Against indoctrination: Education and the role of the intellectual

Abstract

Drawing on the views of leading public intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy and the author’s life work on Africa and developing countries in general, a case is made for African business school academics to adopt an unflinchingly critical approach to the work that they do – as educators and intellectuals. Rather than speaking truth to power, they can do this most effectively by speaking truth with the powerless and by encouraging their students to think critically about the overarching paradigm of capitalism. The need for dissent could not be greater, particularly in Africa, which has been one of the main victims of capitalist excess. The pessimism engendered by the unprecedented immensity and urgency of the capitalist-created polycrises facing life on Earth, the scale and speed of change that is needed to prevent global catastrophe, the unwillingness of ruling elites to consider systemic change, and the obstacles and hardships that would-be critics will encounter must be separated from hope and action. This stance enables public intellectuals to accept the evidence regarding the worsening prospects for human survival while hoping for the best and doing whatever they can within their spheres of influence and the bounds of their personal circumstances to prevent Armageddon.