I could not possibly care less about the Churchill thing, but I hope your fever breaks and you feel better soon.
the academy is full of idiots.
This statement is undeniably true, but to no greater degree than any other profession in America, and to a lesser degree than some others (like, say, the clergy or op-ed columnists).
FL's prior post on WC noted that he was dept. chair. The Indian Country link in this post mentions he's resigned the chair, but has retained his $96,000 teaching position. I'm not well-informed re: college-level teaching salaries, but $96,000 sounds like an awful lot, especially w/o a Ph.D.
Yeah, I thought the salary was pretty high too. Anyone got one of those membership cards handy?
Hostility toward America, and the West generally, is far too common in the academy, and members of the academy not only aren't doing much about it, too many of them are trying to pretend it doesn't exist now that people are pointing it out.
Even if this were true (which I do not for a moment concede), so what? There's nothing in the job description of a university professor that requires one to hold a favorable opinion of America's role in the world. Perhaps Reynolds thinks we should bring back the loyalty oaths of the McCarthy era.
Yeah, I thought the salary was pretty high too.
FL: Depressing, isn't it, that even Ethnic Studies seems to rate higher than philosophy on the pay scales...
Seriously. I mean, we're the people who should hate America, eh?
One of my friend's is a master's student in phil, and a part-time instructor in archiecture. He makes as much teaching one class (5 or 6-hour studio, though) as a phil instructor teaching 5 classes. It's thoughts like that which make me wonder that philosophy grad school is so competitive.