to the highest bidder. What they'll do is go out and raise money philanthropically in large amounts from the generous people who live in our wealthy country, based on their devotion to research.
You see what's happening in the pharmaceutical industry. What have our lavish subsidies done about that? The Soviet Union had purely public sector research for 70 years and didn't invent one single useful drug.