Let us rebel against poisonous academics and their preposterous claptrap of exclusion is an article by Robert Fisk about the way academics litter their disciplines with language that serves to mystify rather than clarify anything to anyone. I know what he means. [link is now broken]
[updated 2021]
Fifteen years later, I’ve deleted links below to things that I thought were pretentious at the time. I probably still do think they are pretentious, but I’ve got skin in the game too, now, as an academic, and if I’ve learned one thing from being a postgrad, it’s about maintaining dignity and respect in the conversation. I am also aware that although there is a lot of ridiculous jargon and theoretical froth and bubble around, there’s always the chance that maybe you simply don’t understand it yet. I feel that way about Foucault now—for years, I was annoyed by the way that every single academic seemed to refer to Foucault. I feel differently now: what little I understand of Foucault is enough to make me realize that what he says is vitally important. It’s difficult to understand because he’s talking about complex things that we take for granted, and therefore cannot see them easily.
Zadie Smith wrote somewhere—I think it was in a list of 10 tips for writers, maybe—that you shouldn’t deride something in another writer just because they write in a way that you wouldn’t yourself. Something like that. It struck me as one of the kindest, best touchstones you could live by, and I think that applies to the link that I’ve now deleted above. It’s not my cup of tea, not the way I’d do things, but that doesn’t mean I have a right to denigrate it. Zadie Smith also said elsewhere that the reason she doesn’t do social media, is because she wants to retain the right to be wrong, that is to say, the chances are that you might be wrong about stuff. If you constantly put yourself online, you put yourself at the mercy of others who might point out where you’re wrong, or else you say nothing at all. The older I get—or is it the older the internet gets?—the more I think those are the wisest words ever spoken about the public sphere. There is something very humble and liberating about saying that you’re going to keep your opinions to yourself, because you may be wrong. I wish I’d done it when I wrote the post above.
Thank you for the link to the Robert Fisk article.
As a retired professor, whose last decade was spent at a university system in Mexico, I might add that obtuse verbal pompousness has been raised to strange new levels by Mexican academics. I left every faculty meeting with far less hair that I had before it began.
couldnt agree more I love learning ,I understand all the academic jargon they use simply because i’ve been forced to become an expert at decoding it over the years – what I dont understand is the need for its use and why ideas have to be dressed up and hidden under this nonsense.It’s actually made me leave university even though I love my field because the ability to express your ideas is so stifled and constricted by this language.