Decisions need to be made, decisions for the future, decisions for means of earning, decisions for intellectual enrichment, decisions for tomorrow. Some choose journalism, others choose the corporate world, yet others choose the media, while some others choose the academic way of life. The academic way of life. A funny thing, it is: an academic way of life. The idea of sounding profound is one that has a few takers; analogous to a painting, a piece of music, anything that stirs one's aesthetic sensibilities, analogous indeed to the high-mindedness of rulers passed, of ideals that can only remain but ideals, analogous, indeed, to the unattainable notion of perfection, a notion so unattainable that one insists on at least trying, because perfection is the 'keep off the grass' banner in a park and 'trying to achieve that goal' is the person dribbling a ball in the park on the grass where the banner says 'keep off the grass'.
Academics becomes a seductive idea, indeed. One enters college after having finished twelve years of school, twelve years of being taught by the same teachers, of meeting the same people, of listening to the same shit everyday. College is a whole new experience, and the idea of what one went through in school after three years becomes preposterous. But of course, one must state the obvious.
By the third year of one's college life, and this is when one begins to look at oneself as being on the brink of graduation, some find themselves enamoured by the profound ways of one's professors, of wanting to be intellectuals like them because sometimes they make being smart look very cool, and what one invariably fails to realise is that one only really finds the idea of being an intellectual appetizing. The idea becomes seductive. Sexy. The idea becomes a little like the American hegemonisation of the world, however, where it differs from American hegemony is that it does not lack culture. It does, however, come with its drawbacks.
A not so uncommon trait amongst academics is that they think they know everything about everything - a disease which in fact should be legally recognised as a threat as great as the possibility of nuclear wars. With nuclear wars, one speaks of MAD - mutually assured destruction. The efforts that go into knowing everything about everything can drive one err...... MAD. The general pompousness of their attitude and their positively obnoxious ideas on which brand of shampoo one should use should be looked at as global security threats. A possible cure to this incredibly dangerous disease is a simple one - to give each of these pompous farts a humbling experience to mull over. That should put their money where their mouths are.
The reader may perhaps get the idea that this article is a tirade against academics, and I believe it is my prerogative here to quell such notions - there are in fact, quite a few positive effects of this way of life. The non-pompous academics revel in the ideas they are surrounded with, and perhaps it is with this mind that Socrates said "All I have are my ideas". Academics, in terms of what it is qualified by, is essentially about the comparative analysis of ideas, along with research, fieldwork, and of course, teaching, and it is these precise ideas, as history will tell you, that allows one to keep one's peace of mind. Exceptional cases will tell you that it drives some people mad, and there are exceptions for everything.
To come back to decisions, which is what i started this article with, they need to be made, and very soon, for final year students of Delhi University. For all the ugly counterparts of academics, the idea still sounds rather seductive. Sexy.
Academics becomes a seductive idea, indeed. One enters college after having finished twelve years of school, twelve years of being taught by the same teachers, of meeting the same people, of listening to the same shit everyday. College is a whole new experience, and the idea of what one went through in school after three years becomes preposterous. But of course, one must state the obvious.
By the third year of one's college life, and this is when one begins to look at oneself as being on the brink of graduation, some find themselves enamoured by the profound ways of one's professors, of wanting to be intellectuals like them because sometimes they make being smart look very cool, and what one invariably fails to realise is that one only really finds the idea of being an intellectual appetizing. The idea becomes seductive. Sexy. The idea becomes a little like the American hegemonisation of the world, however, where it differs from American hegemony is that it does not lack culture. It does, however, come with its drawbacks.
A not so uncommon trait amongst academics is that they think they know everything about everything - a disease which in fact should be legally recognised as a threat as great as the possibility of nuclear wars. With nuclear wars, one speaks of MAD - mutually assured destruction. The efforts that go into knowing everything about everything can drive one err...... MAD. The general pompousness of their attitude and their positively obnoxious ideas on which brand of shampoo one should use should be looked at as global security threats. A possible cure to this incredibly dangerous disease is a simple one - to give each of these pompous farts a humbling experience to mull over. That should put their money where their mouths are.
The reader may perhaps get the idea that this article is a tirade against academics, and I believe it is my prerogative here to quell such notions - there are in fact, quite a few positive effects of this way of life. The non-pompous academics revel in the ideas they are surrounded with, and perhaps it is with this mind that Socrates said "All I have are my ideas". Academics, in terms of what it is qualified by, is essentially about the comparative analysis of ideas, along with research, fieldwork, and of course, teaching, and it is these precise ideas, as history will tell you, that allows one to keep one's peace of mind. Exceptional cases will tell you that it drives some people mad, and there are exceptions for everything.
To come back to decisions, which is what i started this article with, they need to be made, and very soon, for final year students of Delhi University. For all the ugly counterparts of academics, the idea still sounds rather seductive. Sexy.
