> Just to give you an idea: fairly recently one not so great academic
> position in the area attracted nearly 400 (sic!) applicants.
Yep, those are the sort of numbers which I'm seeing in my own job search. And of course the greater the austerity, the safer the resulting hires tend to be -- anyone who does anything edgy, different, or just slightly ahead of their time gets tossed out, and those who by some miracle do get a job are under that much more pressure to fit in.
All the more reason for us critical intellectuals, no matter how broke, jobless and overindebted we are, to keep those candles of resistance burning.
-- DRR