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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.)
  3. 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!