Truth, shame & the search for blame

There was a stream of articles and commentary in the weeks leading up to Jason Arday’s resignation as Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge; the stream became a deluge in the weeks following, and the deluge almost an ocean in the wake of his death. I followed the story avidly—did you?

First, I laughed: stories of inflated achievements invited ridicule, and the pomposity of an elite institution was put on display. The academic emperor was exposed as decidedly underdressed.

Then, I cried: who can imagine the loneliness, the humiliation and the intolerable burden of shame Arday experienced in his final days, and the darkness of his final hours?