When the Homily is about Immunology

Yes men...ahh, like a never ending comforter and nurturer when what I really need is a big kick in my ass

Talked recently with a post-doc who was lamenting the evil that seems to take hold of many tenured professors. Not a few, it seems, do all but set up a throne in their classroom and name themselves Jehovah. The frequency of unfathomable arrogance to be found among the academic elite got me thinking about how such monstrocities might evolve. It occurred to me that it possibly arises from continually having nobody ever disagree with you or call you to account. Those who happen to do so, well they usually simply vanish in some way or another - usually, but not always legally.I mean really, why bother ourselves with people who cannot understand us?

Under such circumstances where we are allowed to fester in our own sense of self-truth, deploring the world for not understanding and for persecuting us, we begin to rot. And once tenure is obtained (or some equivalent in another vein of existence), there is precious little hope - for at such time, no one may be so bold as to think they can teach us. Now at this point, the tenure must be returned to fires of mount doom in order to save us.

Sometimes I wonder if a tenured professor is all that different than being a parent and that the kids are sort of the thorn in our pristine and perfect and never incorrect sides. I believe there are many ways in which we may be like a tenured professor.