When we are young and struggling to figure out who we are, we sometimes try on labels and personas to see what fits. I was 19 years old, I think, when I was upbraided by an older and wiser fellow at my college – he was 21, and a philosophy major, for heaven’s sake, which I considered pretty exotic. He suggested that I was insufficiently radical, which wasn’t something I wanted to hear in those days when student protests were changing the nation, or so we thought. “You’re just an institutionalist,” he said. I was stung.
But nowadays I might embrace the notion. Institutions are, in fact, important to the functioning of a society. And if you don’t think that’s so, just consider the institutions that are in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s attack on America as we have come to know it. The president and his enablers – notably, including those who apply an intellectual sheen to his impulsive actions – are going after key institutions because they know that’s what stands in the way of his goal of authoritarian domination. (:60)
Consider the administration’s blunt-force political assault on higher education. The claim that this is an initiative to fight antisemitism on campuses is balderdash. (I think that’s the proper term, but having not been a philosophy major, I may need some help here.) The effort to take away billions of dollars of federal research money is not even intended mainly to shift the ideological tilt of higher education, which the Trump gang sees as hostile to conservatives. It is more broadly aimed, rather, at destroying the institution of higher education because our colleges and universities are a force for stability and reason, standing in the way of the anti-intellectual drive of the radical right. The institution of higher education is a safe haven for the development of independent thought – which interferes with the “Trump-is-never-wrong” mantra of the MAGA revolution. (1:48)
That’s likewise what’s going on in the many battles that Trump and his sycophants are waging against independent news media. Over the past fourscore years or so in America, the mainstream media have evolved into an institution that eagerly challenges politicians who are prone to manipulation of reality. Journalists in America have grown brave enough and smart enough to call out lies, to spotlight inequities, to puncture self-interested demagogues. Fortunately for the president, the economic model for modern journalism was upended by the digital revolution just as his attacks on journalistic credibility took hold. You have to understand that to get why Trump is so keen to get rid of public media: NPR and PBS are institutions that project reality into a society that he can rule only by distorting what’s real. He is eager to tear down the broad institution of fact-based journalism because it gives fuel to the arguments against his misdirected policies.
But why would Trump go after, say, the National Endowment for the Arts, or the National Endowment for the Humanities? Why does he attack the scientific establishment, gutting research into cancer treatment and childhood diseases? Why go after the National Park Service, for heaven’s sake?
Because all those are institutions that hold order in our society. It is in disorder that tyrants can arise and thrive. Trump needs chaos to survive. (3:15)
The noted Yale historian Timothy Snyder some years ago published a slender volume of mini-essays on 20th century history called, “On Tyranny” that puts forward as good an argument in favor of institutions as I can find. Snyder wrote, “It is institutions that help us preserve decency. They need our help as well … They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning.”
By the way, Snyder – an expert on 20th century European history -- recently took leave from Yale and moved with his wife to Canada, because they couldn’t stand to remain in America and watch what Snyder perceives as our nation’s slide into fascism.
So here’s what you need to do: Pick an institution that matters to you, and stand up for it. Maybe you are a lawyer and you believe that we need to protect the courts from Trump’s apparent assault; maybe you love the arts, or (I hope) non-profit media. Maybe you recognize the value of public education. Stand up, then, for the rule of law, for your local symphony or theater or choral ensemble, for your local schools, or for your favorite public radio station. Your voice, your financial support, your encouragement can make a difference.
Institutions do not protect themselves. They need us.
I’ve learned a lot, I like to think, since I was that teenager who wanted to be known as somebody who was willing to tear down the status quo. There’s too much at stake for such youthful ignorance. Today, we all need to become ardent institutionalists, for the good of our America.
Rex Smith, the co-host of The Media Project on WAMC, is the former editor of the Times Union of Albany and The Record in Troy. His weekly digital report, The Upstate American, is published by Substack.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.