Academes Gnaw on the Hands....

That feeds them, clothes them, etc.

Via Tigerhawk, I've just read a short, superb, exposition on an attitudinal problem that has apparently spread, though not universally IMHO, throughout academia. The problem is the odd notion that, as phrased by the author: "Some students and professors reject business as a morally responsible way to spend one's life".

I have seen both professors and students display the outward trappings of this philosophy over the years myself. My college attendance was sporadic in my early years, but I've been a student almost continuously since my early 30's (Gack!, has it been that long?). Perhaps I was sufficiently inoculated against such sentiment, but I've always found it incredibly self-important and a blatant sign that those afflicted really had no idea from where the wealth of this nation actually comes.

I would guess in one way, my experience is somewhat different from the author's. I experienced a few Profs carrying this kind of baggage in my English, Art, and other softer elective and non-science classes I took. But as most of my classes were math and science (including what were essentially a lot of 'do-overs' because of credits lost in transferring to new schools) and since most of my classes were of the 'evening ' variety mostly made up of fellow 'seasoned' students, it was the eager and young-ish among us that stood out the most in this way. I chalked it up to them being young and naive for years, but these days I suspect it was the result of programming they were getting in other classes.