Many (sometimes too many) academic campuses even in the most fervently capitalistic societies proudly fly the flag of the Left. They seem to take it almost as a matter of pride a need to rip the capitalistic enterprise that seeks to dominate the world, apart. After all (they tend to say), someone has to stand up for the people and collaboration and all the other good things that capitalism seeks to obliterate with its mass-produced goods. And who qualifies better than enlightened academic souls.
But academia, if nothing else, is also about sheer individualism. Publishing like crazy, and establishing oneself as a force in the microscopic field that one seeks to make a name in, is one of the accepted paths toward academic success. Of course, collaboration is encouraged, but everyone knows that on a paper with multiple authors there is always a lead scholar, the individual.
And isn't that what capitalism is about? Each individual forging her/his path and contributing to economy and society. So common sensically, that's exactly how capitalistic enterprises should be. Each individual trying to establish and fortify her/his own position. But my experience in corporations says otherwise.
Without arguing that companies operate as altruistic beings where everyone works to achieve the larger goal, I have seen much more team work in companies than in academia. I have always been dependent on others to achieve my work goals and have been responsible for deliveries that impact others' goals. So, in an odd way, there is a certain kind of symbiosis that modern enterprises seem to exude (though I guess factory lines did exactly that, too). And maybe the C-suite does walk away with much of the reward in the end.
But so do the star tenured academics that each budding academic aspires to be.
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