Death by Bureaucracy: The Silent Killer of Free Thought
A 2015 Yale Halloween email warning against “offensive” panda costumes sparked outrage, clashing safe spaces with free expression—and revealing academia’s bureaucratic rot. From student mobs demanding resignations to coerced apologies, this essay, invoking Weber’s “iron cage,” Arendt’s “rule by Nobody,” and Foucault’s governmentality, exposes how admin bloat manufactures crises, stifles thought, inflates costs, and alienates souls. Higher education isn’t enlightening; it’s entombing compliance. Yet quiet quitting and self-education ignite defiant rebirth. Is your alma mater a forge or a factory?