I find the TV show Mad Men to be eerily appropriate to the analysis of what is happening today in my profession. Don Draper is the perfect image of an academic.
Don’s central organizing quality is that of being terrified. He can’t muster the strength to tell his boss, “You disrespected me in my own house, and that sucks.” He can’t say to his mistress, “I’m jealous and humiliated.” He can’t even dare to tell the wife who is completely dependent on him that he doesn’t want her to work. Instead, he design pathetic, childish revenges that give him an illusion of some completely imaginary power.
This is a guy who makes a very comfortable living, who has tons of free time, who can come and go at work as he pleases, who is very good with words, has charisma, and whose job is to influence people with words. If that doesn’t scream “academic”, I don’t know what does.
Draper’s irrational, all-abiding fear has no explanation. The impostor syndrome, which is also an excuse trotted out eagerly by every terrified academic under the Sun, is a very unconvincing explanation for his abject terror.
So he grew up during the Great Depression, big whoops. I grew up during the bandit wars of the FSU’s 1990s and I’m not trembling in fear all day long. So he feels like an outsider in his professional and social milieu. My accent precludes me from even trying to pretend that I’m not an outsider but I’m not fearful.
It isn’t surprising that the show is so popular. It tells us what we all know: the most creative, intelligent, resourceful people in our society are besieged by nameless terrors. This is why it’s a mistake to expect them to stand up for anything or anybody. Nothing they can do will ever amount to anything but a silly, childish prank.
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