I recently read an excellent article by a young academic about climate change in which the author applied the social psychologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm’s concepts to the crisis.
I'm glad I was able to live on the margin. I made my own Black Mountain College, learning on my own with the complicity of others (with a pinch of academia for the gallery) and not being part of the 9 to 5 hords. I made it to 'retirement' with no bruise, under the radar. I made that choice when young adult I found out the game was rigged and the complicity widespread. No easy task to circumvent the hurdles along the way but rewarding physically, mentally and ethically.
I love this piece, Cryn. Not to long ago I was chatting with a colleague about how totally out of place I was when I was in corporate (even being in companies that were what we would now label as disruptors). My colleague (about my age) had been an in-house attorney. The two of us lamented the time wasted on our respective ways to where we are now.
I've been in both worlds too, but most career academics have not. I can't help but be amused by their complaints. I know we should always want everything to be better... But I I keep wanting to tell them how good they have it.
This will sound strange but as I read your piece, especially as you echoed "glass and steel,"I found myself remembering that the biggest difference I observed when moving back and forth between colleges and corporations was the floors. I still get claustrophobic anxiety remembering the corporate carpets and the perfectly silent mid rise pumps; then remember my wet boots squeaking on the campus hallways.
What really struck me in your piece is that while you critique the façade of corporate America, academia has its own kind of façade too; a performance of intellectualism that one can become attached to. The difference isn't that one world is pure and the other corrupt, but that the illusions operate differently. Your point about “leadership” being tied to greed and power really resonates and it shows how hollow that word can be in these contexts. True leadership often doesn't look like that. When you pursue something you genuinely believe in, it often means walking alone for stretches. That solitude isn't failure; it's the reality of doing something authentic, something that doesn't fit the systems you critique. And what's remarkable is that when you're truly on that path, people often find you; not because you seek them out, but because your work and conviction draw them in.
Hi Carole - thanks for your remarks. There is absolutely nothing "pure" about academia. I make it clear in my piece that it shouldn't be romanticized, and I also spoke about how we, as graduate students, would get together and bemoan the problems therein. Academia is a mess in its own ways, as some have pointed out in their responses to this piece.
Corporate America is at the heart of capitalism, driven by one thing alone: capital accumulation. Leadership is hollow as hell as a result, because they have their marching orders. I was in upper management, so I was close to that.
Thanks, Cryn, I really enjoyed your piece. It highlights how pressures and illusions in both academia and corporate life can obscure authenticity. It made me reflect on the importance of pursuing something genuine, even if it means walking alone at times, and how powerful it is when others are drawn to that authenticity.
I probably should have been clearer when I spoke of academia and referred more to the humanities in my piece. Thanks for sharing, Carole. I appreciate learning more about you. :)
As a trans professor who was retaliated against for standing up for trans students and writing about research ethics in trans spaces, I must say: this vision of academic freedom only exists for those to conform to its power structures. When your bodymind bares inconvenient knowledge, they crush it before the knowledge grows. The fascist creep is everywhere. In fact, I'd be delighted to share an entire dossier of depositions and legal discovery to prove my point. Higher education is fully corporate, has been for years, and is fascist as fuck. And a whole lotta people in higher ed like to think that any critique is an attack on "their knowledge" and not a possible widening of it. The people with the fanciest jobs are always the most palatable (and predictable). I could go on. Higher ed works hand in glove to limit students' imagination to what their future corporate overlords will ask of them. Higher ed also has zero solidarity to the actual communities they reside in. It's pathetic. Are there pockets of resistance? Sure. But they get crushed, iced out, and run off. Higher ed doesn't serve the public good anymore. It serves the corporate good.
Sorry you had a bad experience - I found mine challenging, full of the ability to innovate and rewarding in accomplishments as well as pay. Corporate life is about making things actually happen at scale - academia more the theory of it all - sometimes itself way off the day-to-day realities.
David --- very perceptive! I worked at Bell Laboratories in system design - but later in my career I ran a large switching product Line from AT&T HQ - both challenging, both requiring lots of "up" time - and both rewarding to American society at large
Academia may be chaotic, dusty, and allergic to sunlight, but at least it still asks why. Corporate America just asks whether you can smile while clicking through twelve pointless meetings and pretending “circle back” is a real sentence.
What you wrote captures the culture shock perfectly, especially the part where the folks in charge know nothing, want to know nothing, and insist that you call that “innovation.” The real rebels are the ones sneaking curiosity into the building like contraband.
Half the country would be better off if they had one semester in a seminar room and one day in a corporate meeting. They’d understand exactly why so many of us escape.
There is so much criticism of academia, it is refreshing to read a defense of the life of the mind, especially in contrast to what we are constantly told is the “real world.” Also, I appreciated the pic of the Van Wickle gates.
Thanks for your remarks. It is anything but the “real world,” and I meant to include a line about that. I should go back and add that point. Thanks for the reminder. It’s so far removed from the so-called real world. It’s wild.
Both are built environments far removed from, I guess, the streets and the savannah? I guess it begs the question of what the real world is anymore. Struggling to make ends meet? The academy is an amazing thing, but the combination of our high self-regard, the esoteric nature of our preoccupations, and the many barriers to entry presumably irk outsiders.
as a current ABD my problem is , and this just might be an issue with my dept or school though maybe not, that academia is becoming more corporate and meritcratic and stuck in groupthink. I feel there is maybe one student, who is adjacent to my program i can share my honest thoughts with. its about grades and popularity not independent thought. I'm facing very difficult moral choices at the moment, esp as a phd candidate in his late 40s with few economic resources
It is becoming more and more like that I believe. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand the Vice-Chancellors are hand picked by whichever of our two arms of government-for-capitalist- expansion is in power at any time. They're calling the shots, cutting back funding for humanities and scaling up commerce, marketing and business studies.
There is freedom of thought but you'd still have to be careful how, when and where you thought it.
Yes, you are right on the money (no pun intended) about that. It's funny that you bring up libertarians, Lee. I'm actually writing a review of Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian right now, which delves into the various libertarian groups that have infested right-wing thinking for generations and have helped prop up Trump.
Oh, yes, I hear you. It is wild, isn't it? Stay tuned for my piece. As I said in the opening, every time I picked up the book and put it down, I felt like I needed a shower. These people are just awful.
I remember a Kim Stanley Robinson quote, “Libertarians are just anarchists who want to keep the police to protect them from their slaves.” I’m always amused by this even it’s unfair to the anarchists I know
I'm glad I was able to live on the margin. I made my own Black Mountain College, learning on my own with the complicity of others (with a pinch of academia for the gallery) and not being part of the 9 to 5 hords. I made it to 'retirement' with no bruise, under the radar. I made that choice when young adult I found out the game was rigged and the complicity widespread. No easy task to circumvent the hurdles along the way but rewarding physically, mentally and ethically.
That's fascinating, Marc. Tell us more. I'm curious.
I love this piece, Cryn. Not to long ago I was chatting with a colleague about how totally out of place I was when I was in corporate (even being in companies that were what we would now label as disruptors). My colleague (about my age) had been an in-house attorney. The two of us lamented the time wasted on our respective ways to where we are now.
Thanks, John. I thought this piece would resonate with you.
I've been in both worlds too, but most career academics have not. I can't help but be amused by their complaints. I know we should always want everything to be better... But I I keep wanting to tell them how good they have it.
I hear you, Coren. Where are you now, if I may ask?
This will sound strange but as I read your piece, especially as you echoed "glass and steel,"I found myself remembering that the biggest difference I observed when moving back and forth between colleges and corporations was the floors. I still get claustrophobic anxiety remembering the corporate carpets and the perfectly silent mid rise pumps; then remember my wet boots squeaking on the campus hallways.
I hear you. The settings of corporate America do induce claustrophobia.
What really struck me in your piece is that while you critique the façade of corporate America, academia has its own kind of façade too; a performance of intellectualism that one can become attached to. The difference isn't that one world is pure and the other corrupt, but that the illusions operate differently. Your point about “leadership” being tied to greed and power really resonates and it shows how hollow that word can be in these contexts. True leadership often doesn't look like that. When you pursue something you genuinely believe in, it often means walking alone for stretches. That solitude isn't failure; it's the reality of doing something authentic, something that doesn't fit the systems you critique. And what's remarkable is that when you're truly on that path, people often find you; not because you seek them out, but because your work and conviction draw them in.
Hi Carole - thanks for your remarks. There is absolutely nothing "pure" about academia. I make it clear in my piece that it shouldn't be romanticized, and I also spoke about how we, as graduate students, would get together and bemoan the problems therein. Academia is a mess in its own ways, as some have pointed out in their responses to this piece.
Corporate America is at the heart of capitalism, driven by one thing alone: capital accumulation. Leadership is hollow as hell as a result, because they have their marching orders. I was in upper management, so I was close to that.
Thanks, Cryn, I really enjoyed your piece. It highlights how pressures and illusions in both academia and corporate life can obscure authenticity. It made me reflect on the importance of pursuing something genuine, even if it means walking alone at times, and how powerful it is when others are drawn to that authenticity.
Thanks, Carole. Have you been in academia? Just curious. I appreciate your insights and always welcome your thoughts.
I probably should have been clearer when I spoke of academia and referred more to the humanities in my piece. Thanks for sharing, Carole. I appreciate learning more about you. :)
I misunderstood!
As a trans professor who was retaliated against for standing up for trans students and writing about research ethics in trans spaces, I must say: this vision of academic freedom only exists for those to conform to its power structures. When your bodymind bares inconvenient knowledge, they crush it before the knowledge grows. The fascist creep is everywhere. In fact, I'd be delighted to share an entire dossier of depositions and legal discovery to prove my point. Higher education is fully corporate, has been for years, and is fascist as fuck. And a whole lotta people in higher ed like to think that any critique is an attack on "their knowledge" and not a possible widening of it. The people with the fanciest jobs are always the most palatable (and predictable). I could go on. Higher ed works hand in glove to limit students' imagination to what their future corporate overlords will ask of them. Higher ed also has zero solidarity to the actual communities they reside in. It's pathetic. Are there pockets of resistance? Sure. But they get crushed, iced out, and run off. Higher ed doesn't serve the public good anymore. It serves the corporate good.
Sorry you had a bad experience - I found mine challenging, full of the ability to innovate and rewarding in accomplishments as well as pay. Corporate life is about making things actually happen at scale - academia more the theory of it all - sometimes itself way off the day-to-day realities.
I assume there are pockets of innovativeness even in corporate America, and, Dilbert aside, engineering would be the first place I'd look.
David --- very perceptive! I worked at Bell Laboratories in system design - but later in my career I ran a large switching product Line from AT&T HQ - both challenging, both requiring lots of "up" time - and both rewarding to American society at large
Americans are VERY good at willful ignorance.. The best in the world, actually.
A trait developed over generations ever since the genocide of the native American population.
***
When confronted with his criminal actions and asked if he was worried, Allen Dulles famously said "Americans don’t read"
Academia may be chaotic, dusty, and allergic to sunlight, but at least it still asks why. Corporate America just asks whether you can smile while clicking through twelve pointless meetings and pretending “circle back” is a real sentence.
What you wrote captures the culture shock perfectly, especially the part where the folks in charge know nothing, want to know nothing, and insist that you call that “innovation.” The real rebels are the ones sneaking curiosity into the building like contraband.
Half the country would be better off if they had one semester in a seminar room and one day in a corporate meeting. They’d understand exactly why so many of us escape.
There is so much criticism of academia, it is refreshing to read a defense of the life of the mind, especially in contrast to what we are constantly told is the “real world.” Also, I appreciated the pic of the Van Wickle gates.
Thanks for your remarks. It is anything but the “real world,” and I meant to include a line about that. I should go back and add that point. Thanks for the reminder. It’s so far removed from the so-called real world. It’s wild.
Both are built environments far removed from, I guess, the streets and the savannah? I guess it begs the question of what the real world is anymore. Struggling to make ends meet? The academy is an amazing thing, but the combination of our high self-regard, the esoteric nature of our preoccupations, and the many barriers to entry presumably irk outsiders.
as a current ABD my problem is , and this just might be an issue with my dept or school though maybe not, that academia is becoming more corporate and meritcratic and stuck in groupthink. I feel there is maybe one student, who is adjacent to my program i can share my honest thoughts with. its about grades and popularity not independent thought. I'm facing very difficult moral choices at the moment, esp as a phd candidate in his late 40s with few economic resources
It is becoming more and more like that I believe. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand the Vice-Chancellors are hand picked by whichever of our two arms of government-for-capitalist- expansion is in power at any time. They're calling the shots, cutting back funding for humanities and scaling up commerce, marketing and business studies.
There is freedom of thought but you'd still have to be careful how, when and where you thought it.
Absolutely what the way life as a cog is. Glad I am out of it.
Yeah, it really is
Yes, you are right on the money (no pun intended) about that. It's funny that you bring up libertarians, Lee. I'm actually writing a review of Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian right now, which delves into the various libertarian groups that have infested right-wing thinking for generations and have helped prop up Trump.
Oh, yes, I hear you. It is wild, isn't it? Stay tuned for my piece. As I said in the opening, every time I picked up the book and put it down, I felt like I needed a shower. These people are just awful.
I remember a Kim Stanley Robinson quote, “Libertarians are just anarchists who want to keep the police to protect them from their slaves.” I’m always amused by this even it’s unfair to the anarchists I know