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The hierarchy is immensely more arcane and complicated than this, perhaps because there has never been a UAW to make it more standardized. THE ideological foundation of an academic self-perception centers on the notion that it is somehow, when all is said and done, a meritocracy. And that there a key signifiers that provide a shorthand for merit. Tenure is only one of them . . . and it is not necessarily the most important. A graduate student in an elite university might well rank higher than the hard working employed academic in a lesser institution, whether tenured or adjunct. As far as the organized Left is concerned, that same grad student can be the voice of the oppressed proletarian against the armchair (ie., not a member of a sect) petty bourgeois academic. I have seen this, experienced it and laughed about it for many years. Whatever the yardstick, the plebes are just not going to measure up . . . particularly if they don't stay in their place. The problem comes when we buy into that meritocracy stuff or, worse, the notion that some institutional connection means merit. Solidarity, Mark L. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
