The Rogue, a likable yet aberrant individual, breaks norms — often to flaunt his freedom. That freedom comes from knowing the rules are absurd, deserving to be broken. Though I do have many colleagues who understand the problems of our academic disciplines, many of whom write to me in private to express agreement for what I express in various forums.
Openly asking what rhetoric should be, especially as sciences advance and quantitative research suggests how choices are made, troubles many scholars within the more old-style rhetorical traditions.
We cannot ignore neurological studies, evolutionary psychology, behavioral economics, linguistics, and dozens of other disciplines revealing how little the things rhetoric values matter to policy debates and social choices.
We make decisions, and then we defend those with rationalizations. That’s how the brain works.
Colleagues have argued that what we teach helps our students pause and apply logic to situations, but reading the social media posts of those same colleagues reveals how emotionally they are when discussing politics and society.
I’m not going to sign the praises of scholars, theoretical works, or “research” I do not consider sound or practical. For rhetoric to remain relevant, it needs to collaborate more across disciplines. There’s no need to abandon tradition, but we need to bring it forward and align with knowledge in other fields.
My blunt answers during interviews and my public questioning of our directions as disciplines surely didn’t improve the odds of securing a professorship. But, I also have no desire to lie, to pretend, to play games to secure a job. I violated the norms of academia because they are wrong. Our scholars complain about political echo chambers while working and socializing in the smallest of such chambers.
I was advised to play the game so I could change the system. Be what I dislike, temporarily. How incredibly hypocritical within a field that claims to value truth and honesty.
I am not going to stop calling for a change in academia. Nor do I rule out that someday, against the odds, a university department might appreciate that I will not lie, will be phony simply to impress a hiring committee.
Rhetoric matters. Too bad its scholars aren’t good at persuading the public of this, because they’re so busy trying to convince each other. When you’re not willing to join the chorus, this confuses them.
Oddly enough, not being hired leaves me unchained in a way that trying to earn tenure would not.