> The is needlessly condescending and an over generalization. I take your point, and clearly my tone was intended to be somewhat strident. I'm not sure it is n

> The is needlessly condescending and an over generalization. I take your point, and clearly my tone was intended to be somewhat strident. I'm not sure it is needless, though. The university and academic systems, IMO, are problematic but enjoy a special monopolistic prestige branding. Assaulting this and letting those that enjoy the privilege of working in the University system know that their positions, roles and actions and even values are more problematic than the "oh wow, that most be so interesting and you must be so smart" reactions they can get in social settings ... can, IMO, be helpful to the general situation. > The answer is that, like pretty much everything in society, collective action is hard for a variety of reasons. It’s a simple problem, but with no simple solutions. I agree. But part of my point, and perhaps too implicitly, was that it seems that it is harder in academia than other areas for the reasons I touched on. From my experience, senior academics (who have had some idealism knocked out of them) would consider anything collective or for the greater good of academia and research less than those in other fields.