Trump, Harvard & Mao, The New Trinity.
A “Kodak moment” used to refer to a memorable, touching, or emotional scene worth capturing in a photograph. These moments were famous worldwide. However, in 1975, engineer Steve Sasson, who worked at Kodak, invented the first digital camera—and in doing so, unwittingly created what would be the worst “Kodak moment” in the company’s history. This technological breakthrough allowed people to take photos without film, which was Kodak’s bread and butter. Sasson had seen the future, but his company remained anchored in the past, unwilling—or unable—to break free.
“Printed photos have been with us for over 100 years. No one complained about them —they were very affordable. So why would anyone want to look at their pictures on a television screen?” asked Kodak’s baffled management.
We all know what happened next. Kodak forbade Sasson from speaking about the digital camera to anyone outside the company. One of the most embarrassing corporate blunders in history was about to unfold.
Public tastes shifted, and digital cameras became the trend—while Kodak kept selling films. The company went bankrupt and was forced to shut down in 2012. Its unhappiest “Kodak moment” had arrived.
The closure of Chinese universities during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) was another defining moment in history, this one orchestrated by Mao Zedong. To him, higher education was a breeding ground for bourgeois, counter-revolutionary intellectuals. So, universities were shut down, only partially reopening in 1970, under new criteria: class background, revolutionary devotion, and Communist Party connections. Not until 1977 was the national university entrance exam (gaokao) reinstated, returning merit to the system. This was Mao’s “education moment.” There would be others, like the Great Leap Forward, when the population was encouraged to melt down pots and pans and other metal household items, all with the glorious aim of creating a heavy industry that would surpass Britain’s.
Talking about barbarians
When I discussed “barbarians” in China for the New Barbarians, I was highlighting the ignorance we often display when speaking of China. I also wanted to echo a term steeped in tradition. What I didn’t expect was to have to speak of actual barbarities.
Indeed, the first and only time Homer used the word “barbaroi” in The Iliad, it was to describe the Carians, whose language he said was barbaric. It’s unclear whether he meant their Greek had a strange accent or that their native Carian sounded alien to Greek ears. Thus, Homer coined “bar-bar-oi,” mimicking how those foreign voices sounded. Over time, the word accumulated darker meanings—eventually coming to signify cruelty or atrocity.
But to matters closer to home. By any standard, the Trump administration’s attack on one of the world’s top universities can only be described as a barbarity. Last week, it banned the institution from enrolling international students, citing alleged leftist indoctrination and antisemitism. Student visas have been revoked. And as if that weren’t enough, universities have been ordered to hand over information on students who participated in campus protests.
The aim, plain and simple, is to keep Harvard from admitting foreign students. That would lock out 6,500 students. The cost would be immense—not just in terms of lost talent, but in damaging what has always defined the American spirit. More than ever, the Statue of Liberty will be petrified. For now, a district judge has temporarily blocked the measure, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Trump Administration ignored a court order. Chaos looms.
The situation is so dire that Jay Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve—and Trump’s own appointee—felt compelled to speak out. Addressing Princeton University graduates in a recent commencement speech, he emphasized that American universities are the envy of the world and a critical asset for continued leadership in scientific innovation and economic dynamism.
Trump, unsurprisingly, has attacked Powell for not cutting interest rates, which remain between 4.25% and 4.5% to contain inflation. The president has dubbed him “Mr. Too Late,” and without hesitation, also “The Great Loser.”
What does the rest of the world say?
Meanwhile, the world watches, stunned, as the United States threatens to dismantle its university system—one of its main engines of success in the last and present centuries.
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance,” said Oriaku, a Nigerian taxi driver I met in 1992, who ferried me and my colleague Juan Gordon around Lagos. His wise words were in reply to a comment Juan had made about how costly it would be for him to fulfill his dream of sending his children to Harvard. “Harvard, Harvard,” Oriaku repeated, “that’s the only reason I work myself to the bone.”
In the wake of this turmoil, the Hong Kong government has invited its universities to attract the foreign talent the United States now seeks to reject. Beijing can’t help but smile—China knows firsthand the consequences of an assault on education.
America, it seems, is about to have its own Mao moment—perhaps it will soon be renamed a Trump moment, just as the leader of the free world retitled the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. The die is cast, and what Esteban Hernández calls “The new spirit of the world” may soon take hold.
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Originally published in The Conversation under the title Harvard battle is Trump’s ‘Mao moment’: lessons from China’s state-sanctioned university crackdown.