(image credit: Reuters: Nicholas Pfosi)
By Doug Stephens
This week Harvard University pushed back against the Trump administration’s threats to tie billions in federal funding to unprecedented demands of political and ideological compliance. In its letter to Harvard, the government cited among other things, the school’s policies of diversity, equity and inclusion in faculty hiring and student admissions protocols, as well as the university’s allowance of peaceful pro-Palestinian protests on its campuses.
This was not the administration’s first targeting of higher education, having staged a similar attack against Columbia University earlier in the year.
To avoid funding cuts the government demanded everything from the cancelling of specific programs of study to submitting to third-party auditing of faculty and student admissions processes for evidence of D.E.I. ideologies. The letter sent to Harvard went even further, suggesting that all student applicants be screened according to whether or not they are “hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.”
In today’s polarized political landscape there will be those who cheer on the Government for what they see as a righteous crusade against “woke” academic policies. Policies that they feel have resulted in reverse discrimination or an affront to a purely meritocratic system. On the other side of the political divide there will be those who see this as clear government overreach into the matters and methods of private universities and their discretion to admit and educate students as they deem fit. Yet another attempted power-grab by a government hungry to centralize unprecedented control over American society.
The Founding Troublemakers
Whether or not the Trump administration ultimately proves successful in bringing Harvard and other schools to heel, such coordinated, ideological attacks on universities should terrify every person in America. Because at their core, these assaults are aimed at quashing something much more central and vital, not just to education but to the founding ethos of America itself – the right to dissent.
Ironically, in demanding that every student admitted to Harvard adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Independence, the Trump administration violates the very essence and spirit of the Declaration itself. The publishing of which was, in no uncertain terms, a formal expression of dissent against a tyrannical British monarchy. A monarchy that, as detailed by author Thomas Jefferson, had trampled over the rights and freedoms of the colonies. Going so far as to say that King George III had “dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.” In other words, Jefferson and his co-signatories were sending King George an historic “F*** you”. An act of courageous dissent that became the central governing philosophy of what it meant to be American.
Innovation Relies on Dissent
While this attack on the freedoms of thought, speech and dissent should concern every citizen, it should be equally concerning to every American businessperson and corporation for reasons that may be less immediately obvious.
The story of America’s value and impact on the global business sector has been a tale of innovation. From Henry Ford’s moving assembly line and its radical impact on production efficiency to Steve Jobs’ revolutionary vision for personal computing, America ascended the global economic order through innovation. This capacity for innovation has never been more important than it is today.
In a world where China and other countries have demonstrated clear leadership in the evolution and production of things invented elsewhere, America’s continued role as the primary inventor of things at home is even more existentially vital to its position in the global economy. Without innovation America becomes a consumer of everything and a producer of almost nothing.
And at the very nucleus of innovation lies dissent. The inherent willingness, freedom and emphatic cultural encouragement to question, criticize and propose new ways of thinking. As sunlight is to photosynthesis, dissent is to innovation. Without dissent to inspire a vision of what could be, all that remains is compliance and complacency with what already exists.
Innovation Deserts
On trips to Russia and Saudi Arabia I’ve seen first-hand the degree to which societal and ideological controls on public dissent have a dampening effect on innovation. The fear of being seen as a complainer, a maverick or a troublemaker are so profound in both countries that any talk of innovation, unless driven from the Kremlin or Crown is almost non-existent. And as anyone who deals in innovation will tell you, the very best ideas rarely percolate downward. Without the freedom and encouragement to push back and question the status quo, organizations and countries cease to innovate and have little choice but to import their progress, putting them in a constant state of lagging behind the curve.
Universities Are Incubators of Dissent
Peaceful dissent in all respects – political, academic or social, is the essence of higher education. The ability to peacefully express one’s views and respectfully question the views of others is central to evolution and progress. Debate, disagreement and protest are essential to this process and by withdrawing these freedoms, the Trump administration is directly attacking the kinetic energy of innovation. In predicating medical and scientific research grants and funding on ideological compliance instead of academic prowess the government is essentially taking a hacksaw to the country’s ability to innovate which, beyond brute military force, is it’s only remaining superpower.
Common Ground
Perhaps this attack on the freedoms and rights of universities is the one political issue that really need not be politicized at all. Maybe it’s a moment that we, as businesspeople, can meet and agree regardless of our political leanings. If you subscribe to the idea that innovation is vital to economic success and you conceded that innovation is by definition an act of pushing back against the status quo, then the question becomes, if civil and peaceful dissent is not taught at universities, where will it be fostered? Will the U.S. be a nation of free thinkers or a backwater of automatons?
Most importantly, if we, as a business community accept this effort to quash dissent today, where will the government’s red line be drawn tomorrow? What new and draconian impediments to free speech, thought and expression will further crush the spirt of innovation and in doing so, put America on a path to industrial irrelevance?
Doug Stephens is the Founder and CEO of Retail Prophet, and widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost retail industry futurists. His creative and intellectual work have influenced the strategies of global brands including IKEA, Nike, Coca Cola, Louis Vuitton, and L’Oréal.
He is an international bestselling author of three books on the future of retail including his most recent, Resurrecting Retail: The Future of Business in a Post-Pandemic World.
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