A bad joke that can be compared to drug dealing – the little fish get caught, shamed and punished while the big fish, those in power, are honoured and protected. Their shit never stinks.

The most ruthless, treacherous, despicable cheats and thieves are those who work in academia. Why do I state this?

It is one thing for a common thief to steal – they do so without ethical pretence.

Thieves in academia, with their titles, tassled caps and glorious flowing gowns (the further up the food chain, the more impressive) lay claim to and trumpet the highest intellectual and ethical standards – standards used by the universities as primary recruitment and marketing tools.

In secular societies, the universities position themselves as the guardians of those values.

Academics regularly warn students (in class, online and in print) not to breach those standards, telling them that if they do, they will face dire consequences – then, ever on the look-out, ever scanning the flow of papers before them, these same academics wipe their boots on those standards at the first opportunity.

Such people regard exploitation as their right.

‘Guilty conscience’ in relation to their self has no meaning for them (although possibly they lecture with profundity on it). Looking you straight in the face, their lies flow with educated ease.

To lie as a justification for exploitation is their right.

In a culture dripping with shame, such people people are shameless.

You are their student, they are your master. Like the Upanishads, your place and that of the results of your intellectual efforts is at their feet – the first in awe, the second as offering.

These people are motivated, contrary to the hype and blather pumped out by the universities as they compete for funding and students every semester, not by a love for knowledge and its development and by a commitment, above all, to that most un-Australian of concepts – vision – but by the acquisition and use of knowledge in the service of their masters the bourgeoisie, by the maintenance of their position and power, and a lust for more power and kudos.

Article in The Sydney Morning Herald 21.03.15

Logos: COFA (now UNSW Art & Design)/UNSW/University of Sydney