On Russell Jacoby: While I don't disagree with your positions on the summary points (on micro aggressions, pronouns, and white privilege) I find the ad hominem (and quite conjectural) attack on Jacoby unpleasant and unnecessary. (Not that he, himself, was immune to this type of thing as illustrated in the piece referenced by Holbo as well as earlier work.) You have ready access to colleagues at Cal who knew him and could have provided a more sophisticated and fleshed out critique if a critical biography was your goal. The situation is far from simple and coming to a common understanding on difficult and controversial issues is not furthered by this type of google-stalking self-indulgence (to be blunt). There's already far too much of this.
I'm not defending Jacoby the person as I didn't know him. However, here is a reminiscence (from an actual tenured academic, though not at one of the elite institutions which Jacoby skewered like Cal) which may shed some light on earlier parts of his career. Nobody is obligated to agree on any aspect of his positions but insult is not a productive response. Not getting tenure is often not just a matter of "quality" as I'm sure you're aware. Being irascible (perhaps Jacoby?) and not congenial at faculty meetings can also play a role. So can doing work in the realm of "theory" as opposed to the more (seemingly) "scientific" realms of quantitative social theory (including economics). So can being aggressively radical in many contexts.
I believe I heard some negative side comments on the UC administration during your introduction to your book talk recently while discussing the strike. In other contexts and times, maybe you yourself wouldn't have gotten tenure for being "problematic".
Remember: If you think THAT, the Fed as no dilemma at all with a pause; the worst case scenario is inflation returns to targes a little slower than otherwise and the risk of recession is less. Pause and give that as the reason, a speculate about needing to make cuts soon to offset all of that pent up contraction.
Jacoby sounds like myriad others who expected it to be easier than it was and then decided to blame his failures on those who have had it even harder. He just has the academic training to invoke higher principles perhaps a bit more eloquently than others. Since there is a market for that kind of philosophizing, he has managed to eke out a living in academia though not as a star in the field. That was a good dissection of his life and situation.
It seems like Team Transitory may yet prove to be correct. Despite being a pensioner, I still think we are overly concerned with inflation. Economic growth is almost always inflationary. Rather than getting out the RoundUp-TM every time a few green shoots appear, maybe it is time for the Fed to compensate for all those times inflation was under the 2% target.
It seems like what you are saying is that Russell Jacoby - a name I didn't know before this post - should have written something akin to "Hillbilly Elegy" rather than what he has been writing.
Jacoby: I did not like it. It feels too close to ad hominin. Who does it persuade or help others to persuade others to reject his conclusions?
On Russell Jacoby: While I don't disagree with your positions on the summary points (on micro aggressions, pronouns, and white privilege) I find the ad hominem (and quite conjectural) attack on Jacoby unpleasant and unnecessary. (Not that he, himself, was immune to this type of thing as illustrated in the piece referenced by Holbo as well as earlier work.) You have ready access to colleagues at Cal who knew him and could have provided a more sophisticated and fleshed out critique if a critical biography was your goal. The situation is far from simple and coming to a common understanding on difficult and controversial issues is not furthered by this type of google-stalking self-indulgence (to be blunt). There's already far too much of this.
I'm not defending Jacoby the person as I didn't know him. However, here is a reminiscence (from an actual tenured academic, though not at one of the elite institutions which Jacoby skewered like Cal) which may shed some light on earlier parts of his career. Nobody is obligated to agree on any aspect of his positions but insult is not a productive response. Not getting tenure is often not just a matter of "quality" as I'm sure you're aware. Being irascible (perhaps Jacoby?) and not congenial at faculty meetings can also play a role. So can doing work in the realm of "theory" as opposed to the more (seemingly) "scientific" realms of quantitative social theory (including economics). So can being aggressively radical in many contexts.
I believe I heard some negative side comments on the UC administration during your introduction to your book talk recently while discussing the strike. In other contexts and times, maybe you yourself wouldn't have gotten tenure for being "problematic".
https://fastcapitalism.uta.edu/5_1/Agger.html
Remember: If you think THAT, the Fed as no dilemma at all with a pause; the worst case scenario is inflation returns to targes a little slower than otherwise and the risk of recession is less. Pause and give that as the reason, a speculate about needing to make cuts soon to offset all of that pent up contraction.
Jacoby sounds like myriad others who expected it to be easier than it was and then decided to blame his failures on those who have had it even harder. He just has the academic training to invoke higher principles perhaps a bit more eloquently than others. Since there is a market for that kind of philosophizing, he has managed to eke out a living in academia though not as a star in the field. That was a good dissection of his life and situation.
It seems like Team Transitory may yet prove to be correct. Despite being a pensioner, I still think we are overly concerned with inflation. Economic growth is almost always inflationary. Rather than getting out the RoundUp-TM every time a few green shoots appear, maybe it is time for the Fed to compensate for all those times inflation was under the 2% target.
It's nice to get a new extended piece. Thanks!
It seems like what you are saying is that Russell Jacoby - a name I didn't know before this post - should have written something akin to "Hillbilly Elegy" rather than what he has been writing.