By Keith Devlin @KeithDevlin@fediscience.org, @profkeithdevlin.bsky.social  In the 1940s, American mathematicians faced that question. (Enough said “yes” to create the atomic bomb. These can be hard questions, with overwhelming consequences.) Post-9/11/2001, I (as a freshly naturalized American) found myself pondering the same question. Now, as a retiree, my younger American colleagues are likely going to face that question once again. Forty years ago, in early 1986, the Vice-Chancellor (President) of my university in the UK told me, in no uncertain terms, that I should seek employment elsewhere. My university tenure, he informed me, would not prevent this. He wanted half of the 34 faculty of the mathematics department to leave in a two-year period in order to meet massive cuts mandated by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government. When right-wing governments look at education, they tend to see it as a collection of businesses, where a major goal is to maximize output and minimize costs.…