Progressive Web Work

If you're looking for a cool job, and if you have some "webmaster" experience and want to be a progressive webmaster, here's your chance: The American Prospect is hiring a webmaster. The job would even let you work (in a vague way) on Tapped, the TAP weblog. Sounds very cool to me, but unfortunately I don't really know Perl and, well, I'm supposed to be gearing up to go to law school. Oh yeah, there's that.

BTW: I learned about this job via the supercool resource known as Idealist.org. Tell Idealist what kind of work, internship, or volunteer opportunity you're looking for, and they'll send you daily emails listing opportunities that might fit your interests—nationwide or global. Definitely a place to look if you ever consider a career change.

Posted 09:17 AM | life generally

Let's Talk Numbers

Today Plastic is pointing to a Washington Post story from a few weeks ago about "Mark Knoller, the leading collector of modern presidential arcana." Knoller's collected some interesting tidbits on Generalissimo Bush, including these:

Bush has spent a whopping total of 250 days of his presidency at Camp David (123 days), Kennebunkport (12) and his Texas ranch (115). That means Bush has spent 42 percent of his term so far at one of his three leisure destinations.

To date, the president has devoted far more time to golf (15 rounds) than to solo news conferences (six). The numbers also show that Bush, after holding three news conferences in his first four months, has had only three more in the last 15 months -- not counting the 37 Q&A sessions he has had with foreign leaders during his term.

Bush has raised $114.8 million this year at 48 GOP events, surpassing Clinton's record of $105 million in 2000 from 203 events.

What do those numbers suggest to you? According to the person who posted this on Plastic (someone who goes by "Philosawyer," and asks that we not consider this contraction of "philosopher" and "lawyer" to be pompous), Bush's numbers tell us this:

Not only is he getting a head start on his 2004 election campaign, while raising records amount of money for Republicans, he is also not shy about using tax payer money to foot a lot of the bills. Bush has a 'template' for day trips from Washington, holding a public policy or 'message' event before the fund-raiser so that he can charge taxpayers for much of these trips, relieving the political committees of some of the costs. Bush's strategists manage to turn the government-paid events largely into political ads, benefitting the candidate Bush is appearing with but also driving up the president's poll numbers in that media market, according to officials who examine the data.

There are more related links on Plastic page, if you feel like gorging on even more juicy details of how your taxes are being spent to ensure Republican control of your future. I think I've had enough for now, thanks... (I wonder if "Philosawyer" has a blog...)

Posted 02:08 PM | Comments (1) | general politics

Satire Lives!

Two enthusiastic thumbs up for The Borowitz Report, purveyors of fine satire. [via Scott Rosenberg]

If you like your humor dark and irreverent, head for the Borowitz take on Iraq's offer to allow weapons inspections, which features a sulking Dick Cheney. Good stuff—almost ranks right up there with Get Your War On, the latest installment of which is a brilliant flashback to the 80s:

Sorry Charlie! Saddam is our friend because he's fighting IRAN that is our foe!!! —do you want to help me sell Saddam more BRUCELLA MELITENSIS??? Frankie say "Relax"

Yeah, and then Frankie say, "Don't do it." But then we did. And then, Oops, we did it again! (Ok, I'll stop...)

Posted 01:15 PM | general politics

Good Ol' Tenure

[ed note: the following is a bit dated—written a little while ago for another venue—but it's closely related to the post below about anti-academic vitriol, so.... enjoy!]

So you thought academia was a meritocracy, huh? You thought the smartest people, with the best ideas and abilities, who worked really hard, were the ones who ended up with tenure? Think again: More and more people (especially women) are being denied tenure because they're not nice enough or don't "fit in" with other faculty. In academia, if you play nice with others you're called "collegial," but:

"Historically, collegiality has not infrequently been associated with ensuring homogeneity, and hence with practices that exclude persons on the basis of their difference from a perceived norm," the statement [from the American Association of University Professors] said. "An absence of collegiality ought never, by itself, to constitute a basis for nonreappointment, denial of tenure or dismissal for cause."

However:

Because tenure reviews are confidential, and based so deeply on personal judgment, it is often difficult to assess precisely what went wrong with a particular candidate.

As if the Humanities job market wasn't bad enough, now you have to be nice, too? :-)

The fact that promotions in academic fields (particularly the Humanities) can so easily become capricious and personal only proves the truth of Noam Chomsky's assertion that American universities are normalizing (read: brainwashing) institutions:

The universities, for example, are not independent institutions. There may be independent people scattered around in them but that is true of the media as well. And it’s generally true of corporations. It’s true of Fascist states, for that matter. But the institution itself is parasitic. It’s dependent on outside sources of support and those sources of support, such as private wealth, big corporations with grants, and the government (which is so closely interlinked with corporate power you can barely distinguish them), they are essentially what the universities are in the middle of. People within them, who don’t adjust to that structure, who don’t accept it and internalize it (you can’t really work with it unless you internalize it, and believe it); people who don’t do that are likely to be weeded out along the way, starting from kindergarten, all the way up. There are all sorts of filtering devices to get rid of people who are a pain in the neck and think independently. Those of you who have been through college know that the educational system is very highly geared to rewarding conformity and obedience; if you don’t do that, you are a troublemaker. So, it is kind of a filtering device which ends up with people who really honestly (they aren’t lying) internalize the framework of belief and attitudes of the surrounding power system in the society. The elite institutions like, say, Harvard and Princeton and the small upscale colleges, for example, are very much geared to socialization. If you go through a place like Harvard, most of what goes on there is teaching manners; how to behave like a member of the upper classes, how to think the right thoughts, and so on.

After nearly 20 years of formal education (gasp!), I still feel like I haven't learned how to think the right thoughts and how to behave like a member of the upper classes. More evidence that I need to find a new gig.

Posted 06:48 PM | Comments (1) | life generally

Anti-Academic Vitriol Redux

The other day Christian contributed a cogent mini-defense of academia as a response to a post in which I was being particularly snide about the academic life. As I noted, I agree with most of what (s)he? said, some of which includes:

Although no job is perfect, a career in academia has many unique benefits. What other job allows you the opportunity to work on the projects that interest you (and ONLY on the projects that interest you)? What other job allows you to change the projects you work on when your interests change? What other job allows you so much control over your own success and failure? What other job pays you to think and write about things that interest you? What other jobs allow you to determine your own deadlines? What other job pays you to create works of doubtful commercial value? What other job permits you so much flexibility in determining your work hours? What other job permits you so much flexibility in getting away to visit family and loved ones?

I suppose the point above that's most flawed in my experience is that academia allows you "so much control over your own success or failure." I mean, in theory, it seems that if you're smart, work hard, write well, publish, etc., you'll succeed. And it's true, these things will likely get you tenure, if that's success. Of course, along the way you'll have to kiss ass to varying degrees (depending on your department and its preferences and rituals), you may have to hide or tone down any political commitments you might have, and you may very well not be able to work on whatever you want, but be forced instead to struggle to make publishable a dissertation you might prefer never to see again. Also, if you are trying to get tenure at a major (public) university that relies heavily on graduate and temporary labor (as most now do), you'll also have to grin and bear your university's cavalier attitude toward the erosion of tenure and the abuse and exploitation of grads and adjuncts. What this means is you'll have to go to sleep every night knowing that you teach less than the grads and adjuncts in your department, yet get paid 3-10 times as much as they do. You'll also have to accept the fact that class sizes continue to grow and the quality of the education your institution provides its students continues to suffer because universities are now run like corporations and the bottom line is all that matters. In practical terms this means you'll have to accept that your department's purpose isn't actually to "teach" anymore at all, rather you'll be developing and executing an efficient "instructional delivery model." This will also make you an "instructional delivery vehicle," which should also make you feel just grand.

Of course, any sacrifices you have to make in order to get tenure will be worth it because once you have tenure you'll be free to do what you want, say what you want, make your own schedule, etc. Right? Well, yes, in theory. The current political climate means you'll still have to watch what you say and what groups you join or advocate for, but a certain amount of this would happen in any field. But here's the deal: By the time you get to that point, you're very likely to be so compromised and exhausted and indebted to the system that has granted you tenure, that you won't really care about much more than publishing a new book every couple of years and keeping your teaching and service-work loads light.[1]

In my experience, "tenured radical" is a misnomer, if not a blatant impossibility. If tenure provided all the freedom people always imagine, why don't we have a truly radical professoriate? Why aren't faculty in the U.S. the most outspoken and active citizens in our society? Why are faculty afraid to take controversial positions in the classroom and in public? Why don't faculty have any solidarity to use the power of their vaunted "freedom" to demand that education be properly funded in our country, rather than being sacrificed to corporate interests (often masquerading as "scientific" interests)?

Having said all that, let me say this: Academics are a truly vital—invaluable, even—part of our society. As a class, they have done the world incalculable good, and will continue to do so, even in their increasingly compromised and besieged state. How is it that I can sound so anti-academic one moment, yet praise academics the next? My answer is that, as Christian notes above, no profession is perfect. It just so happens that I've decided that—for me personally—academia's flaws outweigh its benefits. I'd simply rather do something else with my life. Maybe I'm dreaming to think that I can find some profession with better cost-benefit ratio for me [2], but I'm ready to find out. None of what I say here is really meant to discourage anyone from going into academia, or to disparage academia, per se. I'm just saying it's not for me.

Footnotes:
[1] See also the next post (above) about whether academia is really the "free" meritocracy it appears to be.

[2] Sorry about the crude economic metaphor, but I can't think of a better way to say this. My mind has been colonized by capital. Damn! The matrix has me, too!

Posted 06:34 PM | Comments (1) | life generally

Advice: LSAT and Law Schools?

From today's mailbag:

Hi—I’m M———, and I’m an AI reader. You must be getting loads of email about how best to prepare for the LSAT. I’m a 1L, and I did fairly well on that thing last year. My recommendation is going in as loose as possible—I improved by a half-dozen points between my practice tests and my actual score. I didn’t do any prep—just OD’ed on practice tests for a week, took a couple days off playing video games to loosen up, then went into the test with nothing to lose.

I was considering graduate school—I thankfully had a bunch of options after school, so law school wasn’t a huge deal to me. But I’ve been at school for two weeks, and I’m loving it—we’ll see how long the luster lasts, and I’m learning as I go—I certainly didn’t have as much information as you seem to have.

Thanks for the tip on the LSAT, M———. I'm hoping to take several more practice tests, but I'm also going to use some of the review materials I've already made the mistake of paying for. And honestly, just so you know, I haven't been overwhelmed with LSAT study tips, so if anyone has related advice, I'm always open to suggestions.

Better still, what about advice for applying to law school? Anyone have any suggestions? As I was taking that practice test yesterday I was struck with a bit o panic at the thought that I've done almost no research about schools, application procedures, etc. So here's the thing: I'm looking for good public interest programs where I'll have a good shot at getting financial aid, or at least where the program has a debt-repayment program. If you're a lawyer or current law student, you've obviously been through this, so... Won't you take pity on those fools who follow in your footsteps?

P.S. to M———: I hope you'll let me know how long the "luster lasts" in law school. Can we all look forward to a new 1L "blawg" soon?

Posted 10:44 AM | law school