Universities in the era of democratization of ignorance

Abstract

Jameson pointed out that postmodernity is characterized by a "predominance of the cultural", for which the identity is imposed over the economic/social. In this way, indigenous movements and various feminisms have been very strong in recent years, linked to vindicating identity specificity. Before the appearance of the "new right" at the global level (Le Pen, Trump) and in the region (Bolsonaro, Milei) it was not seen as a problem that those movements and the theoretical lines that express them - decolonialism, for example - had produced criticism of the notions of objectivity and science, understanding them as typical of Eurocentric colonialism. But such criticisms have come to converge over time -in an involuntary and problematic way - with the attacks that this new right launches against science and argumentation. In this way, university democratization policies at various levels (1. Its conditions of access and permanence; 2. Its decisional mechanisms; 3. Their autonomy with respect to governments and parties; 4. Contributing to the national notion of democracy), they have been partly undermined by the quiet rise of electronic networks and the ideological right that have known how to use them, implying considerable contempt for knowledge and science. Society values ​​universities, but ignores its own traits that deny the value of science, expressed in various symptoms. It is necessary to assume a strong defense of knowledge and reason in these situations