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The Collapse of Credentialism

Technocrats have long told us what we can and can’t do, what we’re allowed to own, what our kids must learn in school, and so on.
The Collapse of Credentialism
Harvard University President Claudine Gay speaks during a hearing of the House Committee on Education on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 5, 2023. Gay resigned Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo
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Commentary

For many years, the United States has been effectively a technocracy, run by unelected “experts.” Former Harvard president Claudine Gay’s fall from grace may mark the end of that era.

Technocrats have long told us what we can and can’t do, what we’re allowed to own, what our kids must learn in school, and so on. For the most part, we never voted for any of that, yet we have gone along docilely, not noticing or not caring or, at best, unwilling to make waves.

The result has been the rise of self-selected “experts,” the credentialed class, who exist primarily to impose their will on others. Their ranks have swelled recently with the exponential growth of government and education bureaucracies and the emergence of “academic” programs designed not to increase knowledge but to feed those bureaucracies.

Rob Jenkins
Rob Jenkins
Author
Rob Jenkins is an associate professor of English at Georgia State University—Perimeter College and a higher education fellow at Campus Reform. He is the author or co-author of six books, including “Think Better, Write Better,” “Welcome to My Classroom,” and “The 9 Virtues of Exceptional Leaders.” In addition to Brownstone Institute and Campus Reform, he has written for Townhall, The Daily Wire, American Thinker, PJ Media, The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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