Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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Academic life
[Read the article: Do I have a drinking problem?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This column always seems to be full of writers saying how awful is the academic life, how awful it is getting a Ph.D. etc.
Well folks, if you don't enjoy your subject and feel that you have something to contribute to it, and you don't enjoy imparting your knowledge to young people, then don't do it. Do something else. I bet Richard Dawkins does not spend his spare time writing to Web sites saying how he hated doing his Ph. D., writing his books, and how he hates his students.
Go run a grocery store or a motel. Sell cars. Be a builder or a preacher or something.
I don't think it is very easy to get into Ph.D. programs in the UK, so the LW is probably a pretty sharp cookie in her field, and maybe where she is in the UK is where it is at in her subject. You don't just get into a Ph. D. program in England on a whim, so probably she has an excellent reason for being there.
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@Godmonkey
[Read the article: Do I have a drinking problem?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not sure that I quite understand your point:
Amerigo makes a good point:
You can either continue your pursuit of academia, or become a clerk at a motel, the manager of the produce section, or a construction worker.
These are your stark choices.
My comments were not addressed at the LW, but at a continuing theme in letters to this column over the months. And I didn't say become a clerk in a motel, I said run a motel-- a big difference-- or a grocery story, or any one of the thousand and one businesses and occupations that Americans do to support themselves and their families. There is nothing wrong with ordinary non-academic work. In fact the Baha'i faith (I am told) believes that working has a sacramental value.
Although I do different kinds of work, it is often the most physical work that is the most satisfying. This week I have cut down a tree, installed a kitchen faucet, painted a driveway, planted some shrubs, repaired a ceiling fan, taken stuff to the landfill, baked some bread, and to me all these things are much more satisfying than my professional job.
Judging from the letters to Salon over a period of time, it seems that many academics are unhappy. They do well in high school, and they do well in college, so having done so well, they decide they will spend the rest of their lives doing good in school or college. If I was really cynical, I could say this is a bit like prison inmates getting jobs as prison guards when they are released, so that they can still smell the prison air, hear the clanking of keys every day, and get to hang out with their friends who appreciate their talents, such as they are. Not a very apt comparison in some respects, but you get the gist, I am sure.
Anyhow, the LW has not said that she is unhappy about her current studies, location or anything else. If anything, she attributes her mental illness and emotional problems to aspects of her childhood, which is quite plausible. I once had a young female dog (can't say bitch on Salon) I got from a pound that had an odd scar on her head. She was terrified of sticks and would cringe if someone picked one up for her to fetch. Not hard to imagine that the scar and a stick might be connected. Human beings are the same. They get scarred by things that happen to them when they are young and continue to respond uncharateristically to stimuli when they are adults. Therapy can help to resolve these issues. Give the dog a stick of its own to play with so it learns it is not a weapon. Find a kindly boy friend for the girl who was mistreated by her father.
Am I rambling? Well, at least I don't drink. Imagine how I would write then.
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Not angry?
[Read the article: After years of being meek, I'm suddenly screaming at people!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LW, you say you are not angry and yet this whole nice-guys-finish-last spiel sounds like anger in action to me.
Surely we all think of ourselves as nice people. Most of the criminals I have met have gone to pains to point out that they are really nice people, and that everything is everyone else's fault. I suppose, statistically, they must be right some of the time, like a stopped clock being correct two times a day.
The answer to rude and demanding people is not to lash out at them, fun though this may be, but to realize that they act this way because they are inadequate and lacking in spiritual advancement. Seen from their own point of view, their behavior is always entirely reasonable, but that just shows how lacking in insight they are.
Just be thankful that you are not as they.
Jesus, an ancient philosopher whose teachings are little known, though allegedly influential on our President and a few others, said that when demands are made of you, you should offer to go the extra mile. Whether this instruction was intended just as a practical suggestion to avoid getting stomped on, or as means of achieving abnegation of selfish desires is debatable, but there are many people who believe the latter.
Now stop yelling at people and play nicely. You know that is what you really want to do anyway, so why fight it?
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The creed...
[Read the article: "A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... does not say that you have to believe in the Roman Catholic church. The word catholic (small 'c') means "universal" and it is a statement of unity, not of division. Of course the Apostles Creed predates the Reformation by many centuries.
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The Creed part 2...
[Read the article: "A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... and the "communion of saints" means that you believe you can talk to dead people.