File spoon-archives/postanarchism.archive/postanarchism_2003/postanarchism.0309, message 58


From: JessEcoh-AT-cs.com
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 23:14:14 EDT
Subject: Re: [postanarchism] Is there anyone on this list who isn't a current or  aspi...


hmm.

   i really don't know if being an academic worker (full time, on the tenure 
track, that is -- adjuncts have a real shitty deal, that much is plain and 
simple) is really any better or worse, all things considered, than other jobs 
with similar pay (usually affording a middle-class lifestyle, though by no means 
glamorous) and working conditions (safe and clean, etc.).  the mix of freedom 
and confinement is not unlike other occupations.  there is a good deal of 
informal as well as bureaucratic policing of speech and thought, but i am my own 
boss in the classroom, and that gives me a kind of creative outlet that i 
cherish.  i get to work with people a lot, which often means headaches and 
frustration, since many of these people are bored and/or boring (often to the degree 
to which their interest in being in my class is purely extrinsic, i.e., 
careerist), but occasionally affording moments of mutual excitement, shared 
enthusiasm, discovery, laughter, comradeship, mutual aid, and so on -- this despite the 
power relationships that come to bear on all such encounters.  i feel lucky, 
all things considered -- privileged.  i am getting paid to do something that i 
love, albeit under oppressive and obnoxious circumstances.  that's not bad.

   the thing is figuring out how to make the most of what i have, and how to 
draw lines when necessary to preserve my integrity (creative, ethical, 
psychological, etc.).  it is also a struggle to avoid what is called _deformation 
professionelle_ -- the subtle way in which professional habits infect your 
personal life.  that's pretty insidious.  but it's an occupational hazard of lots of 
other occupations as well.


       --jesse.


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