Academic Envy

Giving credit where credit is due to Moksha, the phrase pops up in Professor Zero's discussion of support for Nubian which in the comments mentions David Horowitz (I assume this one), writes that after obtaining a "terminal" MA, Horowitz contracted "Academic Envy."

I am intrigued by this discussion on many levels. First, I hope that Nubian continues to write/post/blog as more voices mean more voices. (Note: a single voice can screech, a few melts into cacophony, but many voices create a roar.)

Disclosure: I am more likely to read a woman's blog than a man's. I am not sure why. I find them more interesting I suppose. I pretty much know a man's take on a lot of things, but I often find a woman's intriguing when not inscrutable.

Second, Dr. Diana, B*, Zero, etc. have all converged this last week in posting observations-complaints against the Patriarchy (they all used that word). While agreeing with them, almost to the letter, I also have begun to get self-conscious about my gendered reaction. That is, as a member of the privileged sect, how do I best react?

I am poor and in debt. I therefore do not have a seat of economic power in which to perpetuate the oppression.

I do, though, have more opportunity for fiscal empowerment than (O)thers, even if I specifically ether choose not to or fail to figure out how to maximize these opportunities.

I have a wife and daughter (mom and sisters) to whom I seek to help (in understanding and action) their struggles with the present system.

So I end up ambivalent at best. If I had money and power, would it be natural and easy for me to slide into the power-rut of oppression? I don't know. For me it is an academic question, which I speculate to my best advantage (of course I wouldn't perpetuate the Patriarchy…ooh, wait, if I had power and money, being white and male, then I would, ipso facto, be perpetuating the Patriarchy). Damn.

So, while I am no way intended to belittle the fight to articulate the struggle of the people presented above, I do have to note that the poorer and indebtedness I get, the more I am, one person at a time, lessening the Patriarchy. :)