EDIT: I don't mean impostor syndrome isn't real, just that PMCs abuse it to excuse their position.

  • carbohydra [des/pair]
    ·
    4 years ago

    implying the academy in the western world in the year 2021 contributes to society

    (I'm not saying a hypothetical academy couldn't)

    • gvngndz [none/use name,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      How does the academy not contribute to society? They teach topics that are(or rather can be) niche and/or complex. They also do a fair amount of research. What else does the academy need to do?

      • carbohydra [des/pair]
        ·
        4 years ago

        But now we are talking about the hypothetical academy. The one we have now in the real world is busy chasing money from corporations who want ways to make their products 0.01759% more efficient. If your research doesn't align with that, you have no future in the academy.

        • gvngndz [none/use name,comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          That's true for every prole in the world. We're all working for corporations chasing money, how are academicians any different? It's not like their research is meaningless because corporation benefit from it, we benefit too.

          • carbohydra [des/pair]
            ·
            4 years ago

            oh yeah, name 3 inventions from the last 40 years that have been a net benefit to the proletariat

                • gvngndz [none/use name,comrade/them]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  I think what happened here is that you had a spicy take that you didn't really think about in depth before posting, and now you're trying to save face by cracking jokes and backpedaling in the comments, but it's OK I forgive you. We all post stupid shit from time to time.

                  • carbohydra [des/pair]
                    ·
                    4 years ago

                    you're not wrong, but I'm also genuinely curious what positive effect the academy has had recently. we just put people there because it's supposed to "give them opportunities to escape poverty"

                    and I wasn't originally thinking of academics, just PMCs in general (who must ofc pass through the academy)

                    • gvngndz [none/use name,comrade/them]
                      ·
                      4 years ago

                      Idk, probably a lot of scientific research is done by academicians. There are also many Anarchist/Communist/Marxist academicans (Mark Fisher, Zizek, Chomsky, etc) who have written a lot of insightful books. They also teach thousands of people during their careers.

                      • carbohydra [des/pair]
                        ·
                        4 years ago

                        For every Zizek there are a thousand Milton Friedmans. What good is inventing a vaccine if the mainstream academy makes excuses for why hoarding it is good actually?

                        • gvngndz [none/use name,comrade/them]
                          ·
                          4 years ago

                          Most people are like this, most people are liberals and the labour of most people primarily benefits corporations, I just don't understand why you criticize academia so heavily as if it's unique in some way. But I think we are not going to be able to understand each other, so let's just stop and agree to disagree.

                          • carbohydra [des/pair]
                            ·
                            4 years ago

                            maybe I wasn't quick enough with my ninja edit:

                            and I wasn’t originally thinking of academics, just PMCs in general (who must ofc pass through the academy)

                            You brought up academia so I decided to explore it, but I think we should agree about the most important part of the PMC imo, middle managers, corporate lawyers, advertisers, etc. Those were the people I had in mind with the meme.

        • RowPin [they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          There is a "communist" (I guess) position on imposter syndrome, but this isn't it. Gegenstandpunkt/Ruthless Criticism does critiques of various social sciences and shows their various issues/why they arise; people can probably suss out why imposter syndrome would arise in humanities majors from there.

          e: For a funny example, 'Marxist philosopher' Althusser admitted once that he essentially had no real knowledge of Marx or Hegel when he became a professor, and that he would often assign essays on philosophers purely so he could learn while he was grading them. He even proudly proclaimed that he "learned by hearsay" and would tell colleagues this. Don't Do That!