Institutional Quixotism: An Ethic of Responsible Custodianship in Irresponsible Times

Epigram #3 — Institutional Quixotism: An Ethic of Responsible Custodianship in Irresponsible Times Michael Heron Haunted Playground Epigrams (No. 3) Haunted Playground Press Abstract. Institutional Quixotism advances a philosophy of academic life grounded in custodianship and ethical resistance. Drawing inspiration from Don Quixote not as a parable ofdelusion butas anethic ofprincipled idealism, this paper argues that universities are not possessions to be managed but legacies to be tended.It proposes an aspirational code of conduct oriented toward stewardship, collegial selfgovernance, solidarity, and humane scholarship. The work outlines a mode of academic practice that prioritises meaning over metrics, kindness over compliance, and duty over ambition. It frames quixotism not as a grand gesture but as a pattern of small, deliberate acts: defending imaginative spaces, naming harm where it occurs, absorbing institutional pressures that would otherwise fall on the vulnerable, and sustaining a commitment to the unfinished, the speculative, and the transgressive. It embraces the inevitability of failure not as justification for disengagement but as evidence of the necessity of continuing the fight—however unwinnable, however exhausting-for the kind of academic life in which we can still recognise ourselves when we look in the mirror. Cite as: Heron, M.(2025). Institutional Quixotism: An Ethic of Responsible Custodianship in Irresponsible Times.Haunted Playground Epigrams (No. 3). Haunted Playground Press. Available online at: https://haunted-playground.com Haunted Playground Epigrams #3 Institutional Quixotism An ethic of responsible custodianship in irresponsible times The Covenant We are the University. The heart of a university is its people, not its processes. We are the temporary custodians of an ancient tradition. We adapt to the times but we don’t capitulate to them. We hold scholarship in trust for generations to come. We tend that which we did not build. We assert our rights to collegial self-governance. We fight the foreclosure of our stewardship. We nurture whimsy as our path to enchantment. We find joy in meaning, not in metrics. When you stand, we stand with you. Solidarity begins with a single supporting voice. We will not allow silent complicity to be our legacy. We will bear the cost of speaking up. The Tilt We are vigilant sentinels of the horizon. It is dangerous to see windmills when giants gather. We know the gears turn fastest when greased by harm. We are the grit that slows the grind. We work to blunt the grindstone’s edge. Hard systems demand soft interpretations. We won’t be sharpened by the whetstone. We enact kindness within unkind processes. We do not retreat when the battle cannot be won. It matters most that we fought at all. We will fail and often fall. And yet we always stand again. We will not abandon each other to the jaws of the machine. We are the university, and we have teeth of our own. We fight not to make it easier to live with the grind. We fight to make it easier to live with ourselves. Institutional Quixotism 1 Haunted Playground Epigrams #3 1 Inspiration People often seem confused at the stances I take, the battles I fight, the lines I won’t cross. I put together my code of institutional quixotism to explain it. There are two underlying principles at play here. Universities are not owned. They are held in trust for the future. Any concession we are forced to make to the neo-liberal consensus must cost them dearly. I first read Don Quixote as a twelve-year old. I don’t think I took the intended lesson from it. I never saw Quixote as a delusional fool. I saw him as an idealist who didn’t let the world tell him what it meant to be a person. A dreamer who held space so that a forgetful age would still remember the ideals he represented. Someone who chose battles not because they were winnable but because he thought them necessary. He is heroic because he fights for what he believes in despite the cost. The win, should it ever manifest, is incidental. I’ve been compared to Don Quixote many times in my professional life by those who prefer the more common interpretation. I’ve decided to reclaim quixotism as a moral philosophy of character, not a cautionary tale of madness. Anoteofcautionisnecessaryregardless. Thisisadoctrinethatcomesfromaplaceofdeepprivilege. It requiresthesecurityof tenureand anacceptanceofcareerstasis. It’s notthat Idon’t wantprofessional advancement. It’s that I don’t want it at the price at which it’s marked. I’m in a position to be able to accept that with no real downside to my life other than perceived status in a ludicrous hierarchy. I’d rather be able to live with myself. Proprioception is the physiological quality of instinctively knowing where you are and where you can be. It’s knowing what is around you and how it relates to your presence. There is a psychological equivalent I call ethical proprioception. It’s knowing where you stand in a system, when you are being pushed, and from which direction. It tells you how hard you can push back while retaining your footing. It’s not a quality we naturally possess – it’s a quality we must choose to practice. What ethical proprioception argues is that we do what we can, where we can, for as long as we can. Institutional quixotism inherently accepts our weakness and frailty. We get tired – so tired. A code being impossible to live up to doesn’t prevent us from trying. This is an aspirational ethic, not an unyielding one. Like Quixote, we fight not because it says something about the system, but because the fight says something about us. 2 Conclusion What does this mean in practice? That’s up to you – you need to act with ethical proprioception and you are the one who embodies your own sense of clarity. However, some things I try to do consistently, even if I know I fail often: Institutional Quixotism 2 Haunted Playground Epigrams #3 2.1 Scholarship • Create and protect space for calm reflection • Open up scholarship rather than close it off • Prioritise meaning over glory • Cultivate wisdom rather than just knowledge • Reject fragility by valuing principled disagreement • Treat meaningful critique as an expression of respect • Protect the imaginative life of colleagues and students • Downplay metrics in conversation • Celebrate the weird, the speculative, the unfinished, the transgressive 2.2 Service • Dismantle status hierarchies and reject pomposity • Choose kindness even when systems forbid it • Document and defuse harmful procedures • Push against absurd bureaucratic interpretations • Intercept unreasonable demands aimed at more vulnerable colleagues • Ask the difficult ethical question others avoid • Build redundancy into harmful systems • Name the harm in the rooms where it’s happening 2.3 Community • Be an umbrella against pressure, not a funnel for it • Offer support beyond contractual obligations • Value the time of others as much as your own • Recognise humanity and integrity as often as achievement • Amplify the voices of the sidelined • Attest to people’s experiences of harm Institutional Quixotism 3 Haunted Playground Epigrams #3 • Refuse to let failure be leveraged as ammunition • Induct early-career scholars into the culture of stewardship • Be the mentor you wish you'd had 2.4 Self-Care • Accept that the flame might falter sometimes, but never let it go out • Forgive yourself for not winning the unwinnable battles • Fight them anyway Institutional Quixotism 4