Academic Agent on Shakespeare, Elites, and the Crisis of Modern Institutions

Eric Kaufmann interviews Neema Parvini, also known as Academic Agent, about his journey from Shakespeare scholar to heterodox public intellectual. The conversation covers Marxist literary theory, postmodernism in academia, Jonathan Haidt, moral psychology, economic thought, James Burnham, elite theory, managerialism, and the rise of woke orthodoxy across universities and public institutions. Parvini explains how organized minorities shape power, why institutions stop telling the truth, and how ideological conformity spread from academia into wider society through bureaucracy, culture, and policy. The discussion also explores populism, censorship, COVID, Ukraine, value-free analysis, and the growing legitimacy crisis facing universities, media, and the modern governing class.