Public Intellectuals, Academic Violence and the Threat of Political Purity

Abstract

Ideological fundamentalism and political purity appear to have a strong grip on American and Canadian societies. The time has come to develop a political language in which civic values and social responsibility – and the institutions, tactics and long-term commitments that support them – become central to invigorating and fortifying a new era of civic engagement, a renewed sense of social agency and an impassioned international social movement with the vision, organisation and set of strategies capable of challenging the neoliberal nightmare that now haunts the globe and empties out the meaning of politics and democracy.