The Authentocrats and the fight for authentic identity and knowledge

Dear Colleagues,

Weird times indeed! I am taking respite from a doctoral thesis centred on issues of identity and knowledge to talk about this from a different, political dimension.

The fight against the experts is well known, and I remember well Michael Goves' demand during the Brexit referendum that the public shouldn't confuse themselves with knowledge and expertise. At a macro level we know have a more thunderous and Neolithic form of anti-intellectualism in the form of Trump, amongst others. Read this excellent blog for an outline of how we got to this parlous state: https://tinyurl.com/yc44uc4h

We should worry that such a brute stance against intelligence is seeping into public life. Just yesterday the Met Office, in conjunction with Public Health England, recommended people to safeguard their well-being when in direct sunlight - common sense? Not according to the media this morning which screeched, amongst other things, beware the nanny state: https://tinyurl.com/y7u9d6b7

In his new book, The new treason of the intellectuals, (and based on Julien Benda's polemical essay of 1927), Thomas Docherty suggests that, in part, the shift of the role of university as impartial indispensable, knowledgeable, democratic institution to a core means by which market-driven ideology is pursued, is where this problem occurs. We can no longer trust the independence of the experts. Like the rest of the marketplace, they have vested interests, and cannot be trusted. Details of the book are here: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526132741/

And, we can now add to this toxic mix, the latest book by Joe Kennedy, Authentocrats: Culture, politics and the new seriousness - details here: https://tinyurl.com/ybn3lrbj

It is a fascinating read, and in part helps us understand how base political rhetoric has become in pursuit of authentic representation of 'the people'. There is a hilarious piece I today's Guardian which helps locate the book in current UK and US politics: https://tinyurl.com/y6wblqtm

Who represents the authentic political idea of 'the people' has always been heavily politically contested, but as the book reveals the new populism has sharpened its claws, and its coming directly at this battleground and truth, knowledge and expertise have nothing to do with it.

As you can see when you take a quick gander at the book summaries, and the article, the fight for truth, knowledge, and authentic representation gallops along at a pace.

Fascinating stuff, but very worrying all the same.

In Solidarity

Ian