In a very general sense, Savageries of the Academy Abroad attempts
to lay bare the moral insufficiencies of university bureaucracies
abroad, which I have come to know personally and then fled in
horror. What I've written in this instance can only be called
"irresponsible" and "disobedient," but, in my defense, a necessary
evil given the bureaucratization of the academy and its innumerable
little Eichmanns. Such grievous doubt and skepticism, as Hannah
Arendt points out, are "variations of nonviolent action and
resistance" under dictatorship. Given the appalling state of higher
education at the moment--universities back home not much
better--there is no longer a place for "pragmatism" and, least of
all, "prudence." My own undeniable fear and loathing of authorities
(great and small, western and non-western) goes well beyond the
usual lamentation round the office water cooler, but rages against
the inhumanity of it all, so that, indeed, all might hear-most
especially the "powers that be." People matter less and less,
institutions matter more and more. (There was more simple humanity
at the German furniture factory where I worked before I entered
university, supposing I might fare better among an allegedly better
sort.) And so, it is high time that I write something in a
revolutionary vein in order to look myself in the mirror. To remain
silent any longer would be tantamount to the same intellectual and
moral spinelessness that has given us this deeply troubling state
of affairs, teachers and students alike the conscious and/or
unconscious victims of what is fast becoming, if not already, a
gargantuan intellectual fraud. Had I known that the academy abroad
was so troubled and, indeed, tantamount to a vow of poverty and
obedience, or known that I would be expected to teach a frightening
number of courses/students for mere pennies on the dollar, forced
to lower my academic standards (or else), I might have taken my
father's sage advice and stayed at the cabinet shop where I had a
much better chance of making not only a decent living, but an
honest one. The wings of feathers and wax that I fashioned for
myself, with the academy's help, may have saved me from the
monotony of factory life per se, carrying me safely across oceans
in both the literal and metaphorical sense. But, I sometimes ask
myself if I didn't flee one factory for another. What follows,
then, is a dark accounting of my four-year sojourn in Taiwan and a
very short stint in Saudi Arabia. Both were very painful and
extremely disappointing involvements in their own right.
Prospective PhD graduates need to know what they are likely to
experience if they should choose to teach in a foreign country and
a lack of civility that stretches the limits of credulity.
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