Maggie's Farm

I saw this earlier and thought about posting a comment, relating why I did not get an advanced English degree. The compelling reason was what he points out - a glut of Phds; not enough job positions and no guarantee of tenure anywhere, no matter how good you were. And that was in 1990!!

My adviser was warning everybody that it was a risky decision. He had more advice, which was enough all by itself: if you were a white male, you better be gay, or have some really fabulous radical hook, otherwise your job prospects were even worse.

In other words, how good a teacher you might be didn't matter so much as your "identity" and political posture. I thought "here are people who hold themselves out as educated, refined, wise and of course, Liberal, and ultimately they're going to judge your fitness by gauge of your skin color and who you don't want to screw".

I think this all broke my adviser's heart. He had been teaching for thirty years and was an inspirational teacher - loved his subject, loved teaching it to students, and loved his students. I don't think it was where he had imagined his profession would end up.

And now, in Universities everywhere, it's Humanities professors who champion, and enforce, speech codes and like coercion.

In any case, I didn't I didn't post anything because it doesn't matter: the Humanities is ruined; nobody much wants to hear what they have to say, and the Humanities professors did it to themselves. Him included. They took custody of subjects that could be edifying for everybody and allowed them to become a political weapon for a few. Fie.