I just returned from a study trip to the United States, which I helped organizing for the MBA Programme of the Hong Kong University Business School. We studied the success factors of tech clusters in and around the Boston/Cambridge area, explored the startup environment in New England, debated the current US-China trade relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and also got quite some insight into the current struggles between the US federal government and Harvard University. Also the tone at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was quite subtle, watching what is happening to their neighbor down the road. We also took the chance to explore arts and culture, made a day trip to Nantucket and made a dive into American history. It is not a long, but an intense one. Perhaps this is what explains the intensity of today’s debates on some levels. What surprised me, personally, was the caution with which friends and colleagues were expressing their opinions. I guess, this is a time, where you can get easily labeled. And while new labels are made up every day, the old ones undergo an inflation. It’s a time in history where the Overtone window is pulled wide open. And that in itself has quite some danger.
There have been times similar in the United States. Even if these comparisons always fail to be exact, still history rhymes. Obviously, I am thinking of the anti-communist crusade of the US Senator Joseph McCarthy. And I borrowed as a title for this post, the signature sign-off used by the CBS-Journalist Edward Murrow, ending his broadcasts with “Good Night and Good Luck”, and it became a powerful reminder to keep up journalistic standards in these turbulent times, and holding public figures accountable.
When you watch the news on the US now, it appears to be quite a circus. And I guess, that’s the intention. Just look at the cast and their costumes. With Harvard being in the crosshairs now, what could happen though, is that the intellectual elite will come under scrutiny. I also have my criticism on how academia works. But it is easy to to throw out the baby with the bathwater here, especially in this irrational and heated debate, which is meant to fire up people and achieve submission. During my time in China, I heard countless accounts of professors being humiliated, injured or even killed by the mob during the Cultural Revolution. We also had the chance to speak to Jewish students at Harvard, and yes, they confirmed experiencing frightening antisemitic aggression on their campus. But they also do not want to be the pawn for a potentially much bigger power struggle in the US. There is no easy solution to any of this. America, good night and good luck!