Graduate school sucks

Seriously.

Truth be told, at least for me, I think my decision to get a PhD was based more on lack of alternatives than a true desire to excel in this arena. I was in China, going through the end of a bad relationship, without a clue what I was going to do. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

OH, how many decisions have been regretted through the fateful words,”It seemed like a good idea at the time”? But it did.

And sometimes, when I’m sitting in the sun, reading a good article or an interesting theory, it still does. But those times are few and far between in the heady days of paper writing and nonsense sorting.

There seems to be an intrinsic problem with academia these days. And I know that this is not a revelatory idea for most people – I’ve been reading something similar for years in the mainstream press, which almost always laments how out of touch the people in the ‘ivory towers’ are today. However, I didn’t realize the extent of it until I got myself into the thick of things.

For one, it’s completely self-referential and incestuous. For another, the writing is god awful. Really, even if one wanted to read more ‘academic’ work, they would be hard-pressed to actually do so. Ever try using words or phrases like ‘vis-a-vis’, ‘paucity’ or ‘governmentality’ in a sentence where people’s eyes didn’t glaze over? If you also haven’t read 50 years of theory and/or philosophy, you wouldn’t understand most of the arguments being made anyway. I know that sometimes I don’t. Most times I still don’t, just between you and me. Those rare academic diamonds who manage to translate their ideas into palatable and – god forbid – popular books and/or articles are looked down upon by true-blue academics. Popular works are ghastly, darling, simply NOT top drawer. Why? In a nutshell, they are accused of being: dumbed-down, too simplistic, sloppy, uncited drivel. Popularized thought, heaven’s mercy.

So, what’s to be done?

I don’t know. This, as I sit in the heartland of one of the best, most liberal, ‘most likely to embrace a new path’, schools in the country. And there still appears to be no answer.

Except be lured away by the corporate life or work with the government. At least in one I would make money and in the other someone might give a damn about what I say. Or not. But maybe. Or I could just join an NGO and put my principles where my mouth is.

And that, right now, is looking a whole lot better than getting paid next-to-nothing for people to ignore me.