November 16, 2004
Why I'm in Graduate School
I just came across this quote from Edmund Burke, who (ironically), was a rabid anti-democracy crusader in the 18th century:
Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names; to the causes of evil which are permanent, not to the occasional organs by which they act, and the transitory modes in which they appear.
I've been keeping an eye out for something that crystallizes at least some of my motivations as an academic, and this does a good job.
In so many words, Burke is touting the importance of fighting for concepts of what mankind should be - a fight that takes place glacially relative to others, and in which scholars and philosophers are on closer to equal footing with artists, politicians, and orators. I think it would be overstating my case to say that politically engaged scholarship is the best kind, though it certainly is for me. Maybe it's more accurate to say that any quality, humanist scholarship is doomed by its nature to be politically engaged. And that's what attracts me to my field - the question of determining how people's information environments shape their perceptions of the world is obviously pretty political.
It's hard to say to what extent this is part of an ongoing process of self-justification in the face of a decision that I'm still not entirely reconciled with, but if this is what I end up doing with the rest of my life, at least it's not just because I've got nothing better to do.
It also gives you an excuse not to join the rat race. You don't want that shit, trust me.
Well, I've been in it for the past two or three years, and I'm glad to get out. But as our Ludwig will tell you, there are people who go to graduate school for that reason and no other. I also know some people who are doing it out of sheer lack of anything better, but who are moreover going into debt to go to school for a couple more years. Now that's insane.
All that said, you should look into it, if it's of any interest. I can only assume you'd be a decent candidate, considering what little I know about you. O-Dub is in a Critical Race Studies program at Berkeley - you guys could rock the academic world down to its knees!
You're talking about me aren't you? I just know you are.
You're not going into debt, are you? Because otherwise, I think it should be pretty clear that I'm not talking about you . . . there's a difference, after all, between pursuing something for personal enrichment - because you genuinely want to do it for its own sake - and pursuing it because you can't think of anything else to do.
Well, I'm taking loans, so yes, I'm going (further) into debt. That's ok though...
Oh . . . I see . . .
Hehehe... the loans are to allow us to pay the bills. Next year I'll be teaching though, so that will help.