So, as you know, one way I think conservative politicians and their experts in foundations have gone wrong is to intensify their war against tenure in higher education. They’re staying with the same outmoded narrative: The problem is “tenured radicals” protected by the job-protection racket.

But, you know, the percentage of credit hours generated by tenured and tenure-track faculty continues to plummet, and the problems of political correctness and exorbitant costs get worse. How do you explain that? Political correctness is now all about treating students as the touchiest of consumers; it is increasingly an administrative project. Not only must none of campus life be in any way dangerous or humiliating (after it, it really shouldn’t be), but the classroom itself must be purged of discouraging and uncomfortable words. Even micro-aggressions (or aggressions too small to be seen by the naked eye) can’t be allowed; the spirited part of the soul must be purged, as a cause or an effect of higher education. But a Socratic dialogue — or any real human conversation about any fundamental question — is pretty much one micro-aggression after another (and some ain’t so micro!). The problem these days isn’t the shrinking number of tenured socialists, who after all often love great books (for all their anti-capitalist moments) and are very aggressive when it comes to the tendency of capitalism to commodify everything, including the content and method of delivery of higher education.

All in all, as I explain here, tenure is to be cherished because it facilitates good teaching.