Intellectuals become slaves when they surrender their independence in pursuit of proximity to power.
The Fall of the Free Mind
Professors used to be the university’s conscience; they were courageous intellectuals who fought for what was right and challenged authority. Many intellectuals nowadays are tamed, refined, obedient, and reliant on the very structures they once condemned.
Historically, being a “Professor” represented bravery and independence. Nowadays, it is merely a position of privilege in some corridors. When an intellectual who previously campaigned for change joins management and quickly learns the art of silence, we get a glimpse of intellectual domestication.
They sit in management offices with titles and privileges; their silence speaks more than their words. Respected but limited, noticeable but silent, ornamented but domesticated, they have evolved into decorated slaves.
Defining the Terms
The term “professor” is used in this context in a symbolic and inclusive sense. It refers to the entire intellectual class in universities, including professors, researchers, senior scholars, deans, and administrators who have long defended critical thought and public conscience. It is not limited to people with formal rank.
An intellectual is someone who connects knowledge to societal goals; domestication is the process by which systems of fear and reward gradually tame that critical spirit; and decorated slaves are people who, despite their titles and honors, are internally bound by the conveniences and concessions of institutional life.
The Rise of the Decorated Slave
To domesticate is to tame, to bring anything that was formerly wild and unruly under control. A scholar who has given up their voice for comfort is considered a domesticated intellectual. They become decorated slaves, clad with academic honors yet bound by a fear of losing privilege or favor.
These professors now teach to please rather than to change. They now publish to support performance reports rather than to spark debate. Their fear of losing institutional privileges is the reason they cease questioning poor decisions, not a lack of intelligence.
Power works best when it is internalized rather than enforced. Professors become partners in their own captivity when they begin to control their own opinions to appease management.
From Scholar to Servant
Most professors who move into management have the best of intentions: to advance academic interests, lead more effectively, and improve processes. But once inside, the bureaucracy’s machinery frequently devours them alive. Committees surround them, allowances tempt them, and ceremonial privileges intoxicate them, forcing their vocabulary to shift. They stop employing the caustic language of principle and instead use the soothing tones of policy.
In a metaphorical sense, this transition echoes Hegel’s master-slave dialectic: the servant begins to absorb the master’s perspective. Management at the institution begins to rely on intellectual acquiescence, making intellectuals complicit in the same structures they used to condemn. Titles increase; courage decreases, and the workplace gets extended, but the spirit shrinks.
Antonio Gramsci warned against “traditional intellectuals,” or persons who appear to be independent but are actually pushing the ideological agenda of authority. Most university administrators all too often fit this description: intellectually powerful but institutionally constrained, technically brilliant but ethically muted.
From Lecture Halls to Boardrooms
The transition of professors into management is not intrinsically wrong. Academic leadership can be an honorable profession, but the metamorphosis that ensues is a tragedy. Many people who sit at the management table stop being thought leaders and start supporting the dictatorship.
They defend unjust practices, stifle dissident coworkers, and impose conformity on behalf of their superiors. Obligation becomes the uniform of the robe of scholarship. Their intelligence, which once led to enlightenment, is now used as decoration in managerial reports.
The Sneaking Scholars
The issue is not limited to management. Some academics teach and attend meetings covertly during protests or strikes as their peers call for justice. Under the guise of “serving students,” these sly academics represent a more serious ailment, which Frantz Fanon referred to as the colonial mindset.
Subservience is confused with professionalism and moral behavior. Instead of employing collective opposition to remedy the system’s flaws, they claim that silent endurance will suffice. Their behavior indicates a dependent mindset, in which survival is based on compliance rather than unity.
It is not heroic to sneak and teach while others struggle for justice; it is the psychology of the oppressed. Defending the very system that takes advantage of you is the intellectual equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome.
Not All Professors Are Decorated Slaves
It must be acknowledged that not all academics fall victim to domestication. There are still genuine academics who won’t give up their opinions for favors. They work in management, yet their integrity never wavers. They tell the truth, even if it makes the table they are sitting on shake.
These are the professors who really live up to their title. The word professor comes from the Latin profiteri, which means “to declare publicly.” To profess is to defend the truth rather than to silence others. Genuine academic leaders recognize that upholding principles is more important than preserving power
Despite their small numbers, they represent the academy’s conscience. Their bravery serves as a reminder that when one’s moral compass is strong, power and principle may coexist.
The Recolonization of the Mind
Intellectual domestication is analogous to what Paulo Freire called the “banking model of education,” in which ideas are deposited rather than explored. When professors refuse to exercise their right to free thought, universities become conformist factories.
In this environment, opposition is labeled as disloyalty, and creativity is misconstrued as revolt. The system rewards conformity and penalizes uniqueness. As a result, a generation of academics has learned everything except how to say no.
The tragedy of our time is not that professors are underpaid; rather, far too many have become accustomed to being held captive. Regardless of their titles, their convictions have been forgotten. They manage departments but lack moral guidance. They attend conferences to discuss innovation, but they are intellectually inert.
A Call for Intellectual Reawakening
The universities must remain true to their mission. Professors must reclaim their long-standing role to confront, enlighten, and ask questions. Being a free thinker with no title is preferable to being a titled slave in a comfortable cage.
Let those who have been tamed discover the unrestrained, audacious, and transformative beauty of ideas. Allow management scholars to make moral decisions instead of expedient ones. Those who sneak in to teach during strikes should assess whether their motivations are folly, faith, or fear. The mind that has freed others shouldn’t shackle itself to power, because society ceases to advance when professors cease to profess.
What are your thoughts? Your voice is important, so please share your opinions in the comments section.
The author is a strategy and governance consultant, leadership trainer, and university lecturer. She writes about leadership, workplace fairness, and the ethical dimensions of management.
Email address: info@marymugo.com.
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