Demagoguery hurting higher education

In the last few years a ghost has been wandering the political landscapes of many countries. Whether it is Trumpism in the U.S., the Five Star Movement and the League Party in Italy, the Podemos and Catalan separatist parties in Spain, or the Venezuelan Chavism, they all have something in common: a mixture of populism and nationalism. Populism is characterized by the rejection of the establishment, the so-called privileged elites. Nationalism is a movement that promotes the alleged interests of a tribe, whether it is a group tied by geography, culture, or ethnicity. They are both anti-historical in the sense that throughout time major progress has been made by civilizations that embrace an open world, well-organized societies, and deference to the intellectual elites