- The university is the site of a perfect storm of 21st-century expectations and medieval bureaucracy, and the promotion-and-tenure process is the clashing point.
- The tenure track may feel like the medieval torture of having each limb pulled in a different direction by whipped horses.
More baffling, however, is this "medieval bureaucracy" of which DP speaks. Okay, this might be legitimately outside of my field, but I had no idea that the Middle Ages were particularly known for their byzantine bureaucratic processes. When we think of awful bureaucracy, what usually comes to mind? That's right--Kafka! Not even close to the M.A., my friends.
I sometimes wonder whether periodism is really as legitimately charged an issue as I often make it out to be (if only in my thoughts), but I can't help rolling my eyes--even with a well-maintained sense of humor--at this kind of thing.
Oh well. It's a losing battle.
2 comments:
The bureaucratization of universities is a modern phenomenon. It isn't even an early modern phenomenon, really growing up in the 1800s.
In this situation, the word "medieval" can be defined as "something I don't much like because of my own prejudices, but I'm too ignorant to know the origins of my own prejudices, and too lazy figure them out." Not exactly a wonderful ethic for an academic to display.
Unfortunately, I think you're right. At least I cite Wikipedia, which is the true hallmark of intellectual rigor and honesty.
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