Educators across the globe should be looking carefully at the United States’ slide into the abyss of authoritarianism. There is a cost to ignoring how authoritarianism attacks political and social rights, undermines public spheres, and disparages democracy itself. The signals are obvious, especially under the rule of politicians such as GOP Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. As a presidential aspirant, he is pursuing a hard-right agenda in his state, one which he allegedly believes serves as a model for the rest of America. His authoritarian agenda is evident in his banning of books, removal of dictionaries from some libraries, use of state power to dictate school curricula, and his abuse of political power to punish corporations such as Disney that disagree with his attack on LGBTQ people. His unmitigated authoritarianism is also evident in his embrace of white supremacist and antisemitic ideas, his aligning with Fox News and other hate-spreading media to push his authoritarian racist ideology, including his attacks on gender nonconformity and the teaching of African American history. All of these actions are warning signs of a history about to be repeated. 

　　At the current moment, it would be wise for educators to heed the words of Holocaust survivor and brilliant writer Primo Levi who argued in his book. Levi’s words remind us of the importance of education as a critical counterweight to the current language of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It is an urgent call to prevent history from being erased or frozen within the boundaries of a reactionary present; it should remind educators of their obligation to teach young people about the necessity of not allowing the horrors of the past to be forgotten. It is also a call to the public to defend and support educators—who keep alive the notion of schools as crucial democratic public spheres—in their efforts to teach students how to think critically, empathize with others, embrace the obligations of moral witnessing, and connect knowledge to the power of self-reflection. It is a call for an education that disturbs, inspires, and is capable of teaching students how to critically analyze “the root causes of injustice and the impact of other systems of oppression.”  

　　The role of educators as public intellectuals has never been more important, especially at a time when they are under attack across the globe by far-right radicals, intent on turning them into agents of indoctrination, bigotry, and propaganda. Part of this challenge is to create a new language and mass social movement that work to construct empowering terrains of education, politics, justice, culture, and power that challenge existing systems of white supremacy, white nationalism, manufactured ignorance, and economic oppression. 

　　Educators must take active responsibility for raising fundamental questions about the knowledge they produce, how that knowledge gets circulated, and how it is ethically and politically related to broader notions of social change. This means playing a role in shaping the purposes and conditions of matters of agency, consciousness, action, and social relations. The role of educators as critical public intellectuals is a huge undertaking, one that calls on them to look at their work as a political, civic, and ethical practice that combines critical reflection and action as part of a struggle to overcome economic, political, and social injustices. This work cannot be done alone; educators must join with workers, social movements, youth groups, and unions in their fight against the terrorism wrought by neoliberal fascism. The call for educators to engage in collective resistance is especially crucial at a time when white supremacy is on the rise and power is being played out in the merging of racism and a widespread attack on education as a public good. Making the pedagogical more political speaks to modes of resistance that make visible and challenge anti-democratic ideologies and repressive “habits of thought,” reinforced through habits of power at work in both schools and the wider culture. Fascist politics and its goal of racial cleansing, reinforced through an attack on historical consciousness and book banning, must be recognized as a form of tyranny that poses a threat not just to equality but the very possibility of democracy.  

　　As fascism expands across the globe, and extremism is normalized in a number of countries extending from Hungary and Poland to Italy and the United States, the crisis of politics must be matched by a crisis of ideas. That is, the changing contexts in which new problems emerge must be addressed through a language, theories, and analyses attentive to new historical formations, problems, and challenges. Moreover, if the Left is to become both an educational and political force, it must merge the movement for economic and social justice with a formative culture and educational project that places matters of morality, justice, compassion, care, and civic courage above a predatory neoliberal capitalism that is destroying the planet and ushering in a new age of fascist barbarism. Educators need to think on the edge of possibilities, develop an anti-capitalist vision, and learn how to make social change meaningful and just. These changes must highlight power relations, providing people with a sense of dignity and with access to crucial social support. The urgency of this task demands that educators unite in order to face the challenges that now threaten to destroy humanity. Under such circumstances, resistance is no longer an option, but a necessity. 

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Deng Panyi 

　　From: Policy Futures in Education 2024, Vol. 22(8) 1533–1539 (2024-7-31)