I really enjoyed this week’s guest post, and had a great e-mail conversation with Dr. Karen about our different views of the world. I think it comes down to the fact that while her bad experience was centered around one particular campus culture, my bad experience was less limited: basically, empirical observation had led me to conclude that every single academic was a self-important, delusional jackass. Maybe that’s too harsh, but it’s really how I felt when I left.
Aristotle is the one who figured out how funny delusional people can be (think Michael Scott), and to be honest, that was my view of most people I met in the Tower: not just out of touch, but laughably out of touch. My favorite part was when they were convinced that they were normal people. Because all normal Americans read The New York Times and The New Yorker and watch PBS and and listen to NPR. Right?
If you’re one of the many academics who told me you didn’t own a TV, this is new to you!
Wrong, statistically, and while we’re at can we please admit it normal people are NOT dying to attend public lectures on protozoa or Proust. They are far too busy going to the bar, trying to get game, watching TV with their spouses, or just hanging out with their friends, talking about life — not according to the existential dictates of Sartre, but you know, how their job is going and stuff.
And I don’t care how much dead French theorist* you’ve read, what you actually do with your free time is the real class issue (no, it’s not money because no one ever talks about money in the Land of the Ivory Tower. Only vulgar people do that.).
Ha. In the SNL skit above, I love how Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer channel what intellectuals look like to normal people. Except for real blowhards, who are more like Ron Burgundy:
Ron Burgundy is a classic Aristotelian buffoon. I know you were just dying to ask.
My version of normal, by the way, means genuinely middle-class or lower, with both ends of the spectrum represented. Lots of relatives who’ve done stupid, embarrassing, or immoral things. Watching TV is standard. Hanging around is a popular activity. But that doesn’t mean people are stupid. My relatives read for fun, and enjoy debating political topics. Some of them actually do listen to NPR. But they’d have no interest in meeting most of my former co-workers, and the feeling would probably be extremely mutual. Without the common ground of television (or nano-insectual studies as the case may be) they wouldn’t have anything to talk about.
So obviously, coming from a genuinely normal family meant I was going to lose every side of the academic debate. My theory that the average person is lazy and likes to watch TV got me branded as a snob by idealistic intellectuals. Ahem. This was based on intensive research concluding that I was lazy and liked to watch TV. Also Hostess cupcakes and trashy novels. And AC/DC is the music of my people, but if we had Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind technology, I’m sure there’d be a petition to remove Plato from my unworthy, classic-rock-loving cerebellum.
I don’t lie and say I like things just because they’re intellectually pre-approved. Real snobs do. And I have my own opinions, which real snobs don’t. Ever.
But then, when I insisted the average person’s definition of, say, atheism, did matter for what we were doing, I got yelled at anyway. And I quote: “You can’t possibly go by what the average person thinks.” Add the dramatic eyeroll if you want the total experience. I guess caring what most people think makes you an anti-intellectual intellectual? And of course, even having this discussion meant a real, live, anti-intellectual was going to hate me for being a liberal egghead no matter what. Talk about unwinnable situations.
The reason I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue is because now that I have a real job, I’m finally working with normal people. There’s genuine diversity of religion, political views, taste in entertainment, and class. It’s really refreshing, and makes me think that maybe those biologists on are on to something. Hybrid vigor, is it? Or maybe it was Plutarch. Didn’t he say you shouldn’t surround yourself exclusively with people who agree with you? Bad for management or something like that.
But right now, I’m eating a Twinkie while checking to see which Family Guy rerun is on tonight. So you know I can’t be right.
*Yes, there’s a specific one. No, I’m not going to cite him.
Thank you for not citing him. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It’s interesting that you’re talking about the issue of class. I have an upcoming post on that myself. I’ll be sure to link to here.
But yeah, it comes down to the issue of “fit”; you need to appear to walk the walk and talk the talk if you want to be “accepted.” It’s even worse if you’re a mom; not only are you judged on what you watch/listen to and shop, but also where you send your kids to school, what your “approach” is, and all that crap. Even here, in the middle of nowhere.
Have you read Bossypants? Tina Fey’s really good on the judgmental mommy phenomenon! And yeah, that “fit” thing is a total bitch; so much for “an atmosphere that encourages debate”, right?
Heh. Ain’t nuthin’ I like more than a good ol’ rant.
My entire “academic” experience was influenced and shaped by the fact that I’d spent fifteen years waiting tables, driving trucks, and running jackhammers before I went to college. With all that behind me, it was reeeeeeeeeeeaaaly hard to take any of it seriously.
Me? All I wanted was some kind of job that didn’t require me to wait tables or stand all day (I had a back that was beyond “bad.”)
Yeah, funny how worrying about money and working hard changes your view of stuff…honestly, I don’t think it’s possible for those running the Tower to make decisions in the best interest of normal people when they don’t even understand the viewpoint.
YES. Before I left my grad program, I started working part-time (since I didn’t have the Mom and Dad Allowance like many of my fellow grad students).
I was told by so many faculty members that I’d never be able to balance work and school responsibilities, and that my office job would bore me to tears and be totally useless.
This always struck me as hilarious, coming from a bunch of people who had never held a job outside of academia in their lives.
This post is spot-on, by the way. I’ve read it several times today. Kudos to you for calling out the pretentious snobs that run rampant in the academic world. It’s been driving me crazy for years.
Thanks. I plan to do as much of it as possible!
Stupid French theorist. I’ve never even had to read him and I’m sick of him, just from all the people I had to read who liked to talk about him. And I come from a reasonably abnormal family (father has a PhD, mother’s parents were a professor and assistant registrar at the same university), so I am less uncomfortable with snobs.
Actually, my main takeaway from this post is that you mentioned Aristotle in a complimentary way! You must mean business.
Finally, can I also add that it is possible to enjoy and know a lot about classical music and also to love Ke$ha in a totally non-ironic way? Because it is. Excuse me for not listening to Siegfried’s funeral march when I’m getting ready to go out. It’s kind of a downer.
Look, Aristotle’s right about a few things, but then gets all crazy and OCD and starts categorizing way too much. As for that French theorist…same thing, he was actually right, but how is it that people cite him over and over without understanding that he applies to THEIR OWN TASTES. Duh. Finally, Ke$ha is awesome, and there will be no debate on that point.
Good. She is my favorite. Don’t try to sell me on this Gaga shit – I only like pop stars who don’t take themselves seriously.
Guffawing at my kitchen table!
“If you’re one of the many academics who told me you didn’t own a TV, this is new to you!” LMAO!!!!! If I hear one more pretentious academic bastard tell me they don’t own a TV I will, I swear, throw a TV on their head.
Brilliant mobilization of popular culture motifs in the critique of hegemonic discourses from a marginalized subject position. Sorry, that just came out.
Oh, this reminds me of a funny story. Totally should have put it in my post. I was visiting a colleague’s house one day with my family. My daughter was talking about the doll she wanted for Christmas. My colleague’s daughter said, in that classic 9 year old way: “My mother would never buy me a doll. She’d buy me, like, a sculpture or something.” Her mother had the grace to look embarassed.
Another no-TV family.
PS: Eileen, whoever you are, funniest comment ever.
I always love when people of that ilk get caught knowing something about a TV show. The desperation; the rapid explanations of WHY they know that Jennifer Lopez replaced Paula Abdul on American Idol. I mean, don’t misunderstand, ha, they certainly don’t watch this, what is it called? America’s Idols? They were writing an article on the roles of minority women as disposable icons of exoticized femininity in popular culture and, uh…
Snort. It’s true, sometimes it just slips out and you’ve got to wonder…(see Caroline’s comment below).
Ha, I don’t particularly like kids but they are fantastic joke tellers! And that’s a wonderful commentary on the perils of academic parenting…
Thank you! An important goal in my life is to be funny on the internet (sadly, I’m being serious).
…and lol at your colleague’s daughter. That’s awesome.
I feel embarassed. I have a Ph.D., spent way too long in grad school, and am viewed by family (especially my father-in-law) and many acquaintances as an arrogant, effete, liberal egghead, yet I own a bigscreen TV, love the band Clutch, and have absolutely no idea what dead French theorist you mean. I feel so conflicted. Must be why I teach at a community college.
Yes, I’m pretty sure some members of my family were scared of me when I was still a prof. That sucked and made me very unhappy, mostly because while I wouldn’t judge them, I knew so many people who would. I don’t believe you about the theorist; I think you’re pulling a “reverse Porky’s” style tactic. I hear you about the big screen, it’s just so pretty and PRECIOUS…
No, seriously, I have no idea what French theorist you mean. I have read Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish”, but I couldn’t get through anything else by him and reading Derridada or Deleuze reminded too much of bad “experimental” fiction anthologies from the ’70s. I did political science, which is about 15 years behind whatever fad is loose in the academy, but I nearly failed my political theory comps because I dismissed postmodernism as masturbatory narcissism for people who don’t like politics.
Sigh. Okay, let’s just call him Schmordieu. Figured out that people’s taste was a lot less individual than that thought, and that class mattered more than individuality. Made a huge infographic about it that was kind of ahead of its time. The sad thing is, his observations are quite good, they’re just so freaking tainted by the hypocrisy of academics who quote him without realizing he APPLIES to them too. But yeah, in general, I feel the same way about theorists, French or otherwise.
Oh, *that* French theorist (let him remained unnamed). I have heard the name — didn’t he claim that the Gulf War didn’t occur? — but I’ve never read him. Does this count for points in that amusing humiliation game from the David Lodge novels?
French theorist with an asterisk? Let me guess! Then again, maybe not …
Oh, and most people I’ve known who say they don’t have a TV are straight-up lying. One person I knew kept it in the closet. No lie.
In defense of academia, I have to say that I made some of my best friends there, and fun, fascinating people do exist, but the uptights suck all the air out of the room.
No, don’t say his name, he’ll appear from the grave and lecture you in a ghostly voice! I’m not sure I can defend academia; it seems best at driving out or driving insane the cool people who do, indisputably, exist in it. And I know someone who said they didn’t watch/own TV when they religiously watched Colbert on their laptop — COME ON!
I’ve always felt that all having a Ph.D. means is that there’s a greater-than-average chance that you’ll be either incredibly interesting or an insufferably pedantic d-bag.
Ah, but haven’t you seen incredibly interesting people turned into insufferable d-bags? I have…though I’ve had many a discussion about whether there needs to be pre-existing kernel of d-baggery for that to heppen or not.
In some cases, this has to do with the echo chamber. The less you interact with anybody outside of your department and/or subspecialty, the greater the chance that you evolve into a pedantic d-bag. Ironically, many of these folks spend their professional lives warning the rest of us about the evils of “Othering” and “Orientalism” and the myriad other sins that come from thinking you know much more about other people than you actually do.
heh, heh….heh, heh…they said BALLS…that’s my favorite of the NPR spoofs!
Yeah, not only is the NPR bit great in own right, it’s a brilliant foil for the “low” comedy in the rest of the skit.
As a self-important, delusional, jackass of a professor, I really enjoy your site. And thank you for introducing us to Karen Kelsky. Ok, gotta get back to thinking about me and my irrelevant research. Have a good weekend.
Well, to be fair, I’ve discovered that not ALL academics are jackasses, though I’d still say most of them are. And don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s entirely possible that your research is relevant — but again, I still feel like it’s fair to say a lot of research simply isn’t.
Tee hee. And remember all those academics whose research focused on the working class, or some other “subaltern group,” or the history of “everyday life” (yes, there’s a French theorist for THAT, too!) yet viewed with extreme horror the possibility of teaching at a regional state college or, god forbid, a community college, where they might actually have to encounter some of that “everyday life” in the form of students who are unwilling to pretend that they share their professors’ value set?
Gah!
Exactly. I’d be a lot more okay with the snobbery if it weren’t combined with hypocrisy.
My favorite memory of the snobbish, ivory tower academic types from my own college years was in the fall of my Soph year, when the entire teaching staff went on strike. It was quite a revelation to all of us when the veil of civility was left behind in the locker room along with the academic robes, and the screaming, scurrilously rude and foul mouthed UAW wannabees that bore a striking resemblance to our saintly professors went out and formed a picket line in the student parking lot to block us from getting in!
Yeah, as with a lot of things, it’s just a freaking facade. And while I totally get the need for some dissembling (basis of the social contract, really), it’s just gotten out of control in the academy.
Worse than those who don’t watch TV are those who embrace pop culture and try to incorporate it into their highly theoretical and dubious research, inevitably citing… well, you know who.
Y’know, I wouldn’t mind it so much if they’d just freaking admit they LIKE the material they’re studying. But NOOOO, it’s always that X pop culture phenomenon is “important to understand” or some such. Nothing about loving it, you know?
What I am curious about is how long it is going to take for the “Every Child Must Pass, Or Else!” mentality currently eroding the quality of the public school education our children are currently being offered to destroy the College/University experience as well. There are kids being handed diplomas this year that can’t read Dickens or calculate the square footage of their family’s TV room, even with a calculator.
Education for the masses is great, but education tailored to produce pseudo-success for the lowest common denominator among US PubSchool students is a disaster in the making. Taking failing students and creating a fake curriculum around them that allows the powers that be to record every student as a graduate is a sham, and the sooner everyone sees that, the sooner we can put a stop to it. The Emperor is wearing No Clothes, people!
Preaching to the choir, NG, preaching to the choir.
Yeah, I know… Sorry for the rant.
At least the Choir says Amen.
If I try telling this to the School Board the reaction ranges from accusations of racism to finding a wooden stake with bundles of sticks waiting for me in the parking lot!
[...] perhaps we’re all just a bunch of “self-important, delusional jackasses.” While both those stereotypes undoubtedly apply to some of us [I freely admit that both those [...]
My favourite pretentious jack ass was an ethnomusicologist I became acquainted with who explored the social conditions of country and bluegrass music. Despite studying such a working class genre, he thought little of anyone who was not a professor, often equated grad-school dropouts like myself as failures who just couldn’t make it, and he could never imagine why anyone didn’t vote for the DNC in each and every election. I’m sure he was actually a nice guy, but it shows the weird double speak that can happen when you play with theory all day long and forget that the people you study are actually that, people. Hell, my studies had me researching the deep south and the agrarian movement and it took me years to get over my denial that everyone doing what I did was just another urban romanticizer of farmers.
Hello, I am Michael Lichens, and I am a pretentious snob.
Ha, I love the idea of Academics Anonymous. And at least you had the Plato’s-cave-style realization that you weren’t better than everyone else. You should roofie that prof and drop him into rural Kentucky somewhere…I doubt anything horrible would happen in reality, but I’m sure in the back of his mind he really does believe Deliverance can happen.
I don’t know.. either I’m surrounded by an unusual amount of academics who are abnormally decent despite coming from a different class background than my own, or whatever honesty there is behind the blowing off of steam is just a different kind of snobbery. Probably both. At any rate, I don’t see how the blanket hate here is any more appropriate or respectable than your former coworkers dismissing the experience of the ‘statistically normal’ (‘genuinely normal’? FOH).
As I think Nietzsche might have said somewhere, “Fuck what’s acceptable and appropriate.” Or maybe that was Lenny Bruce.
What’s really behind all this self-congratulation for watching and liking teevee or some loud, obnoxious and musically shallow pop star? I watch teevee as well, but it IS mostly idiotic drek for the stupidest common denominator.
Is there STILL such a class difference between college faculty and the rest of America or between college faculty and their students? I am beginning to doubt it, based on the comments here so far.
I’m with K here.
Yup, there is. And I should know, I studied shallow entertainment. Two thousand years of it.
This is all in good fun, so, in that spirit, I have to express some surprise that someone who works in an IT field — if that be the field you’re talking about — is claiming that THAT field contains more “normal” people, and more diversity of all kinds, than post-secondary education does. Bureau of Labor Statistics info doesn’t seem to support that.
But I think that this discussion is a lot like the ones about whether Obama is a secret Muslim: it is about a feeling that someone either is, or isn’t, one of “us”, and if they’re not, whether they could possibly ever understand “us” in a non-condescending way. Being part of a family with several members in the military, I regularly hear the same kinds of things about civilians that you say about academics. (That doesn’t mean that either of you are incorrect! But I do wonder what’s at stake here for the person who, by your lights, isn’t “normal” AND KNOWS IT.)
At stake is them just fucking admitting it, to be blunt. I don’t care what class/color/creed/orientation/etc. you are, as long as you have a little self-awareness — and most people don’t, but academics are especially good at not having it.
Did you know that Ana Gasteyer has a brother who is a sociology prof at Michigan State. Nice guy who probably overlapped with Karen at U of I.
That’s kind of beautiful. Maybe she got some inspiration from her brother’s life?
[...] However, as you move on to the graduate level, literature gives place to puffed up theories, self-important research and general snobism about the facts of the “real” world: business (anathema to [...]
[...] You Stay Classy, Ivory Tower! [...]