Life of an Academician

I was imagining earlier on today of how the life of a typical Academician is like. Long story short - It sucks...

18 Years Old - Graduates from High School (i.e. JC).
22 Years Old - Graduates with a Bachelor/Honors degree in Science.
27 Years Old - Graduates with a PhD
29 Years Old - Completes Post Doc 1
31 Years Old - Completes Post Doc 2
33 Years Old - Completes Post Doc 3
34 Years Old - Managed to secure a tenure-track position. Inception as Asst. Prof.
38 Years Old - Tenure review time. Not granted tenure. Moved to another university to reset the "tenure" clock.
43 Years Old - Finally granted tenure at the other university. Promoted to Assoc. Prof.

To many of the common people out there, and yes it includes 99% of the Singaporeans, you think academicians (i.e. PhD-holders) have a nice life with a bed of roses. Academicians should command great respect and great salary right? Aren't they amongst the smartest people on the planet? Well, as usual the world is fucked up... what can I say? That's a fucking lie... I feel that academicians are mistreated, under-respected and underpaid. Yet they are among the most important, if not the most important "class" of people in society.

Do you know how sad the life of an academician is? The example I listed above is not the minority, I believe it might well represent the average situation out there. Moving from one university to another... for how many times? A change for PhD, a change for each post-doc, and a change of each tenure-track job offer. Academicians get short-term contract jobs (i.e. post-doc), and even when they get a tenure-track job offer, which is tough as hell to get... it's not even a permanent job! Not until one achieves tenure!!! And now people are talking about scraping the tenure system.

It's a fucking joke right? To have the academicians in his forties and not have a permanent job yet. Have no permanent home because he has been moving place to place for the past 2 decades of his life. Don't even have a house to call his own because he has been renting apartments for as long as he can remember!!!

You don't believe me? Look around!!! The Theoretical Chemist from Australia, spent close to 10-Years doing Post-Docs before finally landing a position in NUS. Only this year was he granted tenure, and could finally in a sense "settle down" physically. Does he have a home? No!!! He lives in PGP with the rest of us kiddies (according to a friend)!!! Have you ever spared a thought for how he feels?

FUCK Society and their bloody arrogance.

Everything you see around you is the product of Scientists. From the computer in front of you, to the design of your toilet bowl... Your fucking existence is because of the Heroes of Science. And yet everyone treats them like shit... What does society has that can ever compare to the contribution of the Scientist?

You... the Civil Servant coming up with retarded policies and making life miserable for everyone while eating in your iron ricebowl. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

You... the Teacher spreading government propaganda in the form of "education" and brainwashing the next generation of kiddies. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

You... the Doctor occasionally healing people but more than often cause more harm than good thanks to your own arrogance in your ability to memorize 100 books and yet are strangely incompetent. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

You.... the Lawyer, doing nothing but breaking the finances of families and acting out your great lies in court. Creating stupid laws so that the common citizen will have need for your pathetic service. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

You... the Manager, doing nothing but spewing out theoretical nonsense, and shoving all your work to your subordinates will sitting on your fat salary. You claim to have the shit called "vision" but the truth is that you probably don't know what is going on. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

You.... the Banker/Financer, doing nothing but stealing money from aunties and uncles (like my Mother) and conning their money. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

You... the Businessman, coming up with another scheme to brainwash the masses into buying your useless, price-inflated product which technically has no value. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

You... the Politicians, scumbag of the universe (more so for the country that pays their politicians almost 10X more than the Americans do) do nothing but spew empty promises and delusions of grandeur. What do you contribute to society? Nothing...

Need I say more?

Stupid Society. It is true then that the most important people on this planet get the lousiest treatment of all.

I think I shall call this "WL Laws of Over-Ratedness", which simply states, Everything that Society rates highly is over-rated. The law also applies in reverse logic, i.e. Everything that deserves to be highly rated is under-rated in Society.