Giroux on democracy continues

Giroux describes how the neo-liberal culture

infantilizes students by treating them as consumers, and depoliticizes faculty by removing them from all forms of governance.

He writes, 

The corporatization of higher education constitutes a serious strike against democracy and gives rise to the kind of thoughtlessness that Hanna Arendt believed was at the core of totalitarianism.

 He cites William Boardman to back up  the argument that  the destruction of higher education “by the forces of commerce and authoritarian politics is a sad illustration of how the democratic ethos (educate everyone to their capacity, for free) has given way to exploitation (turning students into a profit center that has the serendipitous benefit of feeding inequality).”

He discusses how

The slow death of the university as a center of critique, a fundamental source of civic education, and a crucial public good make available the fundamental framework for the emergence of a formative culture that produces and legitimates an authoritarian society.