We need to build new institutions.
Why I've joined an important new research centre at Buckingham.
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One of the most significant problems in the West today is that too many of our public institutions are dominated by radical left-wing progressives who have little if any interest in representing the views and voice of the forgotten majority.
You see this everywhere.
In our museums and galleries. In the civil service. In charities, think-tanks, and non-governmental organisations. In our schools. And in large parts of legacy media, like the BBC, all of which have been reshaped around a left-leaning elite minority who, as I recently showed, hold views that are utterly adrift from the average voter.
To his credit, one person who alluded to the problem this week is Samir Shah, new chairman of the BBC, who used his first interview to rightly warn that the BBC’s ‘metropolitan, liberal leanings’ means its news coverage lacks balance, especially when it comes to issues such as Gaza and immigration, where the worldview of an urban, hyper-liberal minority has clearly been prioritised.
But it’s not only institutions like the BBC that have been badly damaged by catering only to the preferences of this radical progressive 10-15% minority.
This problem is especially visible in universities which, as I’ve written about in my latest book and documented extensively on this Substack (here, here, here, and here), have also been hijacked by a radical progressive left.
The radical left erodes free speech, discards the pursuit of truth, reason, and knowledge in favour of pushing an openly political ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ agenda, and actively works to discredit conservative and gender critical voices.
All of which raises the obvious question — ‘Ok, so what do you do about it?’
Well, I think we need to do three things:
we need to keep highlighting the glaring ideological imbalance within the legacy institutions, which we are doing through counter-cultural platforms like this one
we need to build alternative institutions that can better represent the values and voice of the forgotten majority and present an alternative to this radical progressive orthodoxy —alternative universities, schools, television channels, charities, foundations, publishing houses, and more; and
we need to encourage people out there —citizens, taxpayers, students—to participate and support this alternative ecosystem so that, over the longer-term, we can begin to change the culture and, in turn, politics and society.
Which is why, today, I’m pleased to announce the opening of another front in our growing pushback against the status-quo.
I’ve just joined an important new research centre, the Centre for Heterodox Social Science, at the University of Buckingham, as Honorary Professor.
The Centre is led by Professor Eric Kaufmann, a leading expert on cultural politics and demography. Some of you will remember Buckingham was where conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton worked and studied.
More important than my own role, however, is the fact that our counter-cultural research centre will now be openly pushing back against the radical progressive left by running a range of courses they would rather you not study.
This includes the first major programme of study in the West on woke ideology —including its origins, dynamics, and impact.
While the old universities devote considerable effort to studying and discrediting conservative movements, we are now inviting a new generation of students and adults to join a 15-week course on woke ideology, enabling them to make sense of this movement, alongside more traditional MA and PhD programmes of study.
There are both self-study and seminar-based options, with the ability to meet new people and go on your own intellectual journey.
The next course begins in April but they will now run regularly.
Over time, and alongside other new universities and research centres around the world, such as the University of Austin and Jordan Peterson’s Peterson Academy, we will teach and train a new generation of students, academics, and concerned citizens to think critically and challenge many of the dominant assumptions in our culture.
We will openly challenge and question the radical progressive orthodoxy. We will ask questions that are routinely ignored in the old universities. And we will explore avenues that are routinely shut down because of these radical progressive taboos.
Along the way, much like this Substack, we will establish another crucial beachhead in the growing fightback against the broken status-quo in the West —a place where students and adults alike can encounter genuine diversity of thought, free speech, and make sense of the movements that are trying to upend our world.
Exclusively to readers of this Substack, Professor Eric Kaufmann is also offering readers a 25% discount on various courses, should you wish to study one in your free-time at home, or join one of the seminar-based courses alongside others.
All you have to do is apply online and when the university administrator gets in touch give them the promotion code “Buckswoke” and say you’re a reader of the Matt Goodwin Substack. That’s it.
But make no mistake —what this is about, ultimately, is creating another institution, another vehicle, that will challenge the dreary, stifling, failing consensus in Western nations and introduce new generations of students and adults alike to alternative views, theories, and thinkers who are routinely ignored in today’s culture.
What this is about, in other words, is not just complaining about the state of the world while doing nothing but taking action and making things happen.
I do hope you’ll take a look and if it’s not for you then perhaps you might consider forwarding this e-mail to others who may be interested. Best wishes.
That's absolutely brilliant news Matt, it reminds me of Professor Niall Ferguson's University of Austin project which is going down well in the US.
More power to you and Eric Kaufman.
Yes, generally good idea but I don't think courses on woke are really much point. If people can't see that woke is sinister, they haven't got a mind of their own and I don't think studying the past or the negative present/past is very important. Apart from that I can't afford to go on courses with real life attendance and dislike Zoom. What the country needs is places where people can actually meet and discuss issues that otherwise they are afraid to talk about publicly or even privately. Cafes, pubs, venues that are cheap to rent &c. . And above all not dumps like the hideous noisy pub where Matt called a meeting in London last year, or was it the year before. Many if not most anti-woke people are poor and can't afford to stay in hotels or on university premisses. And as far as I am concerned I'd like there to be mainly POSITIVE discussions, about where to go, how to think new thoughts &c. We need a new 'enlightenment' which combines the best of the Western rational enlightenment and the Eastern 'feeling' (Zen, Tao &c.) enlightenment. Intellectually and emotionally, the present world has lost its way.