My qualm with the idea, that we hear all the time, that academic politics are small is that in almost every field of endeavor the politics, generally speaking, are small. How many TRULY significant divides are there in any profession? Are the debates in architecture life or death matters? The debates and politics within any given law firm? Even where matters on a daily basis can, sometimes, be life and death (let's say a hospital) I know enough doctors to know that they deal with a lot of petty bullshit -- that hospital politics are almost never tied to matters of Saving Lives!!! and usually come down to the same pettiness we all experience where the stakes are small -- because almost ALL of the stakes are small, everywhere, in every profession, if you are on the outside looking in.
My qualm with the idea, that we hear all the time, that academic politics are small is that in almost every field of endeavor the politics, generally speaking, are small. How many TRULY significant divides are there in any profession? Are the debates in architecture life or death matters? The debates and politics within any given law firm? Even where matters on a daily basis can, sometimes, be life and death (let's say a hospital) I know enough doctors to know that they deal with a lot of petty bullshit -- that hospital politics are almost never tied to matters of Saving Lives!!! and usually come down to the same pettiness we all experience where the stakes are small -- because almost ALL of the stakes are small, everywhere, in every profession, if you are on the outside looking in.