-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Marv Gandall Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2011 2:24 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] University Bashing
On 2011-12-07, at 1:27 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> WHich is to say what? That some who have had some deeper knowledge of the
university are critical lof it, while those who have been left out still
idealize it?
>
> I think several people on the list have written that they have had
experience of working within and without academia and have found academia to
be more stifling, less intellectually alive, and less collegial.
My impression is that opinion is split on the list among those "who have...some deeper knowledge of the university". Those whose forays into university teaching were, by their own admission, generally unsatisfying have been the harshest critics of the institution. I have to think this has coloured their perspective to some extent. Cox, Rudy, and Yates, who seem to have found the experience rewarding, have emphasized the contradictory character of the universities as seedbeds of resistance to the system. Their outlook would be generally consistent with that of other radicals who have participated in the equally compromised trade union movement.
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This seems right. I just want to reemphasize a couple points.
No number of examples can prove anything, or even constitute a strong possibility. Examples are always available for anything anyone wants to say. It is simply illegitimate to introduce examples unless a basis has been already laid for their relevance.
Secondly, we do live in a capitalist system. No practice of institution can be judged in abstraction from that fact. Before criticizing X one must be clear on what can be legitimately expected of X. On what basis can anyone claim that universities, realistically, should be a bit different than they are. Tuition should be lower. Correct. So? Actions of administration and trustees are not relevant: they manage the system for the benefit of capitalism. But the system clearly exhibits contradictions. Therefore, before complaining about the university, take into account that an institution controlled by capitalists and structured in the interests of capital, should nevertheless often constitute a source of resistance to capitalism. Why is not everyone who ever went to a university a devoted member of the Tea Party? Why are so many faculty and students, not to speak of retired faculty and former students, so committed to the destruction of capitalism.
And why is so damn much fucking knowledge available if the institutions of knowledge are not to be credited for it. And remember again, it is remarkable that there is ANYTHING positive about universities.
Mountains of information about how bad universities are do not prove anything; in fact such mountains prove the opposite: they prove that universities contain elements essential to resistance to capital; that capital is unable to contol completely higher education, which continues despite all its defects to be essential to the anti-capitalist cause.
Explain that first, then kvetch.
And as far as personal experience goes, I probably have more real grievances against the university than everyone else on this list put together. No one else on the list has served a 27 year sentence as a tenured temp with minimum raises and a killing schedule of low level courses.
Carrol
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