When you cast your lot with the higher powers in academia, you are doing worse than making a bargain with the devil; you are attempting to become the devil. It is a good lesson to be learned about how Congress probably works, but it is not a viable lifestyle unless:

  • (A) You are so hopelessly a nerd that you could not be gainfully employed in the real world. (With the plethora of geeks getting rich these days, this is highly unlikely.) Or,
  • (B) You want to seduce young college meat for the rest of your life.

When you go to parties thrown by your higher-ups in this world, you realize that (B) is the MO in more cases than not.

Either way, this is a world that you want to avoid at all costs. There is a real world out there that offers hope and promise, but if you stay in the cloistered halls of academia too long, you may no longer have eyes that see.