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Monday, June 9, 2025

Good Night and Good Luck

Two nights ago, a timely reprise of Good Night, and Good Luck—a play adapted from the 2005 film—was released online for the public to see. In any other moment, it might be viewed as a well-produced historical reflection. But in the context of Donald Trump’s second term in office, the play hits with renewed urgency, serving as both cautionary tale and call to action.

Originally centered on broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow’s confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare, the story has now taken on fresh resonance. The lines between past and present blur as today's media, academics, and citizens face rising pressures that bear a troubling resemblance to the paranoia and suppression of the 1950s.

Journalism in the Crosshairs—Then and Now

Murrow’s fight was against lies, fear, and demagoguery. So too is the current struggle. But unlike the centralized media of Murrow’s era, today’s information ecosystem is splintered, algorithmically manipulated, and awash in disinformation. What hasn’t changed is the threat posed by leaders who thrive on division, target the press, and dismantle democratic norms.

Trump’s return to power has already brought promises of retribution. Journalists are again labeled “enemies of the people.” Government critics face surveillance and smear campaigns. The line between public service and propaganda is growing thinner by the day.

Universities Under Siege

Higher education is once more a battlefield for truth. In Trump’s second term, the attack on academic freedom is no longer abstract. Several states have already defunded DEI programs, imposed ideological restrictions on curricula, and punished faculty for publicly criticizing the administration.

Like the loyalty oaths of McCarthy’s time, today’s political litmus tests threaten tenure, chill speech, and strip universities of their role as safe havens for independent thought. Student journalists are documenting this unraveling in real time—often with limited institutional support and growing personal risk.

A Digital Murrow Moment?

The online version of Good Night, and Good Luck two days ago is more than an artistic statement; it’s a cultural intervention. The timing—early in Trump’s second term—is a deliberate challenge to journalists, educators, and citizens to recall their responsibilities. The message is clear: silence enables authoritarianism, and truth requires courage.

But the stakes are higher now. The 1950s did not contend with AI-generated misinformation, billionaire-backed disinformation machines, or governors turning public colleges into ideological laboratories. This is a different kind of war—but the tools of resistance remain: reporting, documenting, teaching, organizing.

As we confront the rising tide of fear and repression, we might remember the words of Cassius in Julius Caesar:

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

The revival of Good Night, and Good Luck reminds us that we’ve been here before. And it asks: will we meet the moment again?

Edward R. Murrow once warned that a free press is only as strong as the people willing to defend it. In this reprise, it is not just the journalists who must rise to the challenge—but educators, students, artists, and anyone committed to keeping truth alive.

We urge readers to watch the movie online (the play is unavailable at this point). Let it stir your memory—and your conscience. Then speak out, before the lights go dim again.

Good night, and good luck.

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

News that Salesforce is buying Moonhun, AI Hiring company (Glen McGhee)

From the perspective of Maurizio Lazzarato’s concept of multi-dimensional financialization, Salesforce’s acquisition of Moonhub—a startup building AI tools for hiring—carries significance far beyond a simple business or technological transaction. Lazzarato’s framework invites us to see this move as a deepening of the financialized, machinic logic that now organizes work, subjectivity, and power relations under neoliberal capitalism.

Machinic Subjugation and Algorithmic Management

Lazzarato distinguishes between social subjection (the classic forms of subject formation, like interpellation) and machinic subjugation, in which humans and machines are integrated into assemblages that operate beyond conscious control4. The acquisition of Moonhub by Salesforce—an enterprise software giant—accelerates the deployment of AI-driven systems that automate and mediate hiring, evaluation, and onboarding. These systems function as machinic assemblages: they process data, sort candidates, and make decisions, often without transparent human oversight.

In Lazzarato’s terms, this is not just about efficiency or new tools; it is about the extension of machinic subjugation into the labor market. Workers, job seekers, and even HR professionals become nodes in a human–machine network, subject to algorithmic evaluation and control. This process depersonalizes and depoliticizes hiring decisions, shifting agency from individuals or collectives to automated systems4 5.

Financialization of Work and Subjectivity

For Lazzarato, financialization is not merely the expansion of the financial sector or the growth of debt, but a regime that reorganizes all social relations—including labor—according to the logics of risk, speculation, and investment. The integration of AI into hiring, as exemplified by Moonhub, reflects this logic:

Labor as Human Capital: Workers are increasingly treated as assets to be evaluated, optimized, and traded, much like financial instruments.
Risk and Profiling: AI tools profile candidates, assessing their “fit” and potential risk for employers, mirroring the credit-scoring and risk-assessment practices of finance.
Continuous Evaluation: The boundary between work and non-work blurs, as data about individuals is continuously collected and analyzed to inform employment decisions, extending the logic of surveillance and control5.

Subjectivation and the Erosion of Agency

A core concern in Lazzarato’s work is how new technologies of power erode the conditions for autonomous subjectivation. AI-driven hiring systems, like those developed by Moonhub, further restrict the space for workers to constitute themselves as subjects outside the logic of data-driven profiling and risk management. As Phoebe Moore notes, these systems create “structurally and objectively unequal conditions within subjective, and unequal, social relations,” threatening the “right to the subject”—the capacity for individuals to form themselves outside algorithmic governance5.

Consolidation of Corporate Power and Social Ontology

Salesforce’s absorption of Moonhub is also a consolidation of infrastructural power in the hands of a few tech-finance giants. For Lazzarato, this is part of the broader process by which financialized corporations not only dominate markets but also shape the very ontology of work, value, and social relations. The acquisition means that the logic of machinic subjugation, financialization, and algorithmic management becomes further entrenched as the default mode of organizing labor across sectors.

Summary Table: Lazzarato’s Lens on Salesforce–Moonhub

Dimension	Conventional View	Lazzarato’s Multi-Dimensional View
Technology	Efficiency, automation in hiring	Machinic subjugation, depersonalized control
Labor	Improved matching, productivity	Financialized subjectivity, continuous profiling
Power	Market competition	Corporate consolidation, infrastructural power
Subjectivity	Empowered job seekers	Erosion of agency, right to the subject at risk
Social Relations	Neutral innovation	Reorganization of power, intensified inequalities

From Lazzarato’s perspective, Salesforce’s acquisition of Moonhub is emblematic of how financialization and machinic subjugation are reshaping the labor market and subjectivity itself. It marks a further step in the transformation of work into a domain governed by algorithms, risk management, and continuous evaluation, where human agency and collective resistance are increasingly circumscribed by the imperatives of digital, financialized capitalism4 5.

This Thursday on the Future Trends Forum: an international enrollment scenario (Bryan Alexander)

How might international student enrollment changes impact colleges and universities? This Thursday, on June 5th, from 2-3 pm ET, the Future Trends Forum is holding an interactive exercise to work through an evidence-based scenario wherein fall 2025 numbers crash. Everyone will participate by representing themselves in the roles they currently have or would like to take up, and in those positions explore the scenario.

We will develop responses to the situation in real time, which may help us think ahead for whatever form the crisis eventually takes. In this exercise, everyone gets to collaboratively explore how they might respond.

As with our first election simulation, not to mention our solarpunk, generative AI, black swan, and digital twin workshops, this one will involve participants as cocreators and investigators, exploring and determining what might come next. Consider it a trial run for a potential future.

To RSVP ahead of time, or to jump straight in at 2 pm ET this Thursday, click here:

https://georgetown.zoom.us/meeting/register/iHJBlk7_QAGzfC2JEfEbZQ

To find more information about the Future Trends Forum, including notes and recordings of all previous sessions, click here: http://forum.futureofeducation.us/.

(chart from Statista)

Monday, June 2, 2025

“The Obsolete Man”: A Twilight Zone Warning for the Trump Era and the Age of AI

Rod Serling’s classic 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, “The Obsolete Man,” offers a timeless meditation on authoritarianism, conformity, and the erasure of humanity. In it, a quiet librarian, Romney Wordsworth (played by Burgess Meredith), is deemed “obsolete” by a dystopian state for believing in books and God—symbols of individual thought and spiritual meaning. Condemned by a totalitarian chancellor and scheduled for execution, Wordsworth calmly exposes the cruelty and contradictions of the regime, ultimately reclaiming his dignity by refusing to bow to tyranny.

Over 60 years later, “The Obsolete Man” feels less like fiction and more like a documentary. The Trump era, supercharged by the rise of artificial intelligence and a war on truth, has brought Serling’s chilling parable into sharper focus.

The Authoritarian Impulse

President Donald Trump’s presidency—and his ongoing influence—has been marked by a deep antagonism toward democratic institutions, intellectual life, and perceived “elites.” Journalists were labeled “enemies of the people.” Scientists and educators were dismissed or silenced. Books were banned in schools and libraries, and curricula were stripped of “controversial” topics like systemic racism or gender identity.

Like the chancellor in The Obsolete Man, Trump and his allies seek not just to discredit dissenters but to erase their very legitimacy. In this worldview, librarians, teachers, and independent thinkers are expendable. What matters is loyalty to the regime, conformity to its ideology, and performance of power.

Wordsworth’s crime—being a librarian and a believer—is mirrored in real-life purges of professionals deemed out of step with a hardline political agenda. Public educators and college faculty who challenge reactionary narratives have been targeted by state legislatures, right-wing activists, and billionaire-backed think tanks. In higher education, departments of the humanities are being defunded or eliminated entirely. Faculty governance is undermined. The university, once a space for critical inquiry, is increasingly treated as an instrument for ideological control—or as a business to be stripped for parts.

The Age of AI and the Erasure of the Human

While authoritarianism silences the human spirit, artificial intelligence threatens to replace it. AI tools, now embedded in everything from hiring algorithms to classroom assessments, are reshaping how knowledge is produced, disseminated, and controlled. In the rush to adopt these technologies, questions about ethics, bias, and human purpose are often sidelined.

AI systems do not “believe” in anything. They do not feel awe, doubt, or moral anguish. They calculate, replicate, and optimize. In the hands of authoritarian regimes or profit-driven institutions, AI becomes a tool not of liberation, but of surveillance, censorship, and disposability. Workers are replaced. Students are reduced to data points. Librarians—like Wordsworth—are no longer needed in a world where books are digitized and curated by opaque algorithms.

This is not merely a future problem. It's here. Algorithms already determine who gets hired, who receives financial aid, and which students are flagged as “at risk.” Predictive policing, automated grading, and AI-generated textbooks are not the stuff of science fiction. They are reality. And those who question their fairness or legitimacy risk being labeled as backwards, inefficient—obsolete.

A Culture of Disposability

At the heart of “The Obsolete Man” is a question about value: Who decides what is worth keeping? In Trump’s America and in the AI-driven economy, people are judged by their utility to the system. If you're not producing profit, performing loyalty, or conforming to power, you can be cast aside.

This is especially true for the working class, contingent academics, and the so-called “educated underclass”—a growing population of debt-laden degree holders trapped in precarious jobs or no jobs at all. Their degrees are now questioned, their labor devalued, and their futures uncertain. They are told that if they can’t “pivot” or “reskill” for the next technological shift, they too may be obsolete.

The echoes of The Twilight Zone are deafening.

Resistance and Redemption

Yet, as Wordsworth demonstrates in his final moments, resistance is possible. Dignity lies in refusing to surrender the soul to the machine—or the regime. In his quiet defiance, Wordsworth forces the chancellor to confront his own cowardice, exposing the hollow cruelty of the system.

In our time, that resistance takes many forms: educators who continue to teach truth despite political pressure; librarians who fight book bans; whistleblowers who challenge surveillance technologies; and students who organize for justice. These acts of courage and conscience remind us that obsolescence is not a matter of utility—it’s a judgment imposed by those in power, and it can be rejected.

Rod Serling ended his episode with a reminder: “Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man—that state is obsolete.”

The question now is whether we will heed the warning. In an age where authoritarianism and AI threaten to render us all obsolete, will we remember what it means to be human?

The Higher Education Inquirer welcomes responses and reflections on how pop culture can illuminate our present crises. Contact us with your thoughts or your own essay proposals.

Friday, May 30, 2025

The War on Thought: Higher Education and the Fight Against Authoritarianism (Henry Giroux)

According to the 2024 Democracy Index, approximately 45% of the world's population now resides in democracies, yet only 8% live in full democracies. The rise in authoritarian regimes is particularly alarming, with over 35% of the global population living under such systems. This backslide is attributed to factors such as authoritarian crackdowns, increasing political polarization, and geopolitical tensions. Regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America have seen marked declines, while even historically stable democracies like the U.S. face concerns over institutional erosion and political divisiveness. The data calls for a reevaluation of global political trends, urging a commitment to reinforcing democratic principles in the face of rising authoritarianism and instability, a task made all the more challenging by far-right attacks on higher education in the U.S., Hungary, and India.

For those of us shaped in the revolutionary democratic spirit of the sixties, it is both painful and disheartening to witness the rise of fascism in the U.S. and the slow, tragic unraveling of democracy around the world. Decades of neoliberalism have relentlessly eroded higher education, with a few notable exceptions. The once-cherished notion that the university is a vital advocate for democracy and the public good now seems like a distant memory. What we face today is the collapse of education into mere training, an institution dominated by regressive instrumentalism, hedge-fund administrators, and the growing threat of transforming higher education into spaces of ideological conformity, pedagogical repression, and corporate servitude.

We have seen this before in other authoritarian regimes, where the outcome was the death not only of academic freedom but also of democracy itself.

In the face of the current attacks on higher education, especially in the U.S., it becomes more difficult for faculty to make thought matter, to encourage students to ask important questions, and to view thinking as a form of political engagement, to think the unthinkable in the service of justice and equality. Yet despite these overwhelming challenges, higher education remains one of the few remaining spaces where critical thought can still flourish, serving as a bulwark against authoritarianism. As scholars Heba Gowayed and Jessica Halliday Hardie have noted, despite the deep flaws of academic institutions, they remain vital spaces for critical thought and civic learning, making them prime targets for authoritarian attacks. They write:

While academic institutions are deeply flawed, they are also, in their ideal form, bastions for thought and pedagogy. They are where students can make mistakes and learn from one another. They are also crucial spaces of learning for the citizenry. This is why they are the longtime targets of rightwing attack.

As Hannah Arendt once said, “What really makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other kind of dictatorship to rule is that the people are not informed”. This lack of information and historical awareness is precisely what authoritarians seek to exploit. The need for intellectual autonomy and historical consciousness is paramount in resisting these threats. Arendt's work on the erosion of thinking under totalitarian regimes remains incredibly relevant. It was quite clear to her that a government that lies deprives people of their capacity to think, act, and judge. She writes: “If everyone always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but that no one believes anything at all anymore, and rightly so, because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, to be ‘re-lied,’ so to speak”.

Under the Trump regime, we are witnessing the erosion of critical thought, a deliberate rewriting of history, and the paralyzing of intellectual autonomy, each a direct manifestation of authoritarian tactics. We live in an authoritarian society where the truth itself is under attack, along with the institutions that allow citizens to differentiate between truth and lies, thereby holding power accountable. This is more than an act of irrationality; it is a fundamental element of fascism. This is a signpost for revealing the damaged passions and delusions of invincibility that characterize a culture’s descent into authoritarianism and the crime of what Arendt called “the deprivation of citizenship.” The erosion of intellectual autonomy inevitably leads to a denial of citizenship, as Arendt warns. In the face of this, higher education, traditionally a site of critical engagement, is now under siege.

Higher education, traditionally a space for critical thinking and civic engagement, however limited, is now under a savage assault by the global far-right. International students face detentions and deportations without cause, and professors are silenced for speaking out against injustice. The state, right-wing mobs, and even university administrations perpetuate this attack on the university, a situation reminiscent of McCarthy-era repression, though more deeply embedded in the system.

The emerging fascism across the globe underscores the need to educate young people, and the wider public, on the importance of critical thinking. Understanding the threat of authoritarianism is more crucial than ever. Ethics matters, civic education matters, and the humanities matter, especially today. Political consciousness, a crucial element of democracy, must be nurtured, it does not emerge automatically. In a culture that devalues public education, silences dissent, and commodifies expression, many youth feel abandoned. They are hyper-visible as threats but invisible as citizens.

The horror of fascist violence is back, though it is now draped in AI-guided bombs, ethnic cleansing, and white supremacists basking in their project of racial cleansing while destroying every vestige of decency, human rights, and democracy. As global fascism rises, youth have taken center stage in the resistance, challenging forces that threaten both democracy and justice. This emerging youth-led movement, from Indigenous land defenders to climate activists and campus protesters, is pivotal in shaping the future.

Against the rise of fascism globally and its attack on any institution that supports critical thinking and a crucial form of pedagogical citizenship, youth are leading resistance movements around the world. From Indigenous land defenders to climate activists and campus protesters, young people are naming the violences shaping their lives and imagining alternatives. This demands a broad, interconnected movement to unite struggles against ecological destruction, systemic racism, economic inequality, and the transformation of democracy into an authoritarian state.

Education must be central to these efforts, not just formal schooling, but a deeper political and ethical education that links knowledge to action. Authoritarian regimes fear such education, which is why they attack libraries, ban books, and silence educators. They understand what is often forgotten: education is the foundation for both defending and enabling democracy.

This is not a time for despair, but for militant hope, rooted in resistance, collective care, and the belief that youth are not disposable but vital to a democratic future. They are not the problem; they are the possibility. In a time when universities face racist, anti-intellectual assaults from demagogues like Trump, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem, epitomized by the recent attack on Harvard, it is crucial for educators, students, administrators, and those who believe in democracy to rise against the authoritarian forces threatening the U.S. and emerging democracies alike. It is absolutely essential to stand against genocidal warmongers, ethnic cleansing, and state-sanctioned violence, at home and abroad. It is fundamental to fight for civic courage, social responsibility, and dignity, values that sustain a thriving democracy.

We must learn from history, to prevent Trump and his merry crew of authoritarians from turning higher education into laboratories of dehumanization and indoctrination. To the students delivering graduation speeches in the name of justice and freedom, such as Logan Rozos, and being punished by university administrators for speaking out, such courage stands as a model of hope. These brave students, along with the student protesters fighting for Palestinian freedom, make clear that education is a crucial bulwark against what the conservative Spanish think tank, Foro de Sevilla, has called the "dark paths of neo-Nazism," which are with us once again. What must be fought in the realm of culture and on the streets at all costs is the silence surrounding the thousands of children killed in Gaza, the erasure of historical memory, and the war on youth in our own land, exemplified by a GOP budget soaked in blood.

Fascism is more than a distant moment in history; it is a breathing threat and wound that has emerged in different forms once again. And the endpoint of such savagery is always the same, racial and ethnic hatred that ends with broken and bloodied bodies in the camps, detention centers, and mass graves.

Any viable call to resistance must stand in stark contrast to the hollow platitudes of right-wing figures, compromised politicians, and celebrities who serve the status quo. Their words and policies echo a complicit silence in the face of government corruption, student abductions, and tax cuts for the wealthy funded by the poor. This is gangster capitalism at its worst.

Hopefully, in such dark times, there will emerge a language of critique and hope, the power of collective struggle, and an education rooted in justice and empowerment. One that fuels a call to mass action, civic courage, and the relentless pursuit of democracy through unity and defiance.

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Glean Learner Impact Report 2025: Learners at Risk of Failing Saw GPAs Increase 79% When Using a Supportive Note Taking and Study Tool

CLEARWATER, FLA, May 20, 2025— Glean, a provider of a supporting note taking and study tool that significantly improves student success, today announced the release of its The Learner Impact Report 2025. The study analyzed the impact of Glean’s supporting note taking and study tool on 600 higher education learners across the U.S. during the fall 2024 and winter 2025 semesters. The study found that students at risk of failing saw their GPA increase an average of 79% after using Glean. Moreover, Glean helped 45% of all students at community, public and private colleges improve their GPA.

Glean employs learning science to create a digital note taking tool that captures all information from an in-person or online class on any device. The tool then encourages students to organize and refine their notes for studying. Glean’s Quiz Me feature uses AI to autogenerate questions solely from class material, not the wider web, to test students’ knowledge and identify gaps.

Major findings from the report show that using research-based, supportive note taking and study tools benefits students in several ways:

GPA gains

At-risk students with an initial GPA of less than 2.0 saw the greatest benefit — their GPA increased by an average of 1.27 points. But students overall saw significant benefits, with their GPA growing on average by 0.15 points after taking notes and studying with Glean’s assistance.

Higher student confidence and wellbeing

More than three-quarters (76%) of all students felt more confident in their note taking skills, and confidence gains were highest among first-generation, ESL and adult undergraduates. Moreover, 78% said using these tools made studying less stressful and 76% said exam preparation was easier.

“New majority learners” benefited even more than traditional students

Non-traditional learners now constitute the majority in higher education: 40.2% of students in the U.S. are over the age of 22, and 69.3% work while studying. Part-time learners make up 39.2% of the student population, and the number of neurodiverse learners has increased by more than 2.5 times since 2004.

Students who identify as parents saw the highest GPA increase of new majority learners at 11.4%, more than double the percentage increase across all learners. They also ended the semester with the highest average GPA at 3.58. Students over the age of 25 saw the next biggest increase at 9%.

Additionally, these groups saw their confidence in studying effectively increase by at least 20%, and almost 9 in 10 (88%) working students said working with these learning tools enabled them to enjoy their courses more.

Community college students saw the biggest GPA increase

Students at community colleges saw their GPAs increase from 2.95 to 3.32, on average, a 12% increase. Private college students saw gains from 3.3 to 3.43 (4% increase), while four-year public college students saw their GPAs grow from 3.36 to 3.48 (3.5% increase).

“More than ever, higher education is facing intense pressure to increase student retention and graduation rates,” said Dave Tucker, Founder and co-CEO, at Glean. “This report shows that Glean’s note taking and study tool significantly increases student achievement while also boosting their confidence and enjoyment. And while all students saw benefits, at-risk and New Majority students showed the greatest gains. With the right digital tools, students not only raise their GPA, but they also transform their learning experience, laying the foundation for future academic success.”

To read The Learner Impact Report 2025, visit https://glean.co/resources/learner-impact-report.

About Glean

Glean’s mission is to unlock better learning for everyone, with courses that develop learning skills and tools that put knowledge into action. Glean’s products are beautifully simple, meaningfully structured, and effortlessly connected. Trusted by more than 800 institutions globally, Glean has assisted learners in over 1.6 million classes, empowering 91% of learners using Glean’s tools to improve and maintain their grades while reducing stress and boosting confidence. Especially as non-traditional students become the New Majority Learner, Glean helps institutions increase enrollment and grow graduation rates.

For more information on Glean, visit https://glean.co/.

Monday, May 19, 2025

Degrees of Discontent: Credentialism, Inflation, and the Global Education Crisis

In an era defined by rapid technological change, globalization, and economic precarity, the promise of higher education as a reliable path to social mobility is being questioned around the world. At the heart of this reckoning are two interrelated forces: credentialism and credential inflation. Together, they have helped fuel a crisis of discontent that spans continents, demographics, and generations.

The Age of Credentialism

Credentialism refers to the increasing reliance on educational qualifications—often formal degrees or certificates—as a measure of skill, value, and worth in the labor market. What was once a gateway to opportunity has, for many, become a gatekeeper.

In countries as diverse as the United States, Nigeria, South Korea, and Brazil, employers increasingly demand college degrees for jobs that previously required only a high school diploma or no formal education at all. These “degree requirements” often serve more as filters than as real indicators of competence. In the U.S., for example, nearly two-thirds of new jobs require a college degree, yet only around 38% of the adult population holds one. This creates a built-in exclusionary mechanism that hits working-class, first-generation, and minority populations hardest.

Credential Inflation: The Diminishing Value of Degrees

As more people earn degrees in hopes of improving their employment prospects, the relative value of those credentials declines—a phenomenon known as credential inflation. Where a bachelor’s degree once opened doors to managerial or professional roles, it now often leads to underemployment or precarious gig work. In response, students seek advanced degrees, fueling a “credential arms race” with diminishing returns.

In India and China, massive expansions of higher education have led to millions of graduates chasing a finite number of white-collar jobs. In places like Egypt, university graduates have higher unemployment rates than those with only a secondary education. In South Korea, a hyper-competitive education culture pushes students through years of tutoring and testing, only to graduate into a job market with limited high-status roles.

Tragedy in Tunisia: The Human Cost of Unemployment

Few stories illustrate the devastating impact of credentialism and mass youth unemployment more than that of Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian university graduate whose life and death sparked a revolution.

Unable to find formal employment, Bouazizi resorted to selling fruit and vegetables illegally in the town of Sidi Bouzid. In December 2010, after police confiscated his produce for lacking a permit, he set himself on fire in front of a local government building in a final act of desperation.

Bouazizi succumbed to his injuries weeks later, but not before igniting a firestorm of protests across Tunisia. His self-immolation became the catalyst for mass demonstrations against economic injustice, corruption, and authoritarianism—culminating in the Tunisian Revolution and inspiring uprisings throughout the Arab world.

At his funeral, an estimated 5,000 mourners marched, chanting: “Farewell, Mohammed, we will avenge you.” Bouazizi’s uncle said, “Mohammed gave his life to draw attention to his condition and that of his brothers.”

His act was not just a protest against police abuse, but a powerful indictment of a system that had produced thousands of educated but unemployed young people, whose degrees had become symbols of broken promises.

Global Discontent and Backlash

This dynamic of broken promises and rising discontent is global. In China, the “lying flat” movement reflects a rejection of endless striving in a system that offers diminishing returns on educational achievement. In South Korea, the “N-po” generation has opted out of traditional life goals, seeing little reward for their academic sacrifices.

In the U.S., distrust in higher education is mounting, with many questioning whether the cost of a degree is worth it. At the same time, a growing number of companies are dropping degree requirements altogether in favor of skills-based hiring.

Yet these moves often come too late for millions already trapped in a debt-fueled system, forced to chase credentials just to qualify for basic employment.

The Future of Work, the Future of Education

As automation and AI disrupt industries, the link between formal education and stable employment continues to fray. Policymakers call for "lifelong learning" and “upskilling,” but these strategies often place the burden back on workers without addressing the deeper failures of economic and educational systems.

To move forward, we must consider:

Decoupling jobs from unnecessary credential requirements
Investing in vocational and technical education with real career pathways
Recognizing nontraditional forms of knowledge and skill
Reframing education as a public good, not a consumer transaction

Reclaiming the Meaning of Education

Mohammed Bouazizi's story is a tragic reminder that the crisis of credentialism is not theoretical—it’s lived, felt, and fought over in the streets. Around the world, millions of young people feel abandoned by systems that promised opportunity but delivered anxiety, debt, and instability.

Unless global societies reimagine the relationship between education, work, and human dignity, the "degrees of discontent" will only continue to deepen. And as Bouazizi’s legacy shows, discontent—when ignored—can become revolutionary.

Sources and References

BBC News. “Tunisia suicide protester Mohammed Bouazizi dies.” January 5, 2011. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12120228
Pew Research Center. “Public Trust in Higher Education is Eroding.” August 2023.
Brown, Phillip. The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs, and Incomes. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Marginson, Simon. “The Worldwide Trend to High Participation Higher Education: Dynamics of Social Stratification in Inclusive Systems.” Higher Education, 2016.
The World Bank. “Education and the Labor Market.”
The Guardian. “Lying Flat: China's Youth Protest Culture Grows.” June 2021.
Korea Herald. “'N-po Generation' Gives Up on Marriage, Children, and More.” October 2022.

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