When the Best Give Up

"Son of man, keep not silent, forget not deeds of tyranny. Cry out at the disaster of a people, recount it unto your children and they unto theirs. From generation to generation the hordes swept in, ran wild and savage and there was no deliverance, valiance, and revolt. How the mighty are fallen, the great in spirit and stout of heart, walking to their death with a halo of eternity." - Yehuda L. Bialer

Something's happening in the blogosphere, a shift, a reorientation, a great loss. I admit to spending some time surfing the intellectual side of blogs on a regular basis (okay Todd, you're right). In the past two or three days, several pillars of academic blogging have posted notice that they're leaving not only the academic blogosphere, but academia, itself. This includes the stalwart Invisible Adjunct, the gentle Household Opera, the hilariously bitter Academic Game, and perhaps even the sharply pointed Critical Mass. Their leaving follows an earlier exit by the insightful Frogs and Ravens, although she still blogs (and knits). Does it mean anything that they're all women, given the already horrific shortage of women in tenured positions? I grieve.

What am I to say about this? All these bloggers made an indelible mark on the world with their posts, and, after moving out of my office at the university, I can honestly say that they eased my way through the adjustment period. What's difficult about their leaving, from my perspective, is that they all seem so incredibly talented. Why is there no room for them in academia? Why can't they find space? If you read their blogs, you'll see why, I suppose, and I support what they are saying. However, this kind of wholesale exit must leave an intellectual gap in the academic universe somehow, somewhere. When the best and the brightest decide to give up on the system, what does that say about the state of that system today?

To honour the bloggers who are leaving, I say to the rest: Bloggers...salute!