Derrida reads Nietzsche’s lecture as a modern critique of the academic institution and the pursuit of bringing life back into the academy. He views the institution as being the key element of the system and the political state functions in the background. In doing so, he problematizes the concept of academic freedom. The state is considered the overseer of the speakers and listeners in the academic institution reminding them of their ultimate duty of being dependent ears of the system. I will attempt to break down and understand the structure of the system and its application to the construction of beliefs. Derrida begins his analysis by stating, “Dream this umbilicus: it has you by the ear”. He applies Nietzsche’s graphic concept of the umbilical cord and uses it to describe the state as being the controlling element of an educational institution. The state control occurs by way of the ear illustrating that the student acts as a listener, functioning in a way like a machine utterly reproducing what is being dictated. Nietzsche explains that the student is connected by the ear as a listener, yet in the times when the student simultaneously writes as he listens “he then hangs by the umbilical cord of the university”.  Metaphorically, the university may represent the mother as a functionary of the state, attached to the ear of the other through the umbilical cord. It is neither inside or outside the state but is rather on the cusp of it, functioning to both theorize the actions of the state and provide the discourses that allow for its maintenance. Since the university is in its own space in the system it holds institutional responsibility and reason. Derrida further analyzes the writing of Nietzsche and asserts that the university dictates what to write.  The teacher, uttering the discourse, is not producing this knowledge but simply reading it and deciphering it while the student is the ear, acting as a listener. Therefore, the teacher is also suspended by a similar umbilical cord connected to the university and overseen by the state.  On the other hand, the state is identified as the paternal belly, acting more dominantly occupying the ear with the specific discourse it wants to expose. Assumptions of the state determine the discourse of the written aspects of the academy through the media. Derrida invokes the imagery of the umbilical cord in order to show that educational institution and the state are connected in terms of economics. I interpret this as our knowledge and beliefs are under the influence of the political state and we behave in accordance with how our society has been structured. The relationship between the uncanny ear acting as as a receiver to the powerful matrix of the state shows that there is no independent development of an authentic self because of the assumptions being fed into the ear by the state. This chosen passage is a critique to phonocentrism, the belief that listening and speech are more valued than written language. However, the critique itself is problematic in that Nietzsche rejects the idea of hearing as being more superior to written language, yet he is making this claim and delivering this philosophy in a lecture series. Derrida remarks that “writing links you, like a leash in the. form of an umbilical cord, to the paternal belly of the State”. I believe that this suggests that our thoughts are not our own and we are simply reproducing information that has been rooted in us by the teacher. Derrida emphasizes this point symbolically saying that our pen is attached to a little chain and every movement is controlled by the father, the state. This idea of reproducing what others say relates to contemporary concerns of the power of the media and the “truth” it is emitting. In discussing Nietzsche’s text, Derrida remarks that the State controls everything through the idea of academic freedom. Under the power of the state, there is little access to this freedom of inquiry for the ear of student and teacher are attuned to the ideologies of state. 
