Little Peter's up to his old tricks again. He was on Radio 4 last night describing anyone who complains about the £500m cut in university funding as an 'enemy of progress'.
Now, one of my areas of speciality is Communist literature, and this phrase seemed very familiar. Enemies of Progress are to be shot. Anyone who doesn't want to be shot is and Enemy of Progress and will be shot… It reminds me of the language used by those forcing through Enclosures, Native American reservations, or the Highland Clearances. We're the peasantry, deported to make way for sheep because that's 'progress'.
It is Orwellian in its redefinition of Progress as Massive Funding Cuts. There's just no logical link. Throwing money at a problem isn't necessarily progressive, but there's no way you can describe course closures, student rejections, bigger classes and huge numbers of redundancy as progressive. Though no doubt management will describe it as 'efficiency', which in their tiny and non-contextual world counts as a good thing.
So remember, when you get the sack, you're going over the top in the name of Progress. Then you'll feel better. The clocks will strike thirteen and you'll be trouble by false memories no more. You'll love the Leader.
1 comment:
I think ‘Peter’ is probably the most sinister person in Britain. He had the benefit of tuition fee free education at Oxford, where no doubt classes were small, and he got plenty of one to one time with his tutors.
Does he have a hidden agenda to denigrate and destroy higher education, so that the minds of the peasantry can be filled with bland infotainment, making them too stupid and apathetic to question the machinations of those in power?
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