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/lit/ - Literature

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6824383 No.6824383 [Reply] [Original]

Academia is the definition of bourgeois dead-end when it comes to promoting an intelligentsia. Anyone who has talked to an educated professional with three different degrees, supposedly broad humanistic training, etc., and realised they were talking to a complete fucking functionary knows this pretty well. PhDs are high priests of ritualised citation scribbling. And the system pounds down undergrads to worship these soulless idiots so that by the time you get to your Master's or PhD, you're shining with pride over your ability to be a boring stuffy cunt and look down on anyone with unusual ideas or methodology. It's a cult, and one that doesn't provide good enough rewards to stop its members from compensating for their wasted efforts through self-congratulatory masturbation.

>> No.6824391

>"I dropped out because education is a bourgeoise social contruct, mom": Starter Pack

>> No.6824398

>>6824383
Reason I double-majored and moved on after graduating and gaining enough introductory knowledge into each subject to generate my own goals and beliefs around them.

>> No.6824399

>>6824383
>rationalizing being a wage cuck
>not being one of the intelligentsia

>> No.6824407

>>6824399
How are academics not wage cucks?

>> No.6824421

>>6824383
>look down on anyone with unusual ideas or methodology

Translation: You told your teacher that Mersault was literally a cuck and Joyce meme-loving nigger faggot and when he turned 360 degrees and walked away you shouted "Implying you even started with the greeks, spooked pleb! "

>> No.6824427

>>6824383

is this from that les miserables 2012ish movie? Saw it the other day because me and my grandmother wanted something to watch and I swear it was by far the worst movie I had ever seen

>> No.6824431

>>6824383
Okay Nietzsche.

>> No.6824439

>>6824399
>being
>not just killing yourself

>> No.6824563

>>6824421
>turned 360 degrees and walked away
You need to spend more time on /sci/. Humanities majors are fucking retarded.

>> No.6824566

>>6824563
You need to go back to Reddit, buddy ol' pal :).

>> No.6824574

Academia has its share of problems.

Few papers are ever referenced, especially in the humanities. The focus on publishing causes statistically anomalous results to be published, even if they aren't reproducible. It also incentivizes publishing multiple small papers instead of one large comprehensive paper.

Also, hacky social scientists are viewing old results through the eyes of women, blacks, latinos, gays, etc. It's an extremely lazy means of producing "new" results by filtering for the effects on increasingly small, unimportant minorities. We really don't need black and female versions of everything.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/the-conference-manifesto

>> No.6824581

>>6824383
I have to agree. The fact that research is no longer about logical work-throughs of new ideas but find the most sources to cite and copy into your own work makes me weary of the whole business.

>> No.6824594

>>6824574
>Few papers are ever referenced, especially in the humanities.
This is kinda what makes sites like SSRN funny and sad. Funny because people spend all that time producing works that aren't even read by their fellows and sad because there are a lot good works that go by unnoticed that could improve our intellectual climate.

>> No.6824598
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6824598

>>6824563
>being this new

>> No.6824695

>>6824574
Yeah, the whole "perspective" thing is dumb as fuck.

>> No.6824710

>>6824563
>doesn't know one of the OG memes

>> No.6824714

>>6824710
>thinking this is new sincerity
>not the ironic troll that it is

...or maybe I have too much faith in people

>> No.6824723
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6824723

>>6824563

>> No.6824728

Good thread

>> No.6825394

>>6824563
>all these replies
really, guys?

>> No.6825466

>>6824574
>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/the-conference-manifesto
the list of ten behavior rules at the end of this article is kind of depressing. everywhere else these are standard rules (I mean, is line-by-line paper reading really this common?), and the humanities professors ONLY live up to these standards and nothing more, then the discussion would still be below average. had it really fallen this far, to where we see becoming below average as an "upgrade?"

>> No.6825926

op is right. why are people arguing with him? our educators are boring and that is a totally valid objection to their existence.

>> No.6825966

>>6825466
There are some legitimately great presenters at conferences, and there are a few people reading PowerPoints word for word.

Part of the problem is that conferences are another line on your CV, so a lot of people presenting don't really want to be there. They only want something on their CV.

>> No.6825997

>>6825966
A lot of those presentations are also terrible wastes of time. There are areas of study, exciting areas of study that often have very very boring papers and presentations.

>>6824383
There are folks who are worth a shit and still haven't published mega interesting papers on your favorite novel, but at least they're usually pretty smart people. Then there are terrible moron PhDs who take ideas from grad students to later use in their dissertation.

>> No.6826054

>>6824383
>by the time you get to your Master's or PhD, you're shining with pride over your ability to be a boring stuffy cunt

I wouldn't say they're shining with pride. Most grad students are actually filled with self-hate, because they know they made a shitty decision by getting into academia in the first place, but they don't see a way out, specially after having invested a good couple of years into that shit.

I quit my PhD right after I finished my first year, and a lot of my classmates told me they were thinking about quitting too, but just didn't dare to go through with it. A lot of people quit in their 4th or even 5th year, and the ones I met all told me they wish they had made that decision a lot sooner.

Most PhD students are boring cunts, but they're not smug about it.

>> No.6826057

>>6824383
same

>> No.6826079

I'm only in grad school out of my hatred for the system.

>> No.6826119
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>>6824439

>> No.6827748
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>>6824383
I have a doctorate, nobody worships me, I'm a non-functionary freak, and I'll gladly sell my PhD to anyone who will pay off my massive student loan. OP, I don't know who pissed on your grad school application, but try not to take it out on the world.

>> No.6827790

>>6824407
They got tenure m8 it's a whole different kind of cuck.

>> No.6827798

>>6824563
leave and never come back

>>6825394
>downboats, really leddit?

>> No.6827834

>>6826054
Projecting.

>>6826079
You must be very confused.

>>6827748
Attending graduate school in the humanities without a scholarship may very well be the first thing I was told not to do after exiting my mother's womb.

You know, there are some people who genuinely enjoy the atmosphere and the workload of academia. It has its shortcomings like any other job. The amount of people with anal fissures over its existence absolutely blow my mind sometimes, particularly those who are actually a part of it.

>> No.6827869

can someone tell me what a functionary is?

>> No.6827949
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>tfw people actually take up humanities majors
Engineering master race here, 2nd year out and I'm sitting on 80k, uni debts will be paid off in 2 years. Did a history elective once though, I don't think I've ever been in the company of so many insufferable cunts at once.

>> No.6827960

>>6827949
do you drive stick or manual

>> No.6827977
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>Why are so many professors left-leaning/liberal?

I don't know. Why are so many people in finance conservative?

>> No.6827991

>>6824563
holy shit. sure is summer.

>> No.6828003

>>6824421
>"Implying you even started with the greeks, spooked pleb! "

wow I don't even think I have to come to /lit/ anymore...anon crammed it all into one sentence

>> No.6828009

>>6827949
>engineering master race
I see that one pic posted on /b/ for close to a decade now stroked your lil ego.

>> No.6828016

>>6827949
so you're here on the literature board to share your immense love of reading and philosophically inclined debate right?

>> No.6828100

>>6827991
i felt the summer about two weeks in.
it's been hellish for a while m88

>> No.6828130

There's a grain of truth to this, and that's why it's important to find a program that puts you in the field,. The best college programs are the ones that put you in the field and give you a head start in terms of jobs and connections.

If you're not going to go to college, then you NEED to start specializing in something so that when you apply for jobs in your field you have the experience to make you a good candidate.
Higher education just boosts your marketability because that way employers know you at least have some basic knowledge in the field, but experience is what's most important.
I got a BA in international relations,. I wish I'd gotten a more useful degree. I did the Peace Corps which looks great. Now I'm looking at grad programs and I'm going to choose one that puts me in the field, doing actual work. But I'm only doing it because I have a rich uncle to help out, and the Peace Corps makes me eligible for all sorts of scholarships. Otherwise I would just focus on work experience.
I know PhDs who have done nothing with their lives, and I know high school drop outs who are amazing and successful people. The variable is who was focused enough and fearless enough to go for what they wanted. A degree does help, though - a lot of employers won't even consider candidates without degrees.
Also, think about where anything might lead. For example, do you rock climb? Take it seriously and one day you could become a mountaineering guide.
But yeah, the best information comes from experience, books, practice, and private study.

>> No.6828146

>>6826054
Are you me?

>> No.6828154
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[ERROR]

>>6828130
I like you.

>> No.6828237
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[ERROR]

>>6824383
Uni is an interesting place, I'm in my first year taking a lot of English rich subjects and a lot of the Tutors I have are all odd in some way. I have some guy who tutors one course who is writing a Master Thesis on Dragons, he's obsessed with Watchman, and laughs like the Count from Sesame Street, and he ALWAYS does that laugh everytime the Professor makes a quip or dry joke comment.

Also lots of girls keep trying to meet up with my after class even though I'm ugly as sin and don't even contribute much intelligence discussion in classes.

Should I just get my BA English and leave for a job?

>> No.6828287

>>6828154
:)

>> No.6828294

>>6828237
That's just post-grad students for you, their brains get pickled by all the work so they turn into pickle people.

Also yes, University is a waste nowadays.

>> No.6828321

>>6828237
Uni is a safe space for all sorts of weird fuckers. Expect to meet a lot of those guys you described, at least one a class.

And no, god no, please don't get your degree in English, not even if you want to go to graduate school. You will not get a decent job. Find a STEM field that you find interesting and pursue that. Please. If you take one piece of advice from this anonymous imageboard, please take this one.

>> No.6828481

>>6828321
I'm kinda committed tbh, redoing the year over again in a field I have absolutely no familiarity in would be worse.

>> No.6828645

>>6828481
In it wouldn't,. Trust me, as someone who should've gotten a biology degree rather than a useless liberal arts degree, one year may seem like too much right now, but once you get out of college it will seem like nothing. You are limiting yourself.

>> No.6828668

>>6828645
shut up

>> No.6828687

>>6828645
What are you doing now, anon? And why wouldn't someone get an English degree if he plans to study it further in graduate school? If we're going to throw anecdotes around, I have plenty, too.

>> No.6828690

>>6824427
You know it exactly that film, you know it was exactly released in 2012.

You wanted to show something to your grandmother and she told you to get a girlfriend and to move out, now you can't even watch your faggy french film remembering being BTFO by some saggy bitch, you edgy cunt.

>> No.6828751

>>6828130
how hard is it to get accepted in the Peace Corps ?

Will they let you in just for having a BA?

>> No.6828813

>>6828645
Biology wouldn't have worked out very well job-wise either. Face it, any career thats even mildly interesting is overflowing with too many qualified applicants and too few jobs.