Hey - you did the right thing, and IMHO no amount of money is worth doing otherwise, and I agree with your assesment of the others. This is no trivial debate of

Hey - you did the right thing, and IMHO no amount of money is worth doing otherwise, and I agree with your assesment of the others. This is no trivial debate of a theoretical principle; I hate to say everything is at stake, but we can't hide from it. You're the first person I've found who has given me an inside view and some explanation. How hearbreaking. But our ideas are better ideas - there is no comparison; theirs are almost childish. Look at the societies built by them and by ignorance. We have the power, we just need to use it. If you don't mind me asking, a related issue weighs heavily: What happened to postmodernism in academia? I know it was politicized in the broader world (by people not knowing what it meant and using postmodern arguments), but I assumed enough in academia would know better. But it doesn't seem that way. Several years ago I ate lunch with a few faculty from various schools and was talking to one whose dissertation had been on an iconic postmodern writer. I mentioned reading one of that writer's books recently; my friend formed an embarassed expression and said quietly to me, 'I don't read that kind of thing anymore'. :o (Nothing of that writer could offend contemporary sensibilities.) It's important to me because, it seems to me, postmodernism provides almost everything needed for these contemporary problems - distrust of power, ultimate distrust of ego and megalomania, the tools, etc. I've made an effort to remove myself from the madness and, using those tools, it all seems straightforward and transparent to me. Yet even postmodernism's strongest proponants seem to have abandoned it; why? They have unilaterially disarmed - and what have they replaced it with? Have we simply laid down our arms, as encouraged by an enemy as they march forward? Edit: I should say that I am reaching just a little in my knowledge of postmodernism, which I never specifically studied (I never read a History of Postmodern Thought, etc.). So hopefully I'm not misapplying it in places.