[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-594534-105":59,"doc-detail-594534-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","neo-conned-university-vol-56-discussion","Neo-conned university - Vol 56 - Discussion","","Neo-conned university examines how censorship and commercialisation in higher education reshape public opinion and academic life through rewritten history, official amnesia, and outright lying—what is euphemistically called “spin.” Drawing on political theory and research, it argues that pressures on academics to censor themselves and others undermine health and wellbeing. It connects groupthink and social disapproval to physiological stress responses, using experimental evidence and scholarly sources to show how chronic activation damages health.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/neo-conned-university-vol-56-discussion/594534/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/neo-conned-university-vol-56-discussion/594534.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Aldword","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does “spin” mean in the context of this work?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"“Spin” refers to rewritten history, official amnesia, and deliberate lying—framed as harmless while actually shaping public opinion. The text argues that this is harmful, especially within institutions.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the author say critical thinking can be treated as thought crime?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It is linked to groupthink: cohesive groups suppress doubts and dissent when unity is valued over critical thinking. Alternative views are treated as personal attacks, leading to exclusion.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does social disapproval relate to physical illness here?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Social disapproval triggers the “monkey brain” emotional system, which reacts as if abandonment meant death. The text links this to stress-hormone overload and chronic stress that can accelerate disease and cause severe health outcomes.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},594534,1792662293,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":81,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":39},2336478940917,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nNeo-conned university  \nAndee Jones  \nEvery day public opinion is the target of rewritten history, official amnesia and outright lying, all of which is benevolently termed‘spin’, as if it were no more harmful than a ride on a merry-go-round. We know better than what they tell us, yet hope otherwise ... Needless to say, this is of inestimable value to those in power.  \nThomas Pynchon  \nCensorship, says Australian political theorist John Keane (1991), can ‘echo within us, take up residence within ourselves, spying on us, a private amanuensis who reminds us never to go too far ... It makes us zip our lips, tremble and think twice’(p. 39) . It can also make us sick. At least that is my argument here: that, in the context of higher education, the demands made on academics by the commercialin-confidence university, particularly for censorship of self and others, are detrimental to their health and wellbeing.  \n‘We’re very happy with the piece,’ he said.‘It’ll go in our first edition for the year.’  \n‘He’ being ‘Eds’, the 2012 editor of the student newspaper; me being a retired academic and current post-grad student; the article being a commentary on my experiences in two (unnamed) universities under the newly uncapped system. The edition duly appeared, the article didn’t.  \n‘Hi Eds.What happened to my piece?’‘We’ve held it over until next month.’  \nAfter the third no show and subsequent promise to publish ‘next month’, I sent the piece to Australian Universities’Review.‘Guess you’ll be as relieved as I am,’ I wrote to Eds,‘to know the article has found a spot elsewhere’.  \nSome weeks later, I sent Eds another piece – not as close to home – which he published within the month. Meanwhile, the close to homer appeared in Australian Universities’Review, and my university department – that is, the handful of people I knew in my department – duly sent me to Coventry.You know the kind of thing: not answering emails and phone messages, turning and walking the  \nother way when they see you coming or simply staring through you. While the department had all the patriarchal charm of a provincial pastorage, I was still caught off guard. After all, I sulked, I had been in their shoes and I was on their side. But, clearly, two or three disciples had gathered together about my name and declared it mud.  \nThere’s just no helping some people.  \nLess flippantly, though, had I been an up and coming academic, the glassy-eyed stares would’ve left me wondering if I was in the right job (which, of course, is their intent) . In fact, given the compelling evidence about the deleterious effects of social disapproval on people’s health and wellbeing (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009; Wilkinson, 2011; Shulevitz, 2013; McEwan, 2002), I might rather have been dead than rejected. I argued in a sequel to the AUR article that the commercialisation of public institutions, with its privileging of profit and concomitant devaluing of people, is compromising our health. More on how and why in a moment.  \nWhy has critical thinking become thought crime? Is it just neo-liberal groupthink? Groupthink, said 1970s social researcher Irving Janis (1982), is the way a cohesive group sees things when its desire for unity overrides its capacity to think critically. The results can be devastating, says political scientist Paul ’t Hart: ‘a distorted view of reality, excessive optimism producing hasty and reckless policies, and a neglect of ethical issues’(p. 247) . The impact varies depending on the group’s prestige, power, political agenda and the degree to which members value the group (and their being part of it) above anything else (’t Hart, 1991) . Arguably, though, some basics of Janis’theory will apply to most close knit groups.‘To preserve the clubby atmosphere,’ says ’t Hart,‘group members suppress personal doubts, silence dissenters, and follow the leader’s suggestions’ (p. 247) . Alternative opinions, questions and statem","cbCaijSsixPYMcQ1","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijSsixPYMcQ1","pdf",121303,"English","# Neo-conned university\n## Spin, censorship, and academic health\n## Groupthink as thought crime\n## How rejection harms via stress physiology","[{\"question\":\"What does “spin” mean in the context of this work?\",\"answer\":\"“Spin” refers to rewritten history, official amnesia, and deliberate lying—framed as harmless while actually shaping public opinion. The text argues that this is harmful, especially within institutions.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author say critical thinking can be treated as thought crime?\",\"answer\":\"It is linked to groupthink: cohesive groups suppress doubts and dissent when unity is valued over critical thinking. Alternative views are treated as personal attacks, leading to exclusion.\"},{\"question\":\"How does social disapproval relate to physical illness here?\",\"answer\":\"Social disapproval triggers the “monkey brain” emotional system, which reacts as if abandonment meant death. The text links this to stress-hormone overload and chronic stress that can accelerate disease and cause severe health outcomes.\"}]","Neo-conned university - Vol 56 - Discussion | PDF",1792079339]