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The Future Belongs to the Brave
A needed approach for Academia
They came for Mahmoud Khalil. They came for Mohsen Mahdawi. They will come for you too. Your silence and complicity will not protect you. The Trump administration has openly declared war on our colleges and universities, continuing the conservative dream to destroy higher education as we know it. Across the country, academics are finding it impossible to ignore what has happened to their educational institutions. Funding has been slashed, their students are being detained, and their campuses are filled with police officers. New policies are developed, surveillance cameras are installed, campus gates are closed, and federal agents monitor student social media.
Although my experiences pale in comparison to Palestinians in Gaza and Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank, I cannot help but think about the shared willingness by those in power to destroy centers of knowledge. Historically, facism and authoritarian regimes have targeted educational institutions and symbols of knowledge, from book burnings to firing professors. We are seeing the latest embodiment of modern day facism on our colleges and universities. Students across the country have taken action, and now it’s time for faculty to follow their lead. The instinct for many in academia, including tenured professors, is to keep your head down in a de facto state of functional freeze: avoid talking out of turn and stay focused on your research—if you still have funding that is. Academia as a profession after all, is not the vanguard of revolution, it is the site of eloquent statements and dinner parties. But meeting the moment means escaping your comfort zone. If you cannot speak when your students are being abducted by masked men in unmarked vehicles, when will you speak up?
The Trump administration is not above detaining faculty members. They are not above detaining American citizens. They are not above detaining you and the people you care about. It does not matter what your accolades are or what your CV looks like—all of academia is under attack. Meeting this moment in time requires genuine solidarity with your community. It means speaking truth to power, even if your voice shakes and moving as a unit to make collective decisions. It means putting your body on the line to protect those who cannot. It means sharing your time with vulnerable students and community members. It means building networks of care, pooling together resources, and looking after everyone, beyond your department. We have to be brave because there is no other option.
{
"article":
{
"title" : "The Future Belongs to the Brave: A needed approach for Academia",
"author" : "Layla Saliba",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/the-future-belongs-to-the-brave",
"date" : "2025-05-06 09:10:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/future-belongs-to-brave.jpg",
"excerpt" : "They came for Mahmoud Khalil. They came for Mohsen Mahdawi. They will come for you too. Your silence and complicity will not protect you. The Trump administration has openly declared war on our colleges and universities, continuing the conservative dream to destroy higher education as we know it. Across the country, academics are finding it impossible to ignore what has happened to their educational institutions. Funding has been slashed, their students are being detained, and their campuses are filled with police officers. New policies are developed, surveillance cameras are installed, campus gates are closed, and federal agents monitor student social media.",
"content" : "They came for Mahmoud Khalil. They came for Mohsen Mahdawi. They will come for you too. Your silence and complicity will not protect you. The Trump administration has openly declared war on our colleges and universities, continuing the conservative dream to destroy higher education as we know it. Across the country, academics are finding it impossible to ignore what has happened to their educational institutions. Funding has been slashed, their students are being detained, and their campuses are filled with police officers. New policies are developed, surveillance cameras are installed, campus gates are closed, and federal agents monitor student social media.Although my experiences pale in comparison to Palestinians in Gaza and Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank, I cannot help but think about the shared willingness by those in power to destroy centers of knowledge. Historically, facism and authoritarian regimes have targeted educational institutions and symbols of knowledge, from book burnings to firing professors. We are seeing the latest embodiment of modern day facism on our colleges and universities. Students across the country have taken action, and now it’s time for faculty to follow their lead. The instinct for many in academia, including tenured professors, is to keep your head down in a de facto state of functional freeze: avoid talking out of turn and stay focused on your research—if you still have funding that is. Academia as a profession after all, is not the vanguard of revolution, it is the site of eloquent statements and dinner parties. But meeting the moment means escaping your comfort zone. If you cannot speak when your students are being abducted by masked men in unmarked vehicles, when will you speak up?The Trump administration is not above detaining faculty members. They are not above detaining American citizens. They are not above detaining you and the people you care about. It does not matter what your accolades are or what your CV looks like—all of academia is under attack. Meeting this moment in time requires genuine solidarity with your community. It means speaking truth to power, even if your voice shakes and moving as a unit to make collective decisions. It means putting your body on the line to protect those who cannot. It means sharing your time with vulnerable students and community members. It means building networks of care, pooling together resources, and looking after everyone, beyond your department. We have to be brave because there is no other option."
}
,
"relatedposts": [
{
"title" : "100+ Years of Genocidal Intent in Palestine",
"author" : "Collis Browne",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/100-years-of-genocidal-intent",
"date" : "2025-10-07 18:01:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/1920-jerusalem.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:",
"content" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:{% for person in site.data.genocidalquotes %}{{ person.name }}{% if person.title %}<p class=\"title-xs\">{{ person.title }}</p>{% endif %}{% for quote in person.quotes %}“{{ quote.text }}”{% if quote.source %}— {{ quote.source }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}{% endfor %}"
}
,
{
"title" : "Dignity Before Stadiums:: Morocco’s Digital Uprising",
"author" : "Cheb Gado",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/dignity-before-stadiums",
"date" : "2025-10-02 09:08:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Morocco_GenZ.jpg",
"excerpt" : "No one expected a generation raised on smartphones and TikTok clips to ignite a spark of protest shaking Morocco’s streets. But Gen Z, the children of the internet and speed, have stepped forward to write a new chapter in the history of uprisings, in their own style.The wave of anger began with everyday struggles that cut deep into young people’s lives: soaring prices, lack of social justice, and the silencing of their voices in politics. They didn’t need traditional leaders or party manifestos; the movement was born out of a single hashtag that spread like wildfire, transforming individual frustration into collective momentum.",
"content" : "No one expected a generation raised on smartphones and TikTok clips to ignite a spark of protest shaking Morocco’s streets. But Gen Z, the children of the internet and speed, have stepped forward to write a new chapter in the history of uprisings, in their own style.The wave of anger began with everyday struggles that cut deep into young people’s lives: soaring prices, lack of social justice, and the silencing of their voices in politics. They didn’t need traditional leaders or party manifestos; the movement was born out of a single hashtag that spread like wildfire, transforming individual frustration into collective momentum.One of the sharpest contradictions fueling the protests was the billions poured into World Cup-related preparations, while ordinary citizens remained marginalized when it came to healthcare and education.This awareness quickly turned into chants and slogans echoing through the streets: “Dignity begins with schools and hospitals, not with putting on a show for the world.”What set this movement apart was not only its presence on the streets, but also the way it reinvented protest itself:Live filming: Phone cameras revealed events moment by moment, exposing abuses instantly.Memes and satire: A powerful weapon to dismantle authority’s aura, turning complex political discourse into viral, shareable content.Decentralized networks: No leader, no party, just small, fast-moving groups connected online, able to appear and disappear with agility.This generation doesn’t believe in grand speeches or delayed promises. They demand change here and now. Moving seamlessly between the physical and digital realms, they turn the street into a stage of revolt, and Instagram Live into an alternative media outlet.What’s happening in Morocco strongly recalls the Arab Spring of 2011, when young people flooded the streets with the same passion and spontaneity, armed only with belief in their power to spark change. But Gen Z added their own twist, digital tools, meme culture, and the pace of a hyper-connected world.Morocco’s Gen Z uprising is not just another protest, but a living experiment in how a digital generation can redefine politics itself. The spark may fade, but the mark it leaves on young people’s collective consciousness cannot be erased.Photo credits: Mosa’ab Elshamy, Zacaria Garcia, Abdel Majid Bizouat, Marouane Beslem"
}
,
{
"title" : "A Shutdown Exposes How Fragile U.S. Governance Really Is",
"author" : "EIP Editors",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/a-shutdown-exposes-how-fragile-us-governance-really-is",
"date" : "2025-10-01 22:13:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Gov_ShutDown.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.",
"content" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.Shutdowns don’t mean the government stops functioning. They mean millions of federal workers are asked to keep the system running without pay. Air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, food inspectors — people whose jobs underpin both public safety and economic life — are told their labor matters, but their livelihoods don’t. People have to pay the price of bad bureaucracy in the world’s most powerful country, if governance is stalled, workers must pay with their salaries and their groceries.In 1995 and 1996, clashes between President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich triggered two shutdowns totaling 27 days. In 2013, a 16-day standoff over the Affordable Care Act furloughed 850,000 workers. And in 2018–2019, the longest shutdown in U.S. history stretched 35 days, as President Trump refused to reopen the government without funding for a border wall. That impasse left 800,000 federal employees without paychecks and cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion — $3 billion of it permanently lost.More troubling is what happens when crises strike during shutdowns. The United States is living in an age of accelerating climate disasters: historic floods in Vermont, wildfire smoke choking New York, hurricanes pounding Florida. These emergencies do not pause while Congress fights over budgets. Yet a shutdown means furloughed NOAA meteorologists, suspended EPA enforcement, and delayed FEMA programs. In the most climate-vulnerable decade of our lifetimes, we are choosing paralysis over preparedness.This vulnerability didn’t emerge overnight. For decades, the American state has been hollowed out under the logic of austerity and privatization, while military spending has remained sacrosanct. That imbalance is why budgets collapse under the weight of endless resources for war abroad, too few for resilience at home.Shutdowns send a dangerous message. They normalize instability. They tell workers they are disposable. They make clear that in our system, climate resilience and public health aren’t pillars of our democracy but rather insignificant in the face of power and greed. And each time the government closes, it becomes easier to imagine a future where this isn’t the exception but the rule.The United States cannot afford to keep running on shutdown politics. The climate crisis, economic inequality, and the challenges of sustaining democracy itself demand continuity, not collapse. We need a politics that treats stability and resilience not as partisan victories, but as basic commitments to one another. Otherwise, the real shutdown isn’t just of the government — it’s of democracy itself."
}
]
}
