Double Indemnity

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on two growing trends in academia, particularly in the humanities, which separately contribute to self-censorship, doublespeak, obsessive crafting of personal brands, egocentrism, and sanitized discourse and publication output. Using Wilber’s Integral metatheory, these trends are linked to two developmental levels within academic populations that exist alongside each other in the contexts that support and perpetuate them. One is the corporate university context, which is competitive and brand driven, supporting the formal operational “Orange” developmental level. The other is the pluralistic “Green” level, which is characterized by relativism and political correctness. Both developmental levels are currently gravitating toward their pathological expressions, resulting in extreme self-censorship within both populations. This self-censorship in turn often results in publication output that is neutered: trivial in content, extremely politically correct, not leading, not risking, not asking significant questions, and thus not making meaningful contributions to the wider community.