Early in September my boss and I had this great conversation. He explained to me why my area of research, that of foreign authoritarian charismatic political leaders, was not interesting to the academy.
In essence, the reason is I'm not in the popular crowd.
As he explained how the system really works, the "top-rated" communication programs, the "star" professors and their disciples, I got it. It's exactly the same as high school.
I was so mistaken to think that academics really took their stated commitment to critical thinking seriously. Not at all. They don't even have time to because they've got to play the popularity game to get tenure.
It's encouragement to relax and not take things so seriously. Happy Friday!
