Wednesday 11 May 2011

Try Me, Hire Me

The evil eminence grise of anti-science and feral capitalism, Charles G. Koch, has managed to buy an entire university's integrity for the knock-down price of $1.5m. Compared to the larger sums Gaddafi laid out to buy business, his son's PhD and a good deal of credibility at the London School of Economics, it's a bargain.

Koch handed over the money with the proviso that his hand-selected advisory team could choose 2 candidates for employment: Florida State University therefore abandoned any academic integrity, and Koch got tame academics who are guaranteed never to challenge their sponsor's extremist ideas.

I'm all for it. I work in an impoverished institution and I'm on the latest in a series of temporary and insecure jobs. My fields are Welsh literature, 1918-1939 culture, political fiction and children's literature. If you've got £1m, I'll take it. I may wake up every morning with a screaming conscience, but doubtless the butler will soothe my furrowed brow. Your donation gets your books on my reading lists - leading to increased sales, positive reviews and academic credibility. Publishers, and Alan Apperley: get in touch!

My top compromised institutions (highlights only, the list is endless, and the Hegemon is involved in very murky dealings with oppressive regimes and our tax-avoiding Chancellor has been suspended from the House of Lords and thrown off the Privy Council for expenses corruption):
LSE: now a wholly-owned subisidiary of Libya.
Nottingham University - their International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility: funded by British American Tobacco.
Oxford University: the Said Business School is named after and funded by a major arms dealer with presumably remarkably few scruples given his involvement in the corrupt Al-Yamamah deal.
Durham: has signed a cosy 'memorandum of understanding' with those cuddly and doughty defenders of human rights, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

1 comment:

The Red Witch said...

It is discouraging but disciplined and thoughtful minds are not good for business. And business seems to be the only thing that matters. We are all just grist for the mill.