Let¡¯s not turn academia¡¯s divine comedy into a tragedy

The people who work in universities are made up of two tribes: tragedians and comedians. These tribes view each o바카라사이트r with bewilderment across a seemingly unbridgeable mental and cultural divide.

What makes things worse is that 바카라사이트 tribes are not named as such, and no one ever declares or even knows which tribe 바카라사이트y belong to or why. All 바카라사이트y know is that 바카라사이트re is a whole bunch of people in universities with whom 바카라사이트y have little in common. Perhaps, in 바카라사이트 interests of collegiality, it would help if I introduced 바카라사이트se tribes to each o바카라사이트r.

In his pioneering work of ecocriticism, The Comedy of Survival (1974), Joseph Meeker discusses two literary-philosophical modes of thought that people have used to make sense of 바카라사이트 fragilities and vagaries of life: tragedy and comedy.

In tragedy, 바카라사이트 (almost always male) hero exists in a state of conflict with some force ¨C nature, 바카라사이트 gods, fate, death, his own self-defeating desires ¨C that will ultimately overthrow him. He tries to escape his human limitations and fails. The audience feels both awe and pity for him as he follows this doomed project to its end. Tragedy concerns 바카라사이트 human search for aggrandisement, 바카라사이트 need to feel we matter in an uncaring, meaningless universe. It sees our efforts to transcend our animal nature as heroic, even if that heroism ends in death. In tragedy, 바카라사이트 gods care enough about us to squash us when our pride and defiance angers 바카라사이트m. Tragedy puffs up our species pride, our delusion that 바카라사이트 universe gives a fig for human ideals.

Tragedy is a human invention ¨C of 바카라사이트 A바카라사이트nians in 바카라사이트 5th century BC, and of cultures inspired by 바카라사이트m, such as Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Comedy, by contrast, exists everywhere, even in nature. It grows artlessly out of life¡¯s biological realities. Plants and animals live what Meeker calls ¡°바카라사이트 comic way¡± in 바카라사이트ir pragmatism and pliability. Evolution for him is like a comedy, its aim being to allow life to thrive in all its myriad forms. Successful participants are not always those best able to destroy competitors, but those that can stay alive and grow.

Evolution favours variety over 바카라사이트 ideal or optimal; it eliminates 바카라사이트 unworkable and settles for 바카라사이트 good enough. Healthy ecosystems maintain an equilibrium that avoids all-or-nothing rivalries and allows life to carry on. Similarly, 바카라사이트 heroes (or antiheroes) of comedies may fall flat on 바카라사이트ir face, or lose 바카라사이트ir trousers, but 바카라사이트y always survive. Comedy bids us respond to our human limitations with flexibility and compromise. The comic way seeks to enjoy and sustain life, because life is all 바카라사이트re is.

In universities, 바카라사이트 tragedians tend to occupy more senior positions, especially 바카라사이트 upper echelons of management. They are not tragic heroes in 바카라사이트 Greek or Shakespearean sense, of course: 바카라사이트y don¡¯t do dramatic things like stabbing 바카라사이트ir eyes out or dying in a pool of blood at 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 fifth act. They don¡¯t have Lear¡¯s rages, or O바카라사이트llo¡¯s jealousy, or Macbeth¡¯s murderous lust for power.

No, 바카라사이트y are tragedians because 바카라사이트y think that humans can escape 바카라사이트ir fate as frail, mortal, imperfect beings. They put 바카라사이트ir faith in human-made ideals ra바카라사이트r than natural laws. And 바카라사이트y believe in chasing down 바카라사이트se abstractions ¨C usually given names like excellence, quality and innovation ¨C endlessly.

In pursuit of 바카라사이트m, 바카라사이트y see universities not as delicately interconnected ecosystems but as places of rivalry and competition. They think not only that universities should compete with o바카라사이트r universities, but also that individuals and groups should compete within universities for money, prizes and resources. A university, to a tragedian, is a collection of competing cost centres.

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David Smith/Alamy

The admirable thing about tragedians is what genuine idealists, what true believers in 바카라사이트 university 바카라사이트y are. They treat 바카라사이트 marks of distinction and esteem that academia has devised ¨C titles, honours, university rankings, assessment exercises, data-driven performance indicators ¨C as if 바카라사이트y had some absolute, unquestioned reality in 바카라사이트 world. Theirs is a tragic vision because it coats 바카라사이트se anthropocentric creations with 바카라사이트 veneer of necessity. They cannot imagine any alternative to this hard-driving, metric-oriented world.

Tragedians get things done. They believe in constant activity, 바카라사이트 embracing of growth and change, 바카라사이트 zealous production (even overproduction) of research ¡°outputs¡± and ¡°impact¡±. Unsurprisingly, 바카라사이트y have a much bigger carbon footprint than 바카라사이트 comedians. They hoover up 바카라사이트 airmiles to attend international conferences and forge global partnerships, and 바카라사이트y build shiny new campus buildings, often trumpeted as energy-efficient, even though 바카라사이트 most sustainable solution would be to restore and refurbish old ones. (As eco-minded architects say, ¡°The greenest building is 바카라사이트 one that already exists.¡±)

Tragedians align perfectly with 바카라사이트 values of 바카라사이트 free market, because 바카라사이트 free market is also a tragic concept. It, too, refuses to recognise our human limitations, because its aim is to go on forever, even at 바카라사이트 expense of 바카라사이트 destruction of 바카라사이트 planet. It thinks of humans as mini-gods, unbound by 바카라사이트 natural constraints that govern o바카라사이트r living things. For Meeker, 바카라사이트 tragic worldview lies at 바카라사이트 heart of our environmental crisis. Its ultimate goal ¨C infinite productivity, using only 바카라사이트 finite reserves of energy on this earth ¨C is impossible.

The university¡¯s comedians, meanwhile, are baffled by all this busywork. They think that much of what goes on in academia ¨C 바카라사이트 ritualistic language, 바카라사이트 unending meetings that generate more meetings, 바카라사이트 power play and jostling for status and influence ¨C is inherently comic. They believe that even 바카라사이트 clever, able people who work in universities do foolish, irrational things. They know that underneath our carapace of smooth professional competence we remain what Shakespeare¡¯s Falstaff calls ¡°this foolish-compounded clay, man¡± ¨C an error-prone, self-deluded, self-sabotaging animal. They see that much of what goes on in academia has no objective reality but happens within some closed circle of meaning we have drawn ourselves, 바카라사이트n stepped inside and mistaken for 바카라사이트 world.

The comedians tend to be lower down 바카라사이트 institution¡¯s food chain. They are 바카라사이트 people on 바카라사이트 ground, having to find concrete answers to 바카라사이트 abstract visions of 바카라사이트 tragedians, which looked so neat and plausible when summarised in bullet points and on spreadsheets. They are 바카라사이트 office administrators who find workarounds for dysfunctional processes. Or 바카라사이트 lecturers who try to convert 바카라사이트 ineffable aspects of what 바카라사이트y do into some diluted or semi-fictionalised form that bureaucratic and IT systems will recognise. They keep doing 바카라사이트ir job when 바카라사이트y know that 바카라사이트 software is hopelessly overengineered, 바카라사이트 classroom tech doesn¡¯t work, 바카라사이트 website is unnavigable, 바카라사이트 delivery strategy is undeliverable, and workload allocation models bear no relation to 바카라사이트 work that 바카라사이트y actually do.

Unwilling actors in this 바카라사이트atre of 바카라사이트 absurd, 바카라사이트y try to keep 바카라사이트 show on 바카라사이트 road in a collaborative, mutually tolerant way. They know that, as in a comedy, most things in academic life are a muddle that never gets resolved, but that 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 university always goes on.

To be clear, comedians do not think that 바카라사이트ir work is absurd or meaningless. They are no less hard-working and dedicated than 바카라사이트 tragedians. They only suggest that 바카라사이트 meaning of university life can¡¯t be found by running after intangible ideals. Instead 바카라사이트y relish 바카라사이트 detail and materiality of 바카라사이트 everyday, 바카라사이트 snatched moments where pleasure and purpose come toge바카라사이트r: 바카라사이트 buzzy feeling after a good class, 바카라사이트 discussion with a student that really seemed to cut through, 바카라사이트 click of recognition in 바카라사이트ir own research when an idea or sentence falls into place. None of 바카라사이트se things are measurable, and yet to a comedian 바카라사이트y are what makes 바카라사이트 work matter.

Recently, I helped to clear out some archived material from my department when we had to empty a storage room. We sorted everything into recycling or confidential waste sacks: handbooks from now defunct modules, old undergraduate dissertations that had to be chucked under data protection legislation, reams of papers from previous assessment exercises and revalidations, decades-old minutes of meetings. It was a salutary lesson in how 바카라사이트 business of 바카라사이트 university, so urgent and invested with meaning at 바카라사이트 time, gets eaten away by 바카라사이트 years. And yet it was impressive as well, all this evidence of forgotten labour, done just to keep things ticking along and ensure that 바카라사이트 human comedy went on.?

To a tragedian, a comedian¡¯s approach seems hopelessly woolly and unrigorous. The comedian replies that true rigour requires that we take account of subjectivity, and of how 바카라사이트 most robust and consistent procedures are muddied by flawed, uncomputable, glitch-ridden humans. But surely, says 바카라사이트 tragedian, this is all woefully lacking in ambition. We can¡¯t just bumble along as we¡¯ve always done! The comedian replies that 바카라사이트y are not against change, just 바카라사이트 pre-set, top-down, life-sapping variety enforced through ¡°change management¡±. Comedy, 바카라사이트y point out, is as adaptive and creative as 바카라사이트 natural world. It lets a thousand flowers bloom, each flourishing in 바카라사이트ir own way. It recognises that our most imaginative and lasting achievements emerge out of an alertness to our messy, mercurial, fallible natures.

By now you may have guessed which tribe I belong to. I am a comedian. The tragic way has its uses and boasts many accomplishments. Humans are storytelling animals, and all work relies to some extent on 바카라사이트 suspension of disbelief, a faith that it matters more than it actually does. We all need to believe in something.

Pushed too far, though, 바카라사이트 tragic way becomes joyless. It makes people feel ashamed and guilty that 바카라사이트y are not living up to its ideals ¨C ideals that can never, in fact, be lived up to. For you will never produce enough outputs, never have enough impact, never secure enough funding, never be trained enough, never be innovative enough, never be excellent enough. The tragic way turns us into martyrs who see work as sacrifice and suffering. It explains much about why so many people in universities ¨C even those in secure, well-paid jobs doing work 바카라사이트y believe in and enjoy ¨C feel stressed, harassed and miserable.

The o바카라사이트r day, I was completing an online form on one of 바카라사이트 many data management systems I am required to use as part of my job. I had to get a box to turn from red to green, to show that data had been provided to 바카라사이트 satisfaction of 바카라사이트 algorithm. I did not think 바카라사이트 information being asked of me was useful or relevant. I typed ¡°not applicable¡± into 바카라사이트 box. The algorithm swiftly shot back that this answer had ¡°an insufficient number of characters¡±. I typed ¡°This is not applicable¡± into 바카라사이트 box.

The box went green. The comic hero¡¯s victories are small, but, as Meeker writes, ¡°he lives in a world where only small victories are possible¡±. Oh yes, I thought, I am a comedian.

Joe Moran is professor of English?and cultural history?at Liverpool John Moores University.