2023-11-18 14:45:36
Vienna (OTS) – Dear ladies and gentlemen of the university management,
“Science and its teachings are free.”
This basic academic principle is emblazoned as a memorial in the staircase of the New Institute Building at the University of Vienna and was cast into a legal framework over 155 years ago. For good reason. The aim was to push back state power and ideologically and politically motivated goals in research and teaching. Since then, academic freedom has been protected as a fundamental right in Austria by Article 17 of the Basic Law of 1867. In 2023, this fundamental right will no longer be a shadow of its former self. University operations and their research have long since been undermined by ideological dogmatism, censorship, “cancel culture” and narrow-mindedness in teaching. Research that is subject to left-liberal and even (neo-) Marxist theories, schools of thought and social criticism no longer only dictates the humanities and social sciences, but increasingly also the natural sciences. In general, discourse at domestic university institutions, and especially at the University of Vienna, is, if at all, only possible within an ever-tightening ideological corset. Which subsequently leads to teachings, theories and researchers that do not fit into this dogmatism being banned from the university’s academic and scientific public and, in many cases, being subjected to a real witch hunt.
This ranges from verbal and physical attacks on students of all types of ideology, demands for a ban on the presence of these groups of people at the University of Vienna, to the establishment of spy systems once morest politically undesirable students, to the suppression of right-wing conservative teachings and arbitrary and politically ideologically motivated cancellations of discussion events.
The latest low point in this unculture is the university management’s ban on a discussion event organized by the Ring of Freedom Students (RFS) with the publisher, publicist and political thinker Götz Kubitschek. Ultimately, as a result of this ban and the move to the university, what was to be expected happened: left-wing extremists violently attacked Kubitschek and other peaceful activists. The contract, which was apparently terminated unilaterally by the university management at the request of the Greens, is a historical document of how politics is once once more having a direct influence on science and its freedom in Austria. And all this without any resistance from those responsible. On the contrary. In advance obedience, everything is banned, censored and revised that might even give the appearance of a social controversy that is not in keeping with the spirit of the times. The inflationary use of discredits once morest undesirable people such as “right-wing extremists”, “Nazis” or “reactionaries” is a welcome tool to dismiss suspicions of arbitrariness. Ultimately, those at the levers of power determine what is morally legitimate and permitted and what is not. Apparently even less has been learned from the historical struggle for freedom and self-determination in science than previously thought.
The hypocrisy of the university management’s official justification for canceling the event is downright blatant and revealing. Under the false pretext of slogans that have become meaningless such as “tolerance, openness and internationality,” people are exercising crude terror of opinion and opinion. One lives intolerance, exclusion, agitation and scientific segregation. And neither the university management nor the political masterminds in the background nor their ideologically agitated henchmen in the lecture halls engage in conversation, discourse, or academic debate. Be it out of fear or out of pure strategic arrogance.
I would therefore like to end my remarks with a quote from George Orwell and an appeal:
“Freedom is the right to tell others what they don’t want to hear.”
Even if university opinion makers and political decision-makers don’t like it, science and its intellectual performance thrive to a large extent on freedom. Anyone who curtails this ultimately only exposes their own inadequacy. You have looked the other way for far too long or have actively participated in this unculture. So don’t let the university degenerate further into a place of lack of freedom!
NAbg. Christian Hafenecker, MA
Questions & Contact:
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)
presse@fpoe.at
1700353873
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