Why Is Academia So Negative?

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Two weeks ago I wrote an article for Vitae (the career advice site of the Chronicle of Higher Education). The article is titled, "So You Think You Want a Tenure-Track Job?" and cites some major reasons why those currently on the market for a TT job might reconsider that singular goal, such as, loss of perspective, loss of geographic freedom, loss of writing freedom, and the fact that the salary stinks. I suggested that there are other options for PhDs and shared that I'm finding exciting career avenues with stronger income in a locale that I like, and wished my readers the same.

Reactions to the article were revealing. Many of the commenters and other readers who emailed me privately thanked me for the article, saying they found it inspiring, and asked for advice, sharing their own particular circumstances. But an interesting thread emerged in the comments that reminded me of something else I've always wanted to write about: the exhausting negativity that is pervasive in so much of academia.

I went into philosophy because I loved the open-minded, curious, exploration of ideas and the long history of the wide variety of ways that different minds have tried to explain the world. Philosophy, as a discipline, is especially attractive to this kind of mind: no one goes into philosophy because they're NOT curious about the world. But over time it seems professional philosophers lose all the wonder and replace it with hyper-critical nastiness. And when that happens, philosophy just isn’t fun anymore.

Mainly where I saw this kind of treatment of academics by fellow academics was at conferences and in job interviews. Years ago, I was interviewing at the APA conference (an assembly line style job interview cluster) for a TT job somewhere in Kentucky and remember the woman on the committee being so over-the-top critical of my work that I felt like saying, "Hey, you invited me to this interview, remember?" Very strange behavior for a "professional" interview. Why would I ever want this person as a colleague??

Or the time during a job talk abroad when I was discussing the question, “What is Mind?”, and a professor from a different discipline who was in the audience got so incensed that I didn’t have an answer for him that I joked I would make sure he got his money back after my talk. Philosophers can raise questions even if they don’t have the answer (psst! that’s how philosophy works…). And after my talk, people weren’t talking about my presentation, they were talking about the rude guy at the back of the room. How embarrassing for him.

A few years ago at a conference in North Carolina, a very junior philosopher was just railing so severely against the philosopher presenting on the stage that I almost got carried away with the emotion of the moment and stood up to shout, "Objection, Your Honor!" I felt she needed a lawyer to defend her in this witch hunt, as if she were on trial for murdering a child, when really all she was doing was explaining her take on Du Bois. Hardly something worth screaming about. We’re not handling life and death situations here, we’re philosophers, for Christ’s sake.

When I exited my last philosophy conference in 2014 after another deeply disappointing interpersonal experience, and walked out into the sunshine of San Diego, I felt very liberated. I’d spent years being subjected to that kind of abuse, believing I had to endure it as part of my chosen profession, and decided I just didn’t need it anymore.

Isn’t it always possible to make comments on other people's work diplomatically even if you think they're wrong? Even if you hate what they have to say? (maybe it's not: http://shitmyreviewerssay.tumblr.com). So why don't more academics take this approach? I'm genuinely trying to understand this.

My specific questions are:

1) Are there disciplines in academia where this kind behavior is altogether or at least mostly absent?

2) Do highly competitive people go into academia and thus create this environment or does the academy train us to be this way?

3) If you agree this is a problem, what do you suggest for creating a more positive and collaborative learning environment that we can model for our students who might ultimately change the academic environment?