The Contingent Labor System Exploits All Kinds of People. So What’s So Special about Academia?
by Gordon Haber
A question from a commenter in response to my rant against academics who criticize adjuncts (and others) when they complain about academia:
How is this issue the same / different than the more general issue of the have vs. have not or the powerful vs the non-powerful? What about the academic environment makes this different? I recently finished my PhD so I have general interest / background in this.
Excellent question, anonymous person! The “academic environment” is different for two reasons:
- When adjuncts stand up for themselves you will always, always see responses that criticize the rhetoric. The subtext is invariably, you’re saying it wrong, and I am pointing that out to indicate that I am smarter than you. I don’t particularly care when people accuse me of using hyperbole (you should see what people say about me when I write about Poland or Israel) but I do care when some tenured douche or supercilious graduate student tries to score points instead of addressing the real issue of labor exploitation.
- A majority of the professoriat claims to be lefties (or at least moderate lefties) while remaining silent and indifferent on the labor exploitation in their midst. Which is what I like to call “hypocrisy.” (I am reminded of the tenured professor whom I privately referred to as Mrs. Jellyby for her habit of flying off to help poor people in Africa while doing nothing for the exploited adjuncts at her university — or for the poor folks a few miles down the freeway, for that matter.)
- Kvetching about academia helps me shill for my novella, Adjunctivitis, which has been called “extremely funny and yet heartbreaking” by my friend’s mom. Only $2.99! But adjuncts can get a PDF for free! Just write me at the email address on my About page!
Hope that clears it up!
I wish I could count how many times I’ve been corrected for speaking in the wrong way/tone to badmin, but it’s too many. I was once schooled by an art department apologist and badmin-accommodator about “the subtleties of language,” even though my PhD is in English.
1. I think since a lot of exploited adjuncts are rhet/comp teachers, it leaves us uniquely vulnerable to attacks on our rhetoric rather than the content of our statements. As academics, we feel the need to always “show our work,” when really, these truths are self-evident.
2. As a pretty big lefty myself, I didn’t realize how badly the system was exploiting adjuncts until years into being one. On an individual level, I bought into the same Horatio Alger myth that I used to criticize in grad school. Too many of us, tenured and not, fall prey to what you call “thinkiness.”
3. Haven’t read it yet, but I’ve been saving up for a copy. I wish that was a joke, but, you know, adjunct. Same way with Kudera’s book.
Big fan of the site; definitely has helped me form my own thoughts on the adjunct racket.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯